Allison Spies, archives program manager for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, recently completed training with the Minnesota Alliance for Heritage Response, a statewide network of professionals from museums, libraries, historical societies, historic sites and archives.

Allison Spies

The alliance trains people working with collections to salvage items in an emergency, such as a fire or flood, Spies said.

While firefighters are responsible for human safety and building structures, salvaging library, archive and museum collections requires a different set of knowledge and skills, she said.

Being responsible for maintaining the archdiocese’s collections that “we are canonically obligated to keep accessible forever,” Spies said, can be “pretty daunting.”

“Most of what makes collections archival is that they are, by definition, unique and literally irreplaceable,” she said. In case of a flood or fire, “we’re really compelled to salvage everything that we possibly can,” she said.

Spies recently spoke with “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley for a program debuting at 9 p.m. Oct. 28 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. She discussed the importance of being prepared to respond appropriately in an emergency.

“These are the stories of generations of faith communities in this area,” Spies said. Taking that responsibility seriously, she wanted to be a “little more prepared” to protect them in a pinch, she said.

In addition to the archdiocesan archives, Spies said she wanted to participate in the network to help all Catholic parishes and schools in the archdiocese that have their own archives, in case any face such a situation.

During the interview, Conley asked Spies a hypothetical question — “If you’re in the archives and you smell smoke … what do you save first?” While “a tough call” because the impulse is to save everything, Spies said, that’s not possible.To learn what Spies would save first, and to hear the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” show, which repeats 1 p.m. Oct. 29 and 2 p.m. Oct. 30 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who discusses his upcoming pastoral letter focused on implementing the Archdiocesan Synod implementation; and Deacon Joe Michalak, director of the Office of Synod Evangelization, who describes this new office and ways the faithful will experience the upcoming pastoral letter within parishes.

Listen to interviews after they have aired at?PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at https://anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.