About the conference

“A community thrives through its cultural heritage, it dies without it” Cultural heritage consists of tangible and intangible, natural and cultural, movable and immovable assets inherited from the past. It is of extremely high value for the present and the future of a country. Access, preservation, prevention and education around cultural heritage are essential for the evolution of people and their culture. It is essential to monitor areas at risk, to advocate for and raise awareness about conflict and disaster prevention. With an increase in cultural heritage being at risk due to natural disaster or abused for political propaganda and destroyed to serve certain agendas, the protection of cultural heritage has never been more important.

International bodies like the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions - IFLA, UNESCO, the International Committee of the Blue Shield, MELA, and the American Library Association – ALA are working hardly to prevent Cultural loss or abuse and ensure that (physical) cultural heritage remains in safe conditions in their place of origin. Furthermore, it is not only man made threats that pose a danger to cultural heritage; natural threats can also affect the heritage of a region. In this Conference we tend to discuss this important subject in depth after what the Arab Region has suffered in the last few years in this respect.

The Conference theme is : Disaster Management Planning in Libraries, Museums & Archives

Our heritage at Risk: The challenge and the response

The Conference is tackling many issues of high interest to Libraries, Museums and Archives in the Arab Region, concerning disaster management and cultural heritage preservation.