NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 23 number 2 - Winter 2003

Margaret Brown

Margaret Brown became the NCSU Libraries' first collection conservator on July 16, 2002. As a member of the library's Preservation Department, she will establish a comprehensive collection conservation program with an emphasis on the working collection. She is responsible for the daily operations of the collection conservation unit and assists the head of Preservation in planning and implementing a new collection conservation facility.

Brown came to the NCSU Libraries from the University of Kansas Libraries, where she managed the Conservation Unit. She developed the general collections conservation program and supervised and trained staff, interns, and student assistants in conservation activities. Brown also provided high-end conservation treatment for special collections materials. In addition, Brown taught a conservation course at the university as an adjunct professor in its museum studies program. She previously was a library assistant for the Collections and Information Resources Division and NEH Microfilming Project at the University of Texas Libraries.

In 1997 Brown completed a conservation internship at Yale University's Sterling Library. She followed this internship with another in the Library of Congress Preservation Division. Her impressive training also includes stints as an intern in the Book Conservation Laboratory at the Harry Ransom Humanities Resource Center, a researcher at the Getty Art History and Information Program's Art and Architecture Thesaurus Project, and a reference assistant in Special Collections at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Brown holds an M.L.I.S. with a certificate in advanced study in conservation of library and archival materials from the University of Texas at Austin. She earned a B.F.A. in studio art, with a concentration in the art of the book, from Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida. She has written extensively on conservation topics and is active professionally.

William J. Wheeler

William J. Wheeler became collection manager for the humanities and social sciences on August 1, 2002. He also is assistant head of Collection Management for the humanities and social sciences.

Wheeler supervises collection managers who work in disciplines related to the humanities and social sciences and oversees the development and use of library collections in these subject areas. He also works closely with faculty and students and with his counterparts in the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) to further cooperative collection development programs. In addition, Wheeler is the departmental coordinator for the Libraries' gifts program, working closely with donors and Special Collections.

Previously, Wheeler served as the coordinator of collection development for Yale University's Social Science Libraries and Information Services. He also held the position of librarian for anthropology and international affairs. He oversaw a collections budget of $1.3 million, facilitated the work of seven selectors, and managed social science collections issues in six separate physical locations. For the past two years he chaired the Yale library's Collection Development Council and was a member of the Digital Collections Committee.

Wheeler formerly served as adjunct faculty for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a lecturer at Ohio State University, an instructor at both Indiana University, Bloomington and Indiana University/Purdue University, and a researcher at Ohio Wesleyan and Mansfield universities.

Wheeler received an M.S.L.I.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; a Ph.D. in folklore/ethnomusicology from Indiana University, Bloomington; and a B.A. in sociology and anthropology from Carleton College. He is active professionally, has a substantial publications record, and is the current chair of the Association of College and Research Libraries' Anthropology and Sociology Section Liaison Committee.