The group, which includes the manamko’, women, cultural-related agencies and the youth sector, said these cultural assets include photographs, books and historical objects.
The group aired their concerns to Dr. Dr. Cecilia Lizama Salvatore of the Dominican University in Illinois and CNMI Cultural Asset Restoration and Education Strategy, or CARES, project director John Oliver Gonzales during a group focus meeting on Tinian last April 18.
Gonzales is also the executive director of the CNMI library system.
The Tinian group said technical support is needed to restore assets that have been damaged by weather, storms and the absence of a controlled climate storage facility.
They said due to the constant change in leadership, historical documents and other items donated to various government agencies are now lost or are damaged.
This, the group said, may be one of the reasons people are hesitant to share family historical assets.
In May 2010, the Institute of Museum and Library Studies awarded a statewide Connecting to Collections or C2C planning grant to the CNMI for comprehensive assessment of its cultural heritage assets under the CNMI CARES Project.
Salvatore is the project consultant.
For more information about the Tinian library, call Lorna Cruz or Florine M. Hofschneider at 433-0504 or email [email protected].
