photo opportunity, 2.20pm, Wednesday May 15, University of Dundee Archives, Tower Building basement.
An expert in disasters will visit the University of Dundee tomorrow to train staff on how to act in the event of a catastrophe which could destroy its irreplaceable museum, library and archive collections.
Helene Donnelly, founder and director of the London-based Data & Archival Damage Control Centre has been involved in the recovery of documents after floods, fires and bombings, including disasters such as Piper Alpha and The Herald of Free Enterprise.
She has been invited by the University archives and the Library Conservation Unit to conduct seminars and training exercises, including a virtual flood simulation, so staff from the archives and library and museum collections know how to act to save irreplaceable documents in the event of a catastrophic fire or flood.
The University houses around 5km of shelving, storing hundreds of unique documents, parchments, photographs and artworks, such as the medieval Brechin book of hours and all the Glasite Church records for the UK.
Philippa Sterlini from the Conservation Unit said, "These documents are unique and staff need to know know how to act promptly and carefully in the event of a disaster."
Helene has won several awards for her work including a BBC Radio Times/Radio 4 Enterprise Award and the Daily Mail/American Express Woman of Courage Award.