Preparation for disaster and emergency situations in cultural assets and museums: The sample of Istanbul province

Museums are important cultural institutions that protect artistic, scientific and historical objects, educate and enlighten the society. In many parts of the world, museums damage from disasters. In general, the reasons that lack of disaster awareness ofthe management and the personnel of the museum and museumsremaining at the secondary plan in post-disaster recovery operationsmake the museums more sensitive. In addition, the fact that museums have various original, rare and valuable collections makes them more important. For these reasons, comprehensive disaster planning is essential carry out the existence of museums and their collections. The aim of this study is to measure the level of disaster and emergency situations preparedness of museums in Istanbul and to identify problems and shortcomings in disaster management in museums. In this context, interviews were conducted with semi-structured interview techniques with the managers and staff of 16 museums including 6 state museums and 10 private museums. As a result of the interviews, it has been found out that 68.75% of museums have a disaster plan, 33.33% of the state museums have tested the plan, all those who do not have a plan were composed of private museums and 60% of them stated that the lack of personnel is one of the reasons for not having a disaster plan, 43.75% have appointed as disaster response or risk reduction officers among museum staff, 37,50 % have been found to be in contact with other nearby museums or cultural institutions that may be helpful for a disaster or emergency. As a result of the analyzes, some suggestions were made about the deficients and problems of the museums. Keywords: Museums and Disaster Management, Disaster and Emergency Planning in Museums, Disasters and Cultural Heritage