The “Collections Risk Management” Program at the American Museum of Natural History

Abstract

In addition to the wear and tear of time and exposure that normally endanger museum col lections, larger scale events such as September 11, 2001 , the Northeast Blackout of 2003 , Hurricanes Katrina and Irene and the Vi rgi nia Earthquake of 201 1 have emphasized the threats to collections and underscored the importance of a comprehensive ap proach to risk planning. In response, the American Museum of Natural History has been steadfastly committed to identifying a complete picture of its collections priorities, and is accom plishing an overall risk assessment of its research, exhibit and library/archive collections. The assessment model used for this three-phase project is based on the Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model (CPRAM) developed by Robert Wal ler and colleagues at the Canadian Museum of Nature and adapted to accommodate the specific needs of a large , complex institution. These assessments have provided AMNH ad ministrators with info rma tion crucial to making long-term strategy and policy decisions about red ucing and mitigati ng risks to collections.

The Fellini Museum of Rimini in Italy and the Genetic Algorithms-Based Method to Optimize the Design of an Integrated System Network and Installations

“…After an initial risk assessment related to the IMMSSM [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53] was made, the design and implementation of a safe and reliable architecture was introduced into the system. This includes placement of sensors for intrusion detection, access control, and video surveillance.…”

“…(1) Positioning security devices and communication nodes. Given a specific location and having completed the risk assessment related to the IMMSSM [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53], it is required to determine where to mount the security devices, including intrusion detection sensors, video cameras, Wi-Fi access points, etc. Similarly, it is required to locate where best to mount the communication nodes that consist of the wired network communicating with the associated devices.…”

“…Risks assessment (qualitative, semi-quantitative, quantitative, and blended comprising human factors) to assess all the possible hazards [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53].…”

New Security Risk Assessment and Genetic Algorithms Based Methods to Optimize Risk Reduction Countermeasures for Cultural Heritage Sites

“…The assessment model used for this three-phase project is based on the CPRAM and adapted to accommodate the specific needs of a large, complex institution. These assessments have provided AMNH administrators with information crucial to making long-term strategy and policy decisions about reducing and mitigating risks to collections [13].…”

“…It also represents a new technique with respect to other security risk assessment techniques for heritage sites [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. As a matter of fact, it employs an appropriate introductory risk assessment to go on further, estimating the degree of defence of every target correlated to each threat, properly aided by the GAs-based method.…”