Tabletop exercises are the safest, cheapest, and simplest way for a cultural repository to test its emergency planning and response. How will you react if an emergency interrupts your normal workday? How will you protect the life and safety of staff and visitors during a violent storm or an act of violence? Can you safeguard your unique collections from flood or fire or theft? Having a disaster response plan is essential, but considering how you will apply that plan during a crisis is equally important. Tabletop exercises are simple, effective tools that any group can use to explore their assumptions about emergencies, predict their response, identify gaps in their thinking, assess their capabilities, and determine how to optimize their response in an actual emergency. A crisis often exposes conflicting or misguided assumptions among staff, or gaps in the repository’s planning, or critical deficiencies in equipment and supplies. If you have never participated in a tabletop exercise you may be surprised at how effective they are at exposing these issues before the crisis strikes—while there is time to correct them! Tabletop Exercises for Cultural Organizations is an easy-to-use tool that includes detailed exercises that may prompt hours of discussion as well as ’express scenarios’ that can be conducted in just a few minutes—perfect for use in a staff meeting. Together they provide you with everything you need to explore how your repository will respond to storms, thefts, cyberattacks, civil unrest, and other disruptions that threaten your repository, its staff and visitors. Tabletop exercises are simple but priceless tools...So pull a seat up to the table and get prepared!