Carolyn Brown Appointed Director, Office of Scholarly Programs
Carolyn T. Brown, who has served as the director for Collections and Services and Area Studies Collections, has been named director of the Library's Office of Scholarly Programs.
Brown came to the Library in 1990 to head an office of Education Services. From 1992 to 1995 she served as associate librarian for Cultural Affairs. Since 1995 she has held the position of assistant librarian for Library Services and acting director of Area Studies Collections. During her tenure in Area Studies, she had oversight for the John W. Kluge Center in the Library's Office of Scholarly Programs and served on the center's executive committee. In 2004 she was appointed director of Collections and Services.
Brown's career at the Library has focused on outreach to the scholarly community. She represents the Library on the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and has served on two presidential task forces of the Association of College and Research Libraries. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Association of Research Libraries' Global Resources Program.
Brown holds a bachelor's degree in Asian studies and a master's degree in Chinese literature from Cornell University, and a doctorate degree in literature from American University.
Nels Olson Named Chief, Preservation Research and Testing Division
Nels Olson has been named chief of the Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD) in the Library's Preservation Directorate.
Prior to his appointment to the Library, Olson served as assistant director for systems analysis and integration at Illumina Inc., a biotechnology company in California. Having led several preservation projects for cultural heritage, Olson brings to the Library a unique combination of experience and education, ranging from early studies in American literature to employment as an engineer and a chemist.
"We expect Dr. Olson to bring much vigor and rigor to PRTD, expanding the lab's expertise and equipment, and ensuring widespread research to improve the Library's collections in all formats—traditional, audio, visual and digital," said Dianne L. van der Reyden, director for preservation. "This includes research into the stabilization of traditional vellum and leather books, acidic and recycled paper and vintage coatings or modern inkjet dyes in photographs; audio and visual materials such as sticky shedding videotapes and flaking lacquer disk sound recordings; and digital media, characterizing optical disks to determine life expectancy."
Olson will lead PRTD in meeting new challenges in digital storage and access research, and in developing a robust science fellowship program.
Olson, who started his academic career as an American literature major at the University of Oregon, received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Reed College in 1989 and a Ph.D. in organic synthesis/analytical chemistry from the University of Washington in 1997. Olson's work has led to several patents in new ways to analyze materials.
In addition to his position at Illumina, Olson has worked at Molecular Dynamics/Amersham Pharmacia Biotech; at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm; at Molecular Probes Inc. and at Microsoft Corp.
