Banks/Harris Preservation Award to Walter Henry
Contact: Charles Wilt
Executive Director, ALCTS
312-280-5030
cwilt@ala.org
For Immediate Release
March 6, 2007
Banks/Harris Preservation Award to Walter Henry
CHICAGO—The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is pleased to announce that Walter Henry is the winner of the 2007 Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award. The award will be presented on Sunday, June 24, 2007, at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 2007 American Library Association (ALA) meeting in Washington, DC.
The award, consisting of $1,500 and a citation, sponsored by Preservation Technologies, L. P., recognizes the contribution of a professional preservation specialist who has been active in the field of preservation and/or conservation for library and /or archival materials.
Walter Henry, the lead analyst in the Preservation Department at Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources, is known internationally as the moderator of the Conservation DistList and the creator and administrator of Conservation OnLine (CoOL), indispensable tools for communication and dissemination of knowledge within the field. A visionary in the modernization of the communication patterns of our profession, Henry launched both the DistList and CoOL at the forefront of technological developments. When he started the Conservation DistList in 1987, only one other library listserv existed. Henry created CoOL using WAIS and then Gopher servers even before the Web became available in 1994.
Henry has not only organized and disseminated the information that individuals need, but furthered the goals of many preservation organizations through their presence on CoOL, sometimes making their online presence possible. Henry has constantly added resources to CoOL, and is at the ready during a crisis, for example, posting a clearinghouse of updates after the Katrina and Rita disasters. Henry’s innovative use of technologies to provide the infrastructure for information exchange and dissemination has shaped the field of conservation to the great benefit of American libraries.
Walter Henry also has reached national, regional, and state constituencies through his leadership in the American Institute for Conservation, the Research Libraries Group Digital Library Federation Task Force on Long-term Retention of Digital Materials, the California Preservation Task Force and the California Preservation Clearinghouse, among other organizations.
During his long career at Stanford University Library, Henry’s work spans conservation treatment and preservation of non-print collections to creation of a wide range of computer programs designed to assist with managing preservation projects and conservation labs. Currently, his work supports the Stanford Digital Repository and the Technical Assessment Group inventorying the library’s digital materials.
The Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award honors the memories of Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris, early leaders in library preservation, teachers, and mentors for many in the field of preservation.
The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is the national association for information providers who work in collections and technical services. Areas of concentration of ALCTS members include acquisition, cataloging, collection development, preservation, and archiving of all library materials in all formats as well as serial collection management.
ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.
