Katherine L. Walter


Katherine L. Walter, Professor, is Serials Department Chairperson and Preservation Coordinator for the
University Libraries, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She assumed her role as department chair in 1984
and has coordinated preservation activities since 1992. UNL's Serials Dept. is responsible for original
and copy serials cataloging, records creation and maintenance on UNL's automated system, binding and
other preservation activities. Walter supervises a full time staff in 16 state-funded positions and 2 grant-
funded positions, plus 1.5 FTE student employees. Prior to her official appointment as Preservation
Coordinator for the University Libraries, Walter chaired the University Libraries' Preservation Committee
from 1985-91. Currently, Walter directs the NEH-funded Nebraska Newspaper Project, a joint project of
the University Libraries at UNL and the Nebraska State Historical Society. She also serves as a technical
consultant for the Mari Sandoz Preservation Microfilming Project, another NEH-funded endeavor.

Professor Walter is Chair of the Nebraska Documents Preservation Advisory Council (NDPAC), a
cooperative preservation group that developed an NEH-funded statewide preservation plan in 1990/91.
Under Walter's direction, NDPAC has successfully provided many preservation education programs at
state conferences for the Nebraska Library Association and for interested librarians through University
forums. NDPAC representatives share information and expertise, keeping the state informed of
preservation advances and activities. Walter presented a paper on statewide preservation planning in
Nebraska as part of the 1992 ALA conference program "Breaking Ground: Statewide Preservation
Planning." She has been a member of the Cooperative Preservation Program Administrators Group since
1988.

In 1992/93, Walter served as consultant to the State of Kansas and wrote the Kansas statewide preservation
plan, entitled Saving the Past to Enrich the Future (Topeka: Kansas Library Network Board, 1993.) As a
consultant to the AMIGOS Bibliographic Council, Inc., Walter evaluated the 1991-92 and the 1993-95
AMIGOS Preservation Service NEH-funded grant projects. She now serves as a consultant to the
AMIGOS Preservation Service Advisory Council. American Library Association committee service has
included the PARS Education Committee, ALCTS Organization and Bylaws Committee, ALCTS Budget
and Finance Committee, PLMS planning committees for the 1994 Miami program, "Selling Preservation:
What to Say to the Customer," the Library Binding Institutes held in Minneapolis in September 1994 and
in Boston in November 1996, and "Two Thumbs Up: Preservation Film Festival" for the 1995 Chicago
conference. In 1993, she served on the USAIN Advisory Panelon Preservation that developed the
National Preservation Program for Agricultural Literature in concert with consultant Nancy E. Gwinn.

Together with colleague Rebecca Bernthal, Walter coordinated Nebraska's role in Cornell University's
"History of Agriculture and Rural Life: 1820-1945" project in 1996/97.