Award winners announced for ARA Excellence Awards 2022
The winners of the ARA Excellence Awards were announced at the Gala Dinner of the Archives and Records Association Conference in Chester on the evening of Thursday 1st September.
The Archives and Records Association instituted the ARA Excellence Awards to recognise excellence and contributions by individuals and teams in the record keeping sector. The work of the sector is vital in supporting democracy and human rights and in preserving and sharing the heritage of the UK and Ireland.
To celebrate the achievements of record keeping professionals and their contribution to society, ARA has four special awards: Distinguished Service Award (DSA), Record Keeper of the Year, Record Keeping Service of the Year and New Professional of the Year Award.
In 2022 over 750 votes were cast by the public resulting in the following awards being made:
Record keeping service of the Year – Barnsley Archives and Local Studies (Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council)
Record keeper of the Year – Katie Proctor (for work at West Yorkshire Archives Service)
New Professional of the Year – Gemma Evans (for work at Archives and Records Council Wales and National Library of Wales)
Further to these awards, four Distinguished Service Awards were made by the Board to:
Michael Cook
Declan Kelly
Brian Smith
Maggie Tohill
Andrew Nicoll, Chair of ARA’s Board said:
“The ARA Excellence Awards are a wonderful opportunity to celebrate what is best about the record keeping sector and to encourage us all to strive for excellence. It is great to be able to make awards to people at the start of their careers and to those who have been working in the sector for five decades, demonstrating that what we are doing today, now, is where the good practice and excellence begin. In the case of those receiving the Distinguished Service Award for some of them the award is made because they have repeated that good practice, that excellence, that going-beyond throughout a long career within a single place, for others it is about a defining moment of bringing an important piece of work to fruition or making a specific contribution to a particular area. Both paths bring benefit to our sector and to the people who access our services and to the public in general whose history we keep safe and whose future we protect.”
Three awards were voted on by the public and over 750 votes were cast in all.
The nominees for Record keeping service of the year were:
Barnsley Archives and Local Studies
University of Nottingham, Manuscripts & Special Collections
The Manuscripts for Medieval Studies Team, the Library of Trinity College Dublin
Transport for London Corporate Archives
Doncaster Archives & Heritage Doncaster
The winner with 54 per cent of the vote was Barnsley Archives and Local Studies.
In order to properly celebrate this award the presentation will be made in Barnsley with staff and volunteers later this autumn.
Paul Stebbing, Archives and Local Studies Manager at Barnsley Council, said of Barnsley Archives and Local Studies’ award of Record Keeping Service of the Year:
“We are absolutely delighted to receive this excellence award following a period of much growth and activity for the service. Being a public vote, it really highlights to us just how much we are valued by our customers, stakeholders and supporters. They threw their unwavering support behind our nomination. The award will be a great motivator for the whole team. We want to continue to grow, to evolve and to encourage more people to use and enjoy our unique archive collections which cover 850 years of Barnsley’s rich history.”
The nominees for Record Keeper of the year were:
Stacey Anderson
Sally Mcinnes
Katie Proctor
The winner, with 51 per cent of the vote was Katie Proctor, with Stacey and Sally dividing the remainder of the votes equally between them.
Katie is a conservator at the West Yorkshire Archive Service and was nominated for her recent proactive and innovative achievements in supporting the continuing professional development of conservation and archives professionals across the sector as the Registrar of the ARA Archives and Conservation Training Scheme (ACTS) and the organiser of the online training for ACTS Instructors.
Katie Proctor, winner of Record Keeper of the Year says:
“I am extremely proud to have been awarded Record Keeper of the Year 2022 and I would like to thank my wonderful colleagues at West Yorkshire Archive Service and also members of the ARA’s Archive Conservation Training Scheme, who work so tirelessly to provide specialist training in the archive conservation profession.
It’s so pleasing that conservation professionals are being recognised for the amazing work they do to support the Record keeping sector. I work with a team of amazing professionals both within West Yorkshire Archive Service but also within the ARA itself. The Preservation and Conservation Group and the Archive Conservation Training Scheme committees are very passionate about conservation, so to be recognised for that passion is wonderful.
I’d also like to say congratulations to Stacey Anderson and Sally Mcinnes whose nominations were well deserved. It was extremely stiff competition which makes me feel very humbled and proud to receive this award.”
The nominees for New Professional of the Year were
Gemma Evans
Iida Saarinen
In a closely fought contest the winner with 58 per cent of the vote was Gemma Evans
Gemma was nominated for her work as the Records at Risk Project Officer for Archives and Records Council Wales, Gemma was required to lead on the development and delivery of a national records rescue strategy and process, so that all information about archives at risk and potential repositories fed into a central resource. The post required substantial professional experience in archives at an intermediate or senior level with a successful track record of leadership in a partnership or multi-agency context. However, as a newly qualified archivist, Gemma was able to draw on her theoretical learning from the Aberystwyth course and her experience from previous roles to shape and define the scope of the project and ensure that it was successfully delivered on time and within budget. This is a significant early-career achievement, and it is for this reason she was nominated for the New Professional of the Year Award.
Gemma Evans, winner of ARA New Professional of the Year Award said:
“I am delighted to be granted the ARA 2022 New Professional of the Year Award and was honoured to be nominated by my colleagues at the National Library of Wales and Archives and Records Council Wales. It was a privilege to work on the Records at Risk Project, where I gained invaluable early career experience, and I would also like to thank ARA for their continuing support and guidance for newly qualified archivists. Thank you!”
The Distinguished Service Award (DSA)
The DSA recognises individual conservators, archivists or records managers for career-long achievement and/or outstanding work, e.g. successful management/implementation of a project; external fundraising that has transformed a resource or service; significant improvements to service delivery.
Distinguished Service Awards were given to four people:
Michael Cook for record keeping.
Although this award is not normally offered to recipients of the Ellis Prize the Board recognised that Michael has continued to offer exceptional service to the profession beyond his receipt of that award back in 1992 and that his contribution over many decades should be recognised by the accolade of ‘Distinguished Service’. He has made multiple contributions to archives, records management, education and other areas. Focussing on those achievements post 1992 he chaired the IT Group of the Society of Archivists and the Archival Description Project and was a vital contributor to the development of ISAD(G), and early standards for archival data exchange, based around the MARC format. In 1994, he was appointed as Senior Fellow in the School of History at the University of Liverpool having retired as University Archivist. He was a co-founder of the Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies and played a significant role in convening the hugely important Political Pressure and the Archival Record conference. Michael’s contribution to archival education also continued after his retirement both in the UK and worldwide. Throughout his career, Michael’s contribution has both paid the attention to detail required for successful access to and exploitation of archives and recognised the widest societal impact of record-keeping work.
Declan Kelly for Archives and Records Management and specifically for the delivery of the new Lambeth Palace Library, the National Library and Archives for the Church of England.
Declan has a long and distinguished career managing a range of library, archive and records information within a number of recognised organisations, including the BBC - that contribute to the value he has brought to the profession more widely. However, it is for his role as the programme director for the construction of the new Lambeth Palace Library Lambeth Palace Library – Bibliotheca Lambethana that his team nominated him for the DSA. He not only contributed to the overall building of the new national library and archive for the Church of England - he made it happen altogether.
In ten years, Declan managed to not only programme direct multiple stakeholders with great tenacity, but also harness an inclusive environment that enabled the whole library team to feel involved in the development of the new library spaces they would eventually occupy. The new library construction was completed in late 2019, with collections moving in between pandemic lockdowns. Improvements in both the conditions of the collections and the strength of the archive’s engagement programme are already being seen.
Declan said:
“I am very honoured and grateful to receive this award which has a special value to me as it is from my peers in the Archive profession.”
Maggie Tohill for Distinguished Service in Archives
Maggie is the current Senior Archivist for Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service (WAAS), the current County Record Office for Worcestershire and she has been with the service for 40 years during which she has demonstrated the utmost integrity and commitment to the archives of Worcestershire, researchers and customers of the archives, the wider profession, and her own personal development. Her achievements include a major relocation project, almost single handedly bringing the cataloguing backlog under control, developing successful funding bids, driving innovation in cataloguing, mentoring staff, trainees, work placements, students, volunteers, school work experience and Friends projects and she has recently developed archive skills workshops for local history groups.
Maggie was part of the general modernisation of the archive profession in the 1980s and 1990s, embracing new technology as it developed; tackling new legislation on access and information; developing Worcester’s first Disability Audit, a conservation strategy, a prioritisation strategy for cataloguing collections, a particular interest in promoting Health and Safety in the workplace, and learning sign language.
Maggie is also a valued member of the Oral History Society and has spoken at conferences and seminars. She has also been instrumental in the development of Worcester’s audio visual archives and is a leading member of the British Library’s Save Our Sounds project.
Brian Smith for Distinguished Service in Archives and Recordkeeping.
Brian is the archivist of the Shetland Amenity Trust. In 1974 Brian was the first Archivist ever appointed to Shetland Islands Council, working on his own from what had previously been a single bedroom, since then he has gathered and collected and developed the service. As he grew the collection it twice moved to larger premises and now operates from a purpose built set of rooms including a search room, offices, and larger storage area and there are also now assistants to help with the work.
As well as bringing the archive together he also has a very detailed knowledge of Shetland documents and is a prolific author. Brian is generous with his help to all comers to the archive. Many books have been published which specifically name him for thanks for support and advice during the research.
Information on the ARA Excellence Awards
Full information on the criteria for each award and the history of the awards can be found at: https://www.archives.org.uk/ara-awards