Sally McInnes for Distinguished Service in Archives

Sally is the Head of Unique and Contemporary Content at the National Library of Wales (NLW). She gained the Diploma in Archive Administration from Aberystwyth University in 1988 and an MPhil for her research on records management in the context of change, also from Aberystwyth, in 1999. Having gained pre-course experience in Bristol Record office, her first professional post was as Assistant Archivist in Carmarthenshire Archives in 1988, following which she joined the National Library of Wales in 1989.

Sally has made an incredible contribution to the work of the National Library of Wales over a career which has spanned almost 34 years.    Starting as an Assistant Archivist, working on a collections of deeds relating to the Manley family of Erbistock, before moving on to work on a number of high profile collections, some of which posed difficult and challenging questions of the archivist responsible for their cataloguing.  Sally became fluent in the Welsh language and has worked effectively at all levels of the organisation using both languages.   

Sally’s expertise and experience was crucial in the development of the partnership between the then National Assembly for Wales (now the Welsh Parliament) and the National Library of Wales, as a project was developed to fully scope and develop an action plan for the Assembly’s management of current and semi-current records and for the long term archiving of the Assembly’s records in the National Library. These records are a complex mix of paper files, digital files and analogue cassettes. 

Following over ten years of  working in the Archives and Manuscripts Section, Sally moved to work in the Library’s new Systems Section, ensuring that archivist’s perspective was central to the implementation the archives component of the Library’s new Library management system.   

In 2010 Sally was appointed Head of Collection Care and in 2015, took on the responsibility for the new department of Unique Collections and Collection Care which included the former Archives and Manuscripts section.    Sally has led on the very important work of gaining and maintaining the National Library of Wales’s Archive Service Accreditation, the UK standard for archive service, and has ensured that the work of archives has a strong voice in strategic decision making at the highest level of the organisation.

The Library has faced many challenges over recent years including a devastating fire in 2013.  As Head of Unique Collections and Collection Care at the time, Sally played a crucial role in co-ordinating the recovery during the days, weeks and months that followed.   Not only did Sally work tirelessly within the Library during very difficult circumstances, but she also was very pro-active in sharing the knowledge gained, and the lessons learnt with colleagues across the UK and beyond.   This was done through meetings and through talks for example, Sally gave an online talk to the Society for the Study of Labour History’s archives and resources committee on Disaster Planning which was attended by over 250 people. 

The other enormous challenge faced by the Library, alongside every other institution,  was the Covid pandemic.   Sally led in a number of areas when the Covid pandemic required stay at home order for all non-essential key workers. As well as keeping in regular contact with staff at the Library she ensured that essential preservation work continued as well as supporting the development of new ways of working, under very difficult practical and financial conditions, to allow work on collections such as cataloguing and interpretation to re-start even while the most severe restrictions were still in place.

Again, as with the fire, Sally shared her knowledge with others and was an active member of a group of Heads of Conservation from the other Celtic nations who met weekly to discuss the challenges they faced and to share knowledge.       Sally has been a highly valued member of the team and her colleagues from the other institutions have praised her for always being open  to share documents, policies and ideas so that everyone could benefit from her expertise.

Beyond the National Library of Wales, Sally also deserves consideration for the Distinguished Service Award for her  work within the profession more widely. She was instrumental in setting up the Wales Region of the then Society of Archivists in 1994 and became Wales’s first Regional Representative. For more than a decade, she has made a sustained and significant contribution to the profession in Wales, the UK and internationally, playing a major role in professional bodies, including:

  •  Chair, Archives and Records Association, Wales Region, 2008-13

  • Chair, Archives and Records Council Wales Digital Preservation Group, 2013-

  • Advisory Board member of the Digital Preservation Coalition, 2013-

  • Member of the Heads of Conservation and Science Group, 2015-

  • Joint Chair WHELF Archives and Special Collections Group, 2015-2019

  • Secretary, Archives and Records Council Wales, 2018-

One of Sally’s great achievements has been her work to support digital preservation capacity across Wales. Since creating the first policy on preserving electronic records for the NLW in 2000, she has been a staunch advocate for digital preservation. As Chair of the Archives and Records Council Wales Digital Preservation Group and a member of the Digital Preservation Coalition Advisory Board, she has actively supported digital preservation within Wales and beyond. She developed Kickstart Cymru in 2021 to further advocate for digital preservation by exploiting the networking opportunities afforded by the widespread shift to digital technologies. Kickstart Cymru involves three distinct elements: the Saving the Bits training programme, which was open to organisations throughout Wales; an interactive Digital Deposit Co- creation session with students at Aberystwyth University and the provision of Start Up Bundles of equipment to enable local authority services to set up workstations to support digital preservation actions.

The Saving the Bits training programme, which was delivered between June and December 2021, built on the on-going work of the National Library of Wales in securing sustainable access to digital content In Wales. The programme, designed by Sally, was underpinned by work undertaken by the National Archives and the Digital Preservation Coalition, but was innovative in the way it combined theoretical and practical issues, making reference to existing models, tools and workflows. The programme won a prestigious Digital Preservation Award for Teaching and Communication.  The awards are presented by the Digital Preservation Coalition every two years to celebrate the most significant achievements by individuals and organisations in ensuring the sustainability of digital content.

Sally’s work to promote archives, and the ways they are accessioned, catalogued and accessed continues.  Last year, Sally led on securing funding from the Welsh Government for the appointment within the Archives Department of an Archives Decolonization Officer with the aim of ensuring that the Library’s collections and activities represent all aspects of Welsh life and history, particularly underrepresented individuals and communities. 

As Sally approaches her retirement we strongly believe that the Distinguished Service Award would be a wonderful acknowledgement of her incredible contribution to so many projects within the Library as well as to her contribution to  the wider archives profession.  She is a very highly regarded colleague and friend to so many of us at the National Library of Wales. 

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Antony Oliver for Distinguished Service in Archive Conservation