Adrian Cunningham | |
---|---|
Born | 1960 Brisbane, Australia |
Nationality | Australian |
Occupation | Archivist |
Known for | Records management |
Adrian Cunningham (born 1960) is an Australian archivist who worked for many years at the National Archives of Australia. He is known for his contributions to the practice of digital records management, including development of international standards in this field.
Adrian Cunningham was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1960. In 1981 he became a qualified librarian in Sydney, Australia. He started his career as a specialist in manuscripts at the Mitchell Library of New South Wales. He transferred to the National Library of Australia in Canberra, at first as a manuscript specialist, then managing the oral history section, working in the National Preservation Office, leading the international relations unit and taking part in national collaborative projects. [1]
Cunningham worked as an archivist at the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau and as a librarian at the State Library of New South Wales. [2] He managed Electronic Services Delivery for the Office of Government Information Technology. In 1988 he transferred to the National Archives of Australia (NAA) as director of recordkeeping standards and policies. After seven years in this role he was made responsible for strategic relations and personal records at the NAA. [1] As Director, Strategic Relations and Personal Records he was responsible for collaborations between the NAA and domestic and international partners in government, industry, the professions and academia. His primary concern was digital recordkeeping and other computer-related initiatives. [3]
In 2011 Cunningham became director of the Digital Archives Program at the Queensland State Archives. Later, he also assumed responsibility for government recordkeeping. [1] In 2016 Cunningham was Queensland's state archivist for six months. Cunningham retired from the Queensland State Archives in January 2017. [2]
Cunningham has held positions in various archives-related organizations: [2]
Cunningham was president of the Australian Society of Archivists from 1998 to 2000. He was founding convenor of the society's Collecting Archives Special Interest Group, and chair of the society's Descriptive Standards Committee. He has held senior advisory positions for Comma: International Journal on Archives and Journal on Archival Organization. On the ICA's Committee on Descriptive Standards he participated in developing the second editions on the ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CPF) standards, and of the draft Records in Contexts standard. [1] He was secretary of the ICA Committee on Descriptive Standards from 2002 to 2004. [3]
Cunningham has been acknowledged as a key figure in adopting and adapting modern approaches to macroappraisal in Australia. [4] [lower-alpha 1] Formal recognition includes: [1]
The Emmett Leahy Award was given to recognize Cunningham's work in the National Archives of Australia and the International Council on Archives to promote collaboration in improving the practice of electronic records and information management, including leadership in developing the ICA's Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Environments. [6] In accepting the Emmett Leahy Award, Cunningham said, [7]
... we should not lose sight of those things that probably first attracted us to records work; ... the sense that somehow the spirits of human beings now departed can yet resonate through the written artefacts of their lives.
In November 2019 Simon Chu, Adrian Cunningham and Nolda Römer-Kenepa were awarded Fellowships by the International Council on Archives. [8]
Cunningham has written more than 60 articles on archives and recordkeeping standards. [8] His publications include: [9]
In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poet that were never published or the records of an institution during a specific period.
Trudy Huskamp Peterson is the first woman to hold the position of Archivist of the United States. She was the Acting Archivist of the United States from March 25, 1993 to May 29, 1995.
Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and curating archives, which are collections of documents, recordings, photographs and various other materials in physical or digital formats.
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Charles M. Dollar, an internationally recognized expert on the life cycle management of electronic records, particularly electronic records archiving, pioneered research into digital preservation of electronic records.
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The International Council on Archives is an international non-governmental organization which exists to promote international cooperation for archives and archivists. It was set up in 1948, with Charles Samaran, the then director of the Archives nationales de France, as chairman, and membership is open to national and international organisations, professional groups and individuals. In 2015, it grouped together about 1400 institutional members in 199 countries and territories. Its mission is to promote the conservation, development and use of the world's archives.
Kent M. Haworth (1946–2003) was a Canadian archivist, best known for his pioneering role in the creation of archival descriptive standards in Canada. He published widely on a number of topics of importance to the development of archival theory, lectured and presented throughout the world, and was a contributing member of many national and international archival committees and associations.
The records continuum model (RCM) is an abstract conceptual model that helps to understand and explore recordkeeping activities. It was created in the 1990s by Monash University academic Frank Upward with input from colleagues Sue McKemmish and Livia Iacovino as a response to evolving discussions about the challenges of managing digital records and archives in the discipline of archival science.
Luciana Duranti is an archival theorist and professor of archival science and diplomatics at the University of British Columbia School of Library, Archival and Information Studies in Vancouver, Canada. She is a noted expert on diplomatics and electronic records. Since 1998, she has been the director of the electronic records research project, InterPARES. She has disclosed the concept of the archival bond originally initiated by Italian archivist Giorgio Cencetti in 1937.
Dr. Nancy Y. McGovern is a digital preservation pioneer. She is the 2023 recipient of the Emmet Leahy Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Information and Records Management professions. Dr. McGovern has devoted her career to developing digital records and preservation programs for a series of prominent institutions, translating those experiences into widely-used curriculum and continuing education programs to help organizations and individuals build their capacity to develop sustainable programs to preserve digital content, defining and promulgating standards-based good practice for digital archives and preservation, and engaging in research-based practice to fill gaps in good practice for digital archives and the preservation of them. She has focused on building an international community of practice for digital archives and preservation most recently with the development and promulgation of the Radical Collaboration model for working within and across domains.
Everett Owen Alldredge was an American archivist and records manager, and a leader in the American archival community.
The Emmett Leahy Award is given annually to individuals who have had major impact on the field of information management. The award has been given since 1967, and honors Emmett Leahy, a pioneer in records management.
Emmett Joseph Leahy was an American archivist and entrepreneur. He was a pioneer in the discipline of records management. After working in the National Archives and then during World War II in the United States Navy, he entered private business as a consultant in records management and as a records storage provider. He also participated in the two Hoover Commissions in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government.
Adrian Brown is a British archivist specializing in digital records preservation. He led development of the widely used PRONOM file format registry and associated DROID software tool. He is the author of Practical Digital Preservation: A How-To Guide for Organizations of Any Size (2013).
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Nolda Cira Römer-Kenepa is a Dutch historian and archivist. She served as acting governor of Curaçao from 2013 to 2019.