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June 28, 2006
Diane Vogt-O'Connor Named Chief of Conservation
Diane Vogt-O’Connor, who has served as a senior manager for conservation activities at the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution, has recently been named chief of the Conservation Division at the Library of Congress.
"Diane Vogt-O’Connor comes to us with wide-ranging experience in working with conservators and conservation issues, not only in the realm of traditional media, but also modern audio-visual and digital media," said Dianne L. van der Reyden, director of the Preservation Directorate for the Library of Congress. "Her experience spans academia, international consulting, the corporate world and many federal agencies. She has had national and international influence in the preservation field through her collaborations, course development work, teaching, consulting and writing."
In her new role, Vogt-O’Connor will oversee the Conservation Division, which ensures the continuing existence of the Library’s collections, assesses and mitigates risks to Library holdings, monitors library environments, handles emergencies, develops care and management policies and training, prepares materials for exhibitions and digitization, and annually treats and houses more than a half-million endangered special collection photographs, prints, rare books and other special media items.
Vogt-O’Connor previously worked at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), where she managed extensive holdings in the regional archives and served as affiliated archives liaison. Working as the designated manager for both preservation and security in her program, she managed regional preservation emergencies; helped design new buildings; facilitated move planning; worked on the NARA standards board; and served on NARA’srequirements and concept teams for the electronic records archives.
She also worked for the National Park Service, where she produced many publications on conservation such as Conserve O Grams, supervised collections management, provided onsite consultations, wrote grants and developed collaborative conservation workshops such as "The School for Scanning," "The Information Ecosystem," "Architectural Records" and "Managing Anthropological Papers."
Vogt-O’Connor was the director of the Smithsonian’s Photographic Survey Project, where she surveyed and described the Smithsonian’s 13 million photographs in 3,000 collections; taught collections management; managed grant-funded architectural drawings and photographic preservation projects; and served as the Smithsonian archives grant writer and preservation officer.
Vogt-O’Connor is the author or co-author of numerous books including the award-winning "Guide to Photographic Collections at the Smithsonian" (four volumes), the "Museum Handbook" (three volumes), "Images of America," "Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access" and "Photographs: Archival Care and Management." She has served as book contributor for many other works, including the Getty Research Institute’s "Art and Architecture Thesaurus." Recently she co-developed a training course for the Society of American Archivists titled "Understanding Photographs," based on her upcoming book "Photographs: Archival Care and Management" (July 2006).
In 2006 Vogt-O’Connor was made a lifetime fellow by the Society of American Archivists in recognition of her contributions to the profession. She holds two double masters degrees, in library science and archives, and in art history and museum studies from Wayne State University in Detroit.
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PR 06-139
06/28/06
ISSN 0731-3527