Diane Vogt-o'connor

Please spell my name correctly. My name is Diane Vogt-O'Connor, not Diane Vogt-o'connor. My biography is as follows:

Born and raised in Michigan, Diane Vogt-O'Connor's first jobs were as a flautist in bands, orchestras, and pit orchestras. She studied art history and museology at first Michigan State University (BA), then Wayne State University (MA), followed by a MSLS in Library Science and Archives. Working initially at a the Walter Reuther Library of Labor History, a Detroit television, and Cranbrook Academy of Art (as a Library Director).

In the 1980s, she moved to Washington DC to work at the Smithsonian for a decade as the Director of the Photo Survey Project, which located the 13 million photographs in 3,000+ collections in the many Smithsonian museums, research offices, and the National Zoological Park for which she edited and wrote the four volume "Guide to the Photographic Collections of the Smithsonian Institution," which won several national awards (SAA, MARAC). Also for this project, she created a 117 page "Draft Photographic Thesaurus: A Field Guide to Photographic Form, Process, and Genre Terminology" published by the Smithsonian Institution Archives in 1987 and later incorporated by the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus. She also wrote the "An American Album" in the Smithsonian Institution Press volume "Images of America" to showcase Smithsonian collections.

At Diane's next position, she served as the Senior Archivist of the Museum Management Program of the National Park Service (NPS), where she wrote many chapters of the Museum Handbook, Volumes I-III, which may downloaded at: http://www.nps.gov/mseum/publications/ including:

Chapter 1, MH-III, Evaluating and Documenting Museum Collections for Use, 90 pages.

Chapter 2, MH-III, Legal Issues, 76 pages.

Chapter 3, MH-III, Publications (co-author), 120+ pages.

Chapter 4, MH-III, Two-Dimensional Reproductions, 115 pages.

Chapter 9, MH-III, Bibliographic Research, 120 pages.

Chapter 10, MH-I, Emergency Planning, 70 pages.

Appendix M, MH-I, Cellulose Nitrate and Cellulose Ester Film, 91 pages.

Appendix D, MH-II, Museum Archives and Manuscript Collections, 134 pages.

Also for park curatorial training purposes, she wrote 25 Conserve O Gram technical leaflets published by the GPO & NPS, which may be found at: http://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveograms/ including:

Care of Blueprints and Cyanotypes,

Reformatting for Preservation and Access: Prioritizing Materials for Duplication,

Preservation Reformatting: Selecting a Copy Technology,

Contracting for Reformatting of Photographs,

Preservation Reformatting: Inspection of Copy Photographs,

Judging Permanence for Reformatting Projects: Papers and Inks,

Handling Archival Documents and Manuscripts,

How to Care for Bound Archival Materials,

Storing Archival Paper-Based Materials,

Housing Archival Paper-Based Materials,

Care of Archival Digital and Magnetic Media,

Caring for Photographs: General Guidelines,

Caring for Photographs: Special Formats,

Caring for Photographs: Special Monochrome Processes,

Caring for Photographs: Color Processes,

Use and Handling of Rare Books,

What Makes a Book Rare?

Planning Digital Projects,

Managing Digital Projects,

Managing Microfilming Projects,

Asbestos Hazards and Archival, Library, and Museum Collections, and

Health and Safety Hazards of Archival Survey Work.

To reach cultural resource managers everywhere, she edited a series of special issues of CRM (Cultural Resources Management) journal, which are freely available at: http://www.nps.gov/history/CRMJournal/CRM.html, where you will find each article by her name, issue title, or date, including:

Special Issue of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) on "Archives at

the Millennium," Feb. 1999. In this issue she wrote 8 articles An Archival Primer

for the 21st Century, Finding Funds for Archives, Where to Find Help for Archival

Collections, Is the Record of the 20th Century at Risk? An Archival Glossary,52pp..

Special Issue of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) journal on "The

Information Ecosystem: Managing the Life Cycle of Information for Preservation

and Access," June 1998. She four articles for the issue, including The Information

Ecosystem, An Archival Bibliography, and others.

Special issue of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) on Cultural Resources and

the World Wide Web, 18:9 (November 1995), in which she also wote three

articles including one on Museum Information Standards in the 21st Century, .

While at the NPS, she was tasked with identifying and developing a NPS-wide educational and training initiative. For this she wrote a 172 page "Report on Funding Possibilities for the NPS Education Initiative. DC," in 1992 which explored the NPS's role as an educational consumer and provider, which was later published by the NPS in a limited edition. She also wrote the "Selection of Materials for Scanning," chapter in the NEDCC volume "Handbook of Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access," which can be found at: http://www.nedcc.org/digital/tofc.htm .

In 1996, while at the NPS, she co-wrote and produced with Dianne van der Reyden of the Conservation Analytical Laboratory, "Rescuing Records: The Preservation of Paper-Based Research Resources", a 25 minute film in videotape format that was published by the Smithsonian and was also used at the NPS.

Ms. Vogt-O'Connor wrote an article titled "Exhibitions in Cyberspace" in the journal "Art Documentation" in September 1996. Beginning in 2006, Ms Vogt-O'Connor worked as a Senior Archivist for Regional and Affiliated Archives for seven years at the National Archives and Records Administration, where she wrote a number of articles for the Prologue journal of the National Archives and Records Administration, as well as policy documents. While at NARA, she co-wrote the volume, "Photographs: Archival Care and Management," published by SAA.

In 2006, she moved to the Library of Congress, where she became the Chief of Conservation. At LC she produced the “Lighting” chapter, pp. 85-131, in The Planning and Construction of Book and Paper Conservation Laboratories: A Guidebook, edited by Jennifer Hein Teper and Eric Alstrom. Chicago, ALA, 2012. She also co-wrote the "Foundation Grants for Preservation in Libraries, Archives, and Museums." editions 1-3 (2007-2010), as well as the "Lighting" chapter, pp. 75-93, in Archival and Special Collections Facilities: Guidelines for Archivists, Librarians, Architects, and Engineers-A SAA Approved Standard, edited by Michele F. Pacifico and Thomas P. Wilsted. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2009.

You will find the rest of Ms. Vogt-O'Connor's many publications listed on her LinkedIn site along with the Weblinks that allow you to download most of them at no cost. These include guidance on intellectual property rights, three volumes on funding for preservation in archives and libraries, and many other topics. Generally the focus in nonfictional, practical, and immediately useful for anyone working with material culture in archives, libraries, museums, historical societies, or with personal or family collections.

On February 28, 2013, Ms. Vogt-O'Connor retired from the Library of Congress to write and travel with her husband. You will find our travels to 52 countries represented on TripAdvisor at: http://www.tripadvisor.com/members/DianeVOC as well as photo albums of our trips on FaceBook. Ms. Vogt-O'Connor's LinkedIn pages list her many workshops, grants, links to her publications for free downloading, and links to many of her colleagues and organizations.

Currently Ms. Vogt-O'Connor is writing about her work life at the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, and NPS, which are the four agencies she adores. She is also working on updating the SAA national archival building standard by reworking her earlier chapter on lighting to incorporate LED lights.