Volume 18, Number 8
Dec 1994

Motylewski to Head University of Texas Program

The Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin announced February 2 that Karen Motylewski had been appointed Director of Preservation and Conservation Studies. This program, which trains professionals specifically for work in libraries and archives, continues the work begun 14 years ago at Columbia University. Approximately 100 students have graduated or received certificates since then.

Motylewski is currently the Director of Northeast Document Conservation Center's Field Service Program, where she has had wide-ranging involvement with the preservation needs of libraries, archives, and historical societies. From 1973 to 1984, she administered a major research division, which included four analytical laboratories, for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Motylewski has served as an adjunct lecturer on preservation for Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science from 1986 to 1994. In 1993, Motylewski served as one of four faculty members for the Commission on Preservation and Access's eight-day program for preservation administrators in college libraries.

Commenting on the appointment, Dean Brooke Sheldon said, "Karen Motylewski has been rated a dynamic and caring teacher by students and colleagues at Simmons, and she also has strong administrative talents and experience. We are delighted that she will be joining our faculty this spring."

Motylewski has served on the advisory committees of the National Cooperative Preservation Information Project, National Institute for Conservation/Getty Conservation Institute Conservation Survey Project and Conservation Assessment Program Review, and the Massachsetts Statewide Preservation Planning Project (1990-92).

Among her publications are "Preservation and Conservation: Complementary Needs for Libraries and Archives" in Advances in Preservation and Access (1992); Disaster Planning for Cultural Institutions (1993); What an Institution can do to Survey its Own Preservation Needs, NEDCC Special Publication (1993); and Training for Collections Care and Maintenance; a Suggested Curriculum (in preparation).

She is a professional associate of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and a member of the New England Conservation Association and the American Library Association's Preservation and Reproduction Section (PARS). Ms. Motylewski's educational background includes a master's degree in Adult Learning Processes from Harvard University in 1976.