Nancy E. Gwinn graduated from the University of Wyoming with
a B.A. in English and went on to receive an M.S. in library science from the
University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in American civilization from George
Washington University. She also is a former Fulbright Scholar at the University
of Oxford in England.
Since 1997, Gwinn has served as director of the Smithsonian
Institution Libraries, a 22-branch system with facilities from New York City to
the Republic of Panama. She joined the Smithsonian in 1984 as assistant
director for library collections management.
She has held several leadership roles in her field,
including chair of the Association of Research Libraries Committee on Preservation
of Library Materials and secretary of the Standing Committee on Preservation
and Conservation of the International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutes. She also pioneered the RLG Preservation Program, which developed
and funded a model for cooperative preservation microfilming.
Also, Gwinn is author of Preservation
Microfilming: A Guide for Librarians and Archivists, which won the 1988
Waldo Gifford Leland Award from the Society of American Archivists.
