As you may know, preservation and conservation studies at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information Kilgarin Center are another potential casualty of the tough national economy. These programs contribute to our field on many levels. First and most obviously, they strengthen the UT archives education programs. The program delivers gifted and well rounded graduates who support the intellectual and information infrastructure of the nation, research, and education in archives, historical societies, and special collections nationwide. The program graduates help meet the needs of archives for expertise in conservation assessment and treatment, preservation management, and a wide range of areas of evaluation, risk management, and planning. They increase public knowledge of the importance of records and special collections. They publish, speak, and share key information with the public and archives on how to care for records of all sorts. And, this program accepted no new students for Fall 2009, because they could not guarantee that the students would be able to graduate from the program before it folded.
Closing this program, would mean a significant loss to archives, the preservation and conservation fields, and our information and records infrastructure nationwide. If you agree, positive and constructive blog responses focused on the contribution of UT preservation and conservation studies to archives and to cultural and information heritage, could be very useful. Of course, a flight of letters supporting the program’s continuation to UTA’s Provost and other parties involved in the decision making wouldn’t hurt either. Here are their contacts:
Steven W. Leslie, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Provost, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, G1000, Austin, Texas 78712, Email: sleslie [at] mail.utexas.edu
Cc: William C. Powers, Jr., J.D., President, University of Texas at Austin, President’s Office, G3400, PO Box T, Austin, TX 78713, Email: president [at] po.utexas.edu;
Andrew P., Dillon, Ph.D., Dean, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin, School of Information, 1 University Station, D7000, Austin, TX 78712, Email: sdillon [at] ischool.utexas.edu;
Mary E. Cunningham-Kruppa, Director, Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record, University of Texas at Austin, School of Information, 1 University Station, D7000, Austin, TX 78712, Email: e.cunnk [at] mail.utexas.edu