Volume 14, Number 3
Jun 1990

Ken Harris Moves from Archives to LC

Kenneth E. Harris has been appointed director for preservation at the Library of Congress, effective April 9. Donald Wisdom, chief of the Serial and Government Publications Division, had served as acting director since former director Peter Sparks left last fall.

Mr. Harris has been with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), where he has served since 1986 as director of the Preservation Policy and Services Division. From 1983 to 1986 he was acting chief, and subsequently, chief of the Document Conservation Branch. In 1986 he was also concurrently the acting Deputy Assistant Archivist for the National Archives. He first came to NARA in 1968 as an archivist in the Diplomatic, Legal, and Fiscal Records Division.

Mr. Harris received both a bachelor's and a master's degree from Oklahoma State University, where his major fields of study were history and historiography.

He is the current chair of the Committee on Conservation and Restoration of the International Council on Archives and a member of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and the Society of American Archivists. He received a Presidential Commendation for service in 1977-78 on the President's Task Force on Reorganization of the Federal Government.

As director for preservation, Mr. Harris will be responsible for Library-wide activities relating to the preservation, conservation, restoration, protection, and maintenance of the Library's collections.

He will serve as national preservation program officer, and develop and direct the National Preservation Program Office located at the Library of Congress. Additional offices under his jurisdiction include the Binding Office, Conservation Office, Preservation Research and Testing Office, and the Preservation Microfilming Office.

Mr. Harris will also direct the Library's book deacidification project.