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CHICAGO — Jeanne Drewes, chief of the Binding and Collections Care Division of the is the recipient of the 2015 Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award, given annually by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS). The award, sponsored by consists of $1,500 and a citation. The award recognizes the contribution of a professional preservation specialist who has been active in the field of preservation of library materials. The award will be presented on June 27 at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 2015 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½) Annual Conference and Exposition in San Francisco.

The Library of Congress' policy states that their employees must avoid even indirect financial interests that conflict or appear to conflict with their assigned professional duties and responsibilities. Therefore, Drewes will not accept the monetary part of the award. Preservation Technologies, however, has decided to increase their generous support for Preservation Week by $1,500 this year in recognition of Jeanne’s accomplishments.

Drewes received her BA in English from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and her MLS from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She was a Mellon Intern for Preservation Administration at Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan from 1992 to 1993 and has remained in preservation ever since. She has been chief of Binding and Collections Care at the Library of Congress since 2006, where she has developed new and innovative processes to manage longstanding collections management issues and has developed the

Drewes is a charismatic and highly respected figure within the preservation and conservation community. As Tom Clareson describes in his nomination letter, “Jeanne Drewes is a torchbearer and trailblazer in the field of preservation—instantly recognizable, always personable, and tireless in her work.” A leader in so many areas within the field, she is also, as the nominating letter states, “an author, editor, teacher, speaker, and an energetic promoter of preservation across the library field, and is also a strong presence in the conservation field.”

Drewes is known for her outreach beyond the preservation community and for pushing us all to move beyond the comfort of our own area of expertise and reach out to other librarians and to the world at large. She has been enormously influential through these efforts, providing teaching and disaster training to Cuba, working with IFLA on the Preservation and Conservation Standing Committee and writing numerous articles about preservation for a variety of publications.

And, of course, she is responsible for conceiving of and spearheading which all would agree is unsurpassed as an outreach initiative on the part of preservation. Preservation Week has been an enormous success, primarily due to her efforts and indefatigable enthusiasm. In addition to creating a means by which to plan events, Drewes and her team had the foresight to include webinars, toolkits and social media tools as a way to get the word out and as a means of making Preservation Week a viable initiative for decades to come. It is impossible to overstate the vast reach that such an initiative will have in the future.

The Banks-Harris Preservation Award honors the memories of Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris, early leaders in library preservation and teachers and mentors for many in the field of preservation. ALCTS is a division of the 91´«Ã½.