AUSTIN--The University of Texas School of Information announces the appointment of professor Caroline Frick as the interim director of the William and Margaret Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record. A member of the UT faculty since 2007, Dr. Frick holds joint appointments on the faculties of the School of Information and the College of Communication department of radio, television, and film.

An internationally recognized expert in motion picture archives and preservation, Dr. Frick's research and teaching interests focus on the evolution of the moving image archiving movement, cross-cultural approaches to historical preservation, and digital media libraries. She is the founder and executive director of the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, an organization devoted to the discovery and preservation of media related to the state. Prior to her work in Texas, Dr. Frick worked in film preservation at Warner Bros., the Library of Congress, and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Dr. Frick also programmed films for American Movie Classics cable channel and served as a director of the Board for the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Her book on film preservation, "Saving Cinema," is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

"We are delighted to have Caroline at the helm of this important center at this crucial time when economic downturns threaten scholarship in cultural records more than many other areas," said Dean Dillon. "Dr. Frick's expertise will add a significant new dimension to the work of the Kilgarlin Center, which is already known for its leadership in paper and book conservation."

The Kilgarlin Center was established with a $1 million endowment from former Texas Supreme Court Justice William Kilgarlin in 2004. The center's mission is to advance the preservation of the record of human experience, creativity, and discovery through education, research, and outreach.

"Since its creation, the Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record has played a key role in strengthening and focusing attention upon preservation issues within The University of Texas at Austin community as well as across the nation and around the world," said Dr. Frick. " I am pleased to have the opportunity to build upon the Center’s initial success and to assist in furthering its increasingly critical mission."

Dr. Frick replaces Kilgarlin Center founding director, Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa, who is currently pursuing a doctorate in American Studies at UT Austin.