ARA Excellence Awards winners 2024
The winners of the ARA Excellence Awards were announced at the Gala Dinner of the Archives and Records Association Conference in Birmingham on the evening of Thursday 29th August 2024.
ARA Excellence Award winners: Rachael Muir, Richard Aitken (for Highland Archive Service), James Ranahan and Tom Bennett
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 2024 over 1,000 votes were cast by the public resulting in the following awards being made:
Record keeping service of the Year – Highland Archive Service
Record keeper of the Year – Rachel Muir for her role as Business Archives Surveying Officer for Scotland
New Professional of the Year – the award was tied equally with each nominee receiving 50% of the vote – therefore there are two New Professionals of the Year: Tom Bennett for his work at George Watson’s College and Nicole Hartland for her work at the UK Parliamentary Archive.
Further to these awards, one Distinguished Service Award was made by the Board to:
·James Ranahan for distinguished service in archives.
Three awards were voted on by the public and over 1000 votes were cast in all.
The nominees for Record keeping service of the year were:
Essex Police Museum
Highland Archive Services
Lancashire Archives and Local History
The winner with 63 per cent of the vote was Highland Archive Services.
In order to properly celebrate this award the presentation will be made in Inverness with staff and volunteers later this autumn.
Read Highland Archive Services full nomination here
Michael Golding, Chair of the High Life Highland Board said:
“We are all delighted at High Life Highland to see our own Highland Archive Service winning such a prestigious award, this is very well deserved. Taking 63% of the vote is testament to the professionalism and knowledge of the staff and volunteers that we have working in our four archive centres. The Highland Archive Service goes beyond just preserving records; they bring our fascinating history to life in a vibrant way.”
The nominees for Record Keeper of the year were:
Valentina Flex
Jenny Hunt
Luke Mayo
Rachael Muir
The winner with 45 per cent of the vote was Rachael Muir.
Rachael Muir was nominated for Record-Keeper of the Year award in recognition of the contribution she has made to developing the profile and sustainability of the role of Business Archives Surveying Officer in Scotland in the last eighteen months.
Rachael began her record-keeping career with a graduate traineeship at the University of Glasgow in 2011 before completing her MA in Archives and Records Management at University College London in 2013. Roles with Barts Health NHS Trust and then 8 years at the Bank of England Archives followed before Rachael became the eighteenth Business Archives Surveying Officer for Scotland in November 2021.
Read Rachael’s full nomination here.
Siobhán Convery, Director, Library Collections, University of Glasgow said:
“I am delighted to see Rachael’s professionalism and excellence recognised through the ARA Recordkeeper of the Year award. It is a fitting reflection of the outstanding service which Rachael provides across the Scottish archive, heritage and business sectors through her Business Archives Surveying Officer role. Since taking on the role in 2021, it has been a pleasure to see the track record of success driven by Rachael’s genuine passion for business archives and her professional expertise.”
The nominees for New Professional of the Year were
Tom Bennett
Nicole Hartland
The nominees shared the vote equally with 50% each and therefore the award will be presented to both of them.
Tom Bennett was nominated for “his hard work in the last 18 months in his roles as Historic Archives and Collections Officer at George Watson’s College, and as co-convenor of the Scottish and Northern England School Archives Group and committee member for the School Archives and Records Association. Besides his role as school archivist, Tom has taken on all these other roles in the last 18 months (including as Training Officer with ARA Scotland) helping to raise the profile of School Archives across the sector.”
Read Tom’s full nomination here
Nicole Hartland was nominated for being “indefatigable in the work she puts into her development and her contributions to the professional community. She completed a coding boot camp with Code First Girls (winning Best Project Award) and attended the Cambridge Digital Humanities Cultural Heritage Data School. She is also active in a number of professional groups such as the Digital Preservation Coalition Good Practice Sub-Committee and the Preservica London User Group and has taken on committee roles in the ARA Section for New Professionals as well as the Section for Archives and Technology. In the four years that Nicole has been with us she has become an exceptional member of our service.”
Read Nicole’s full nomination here
John Chambers, Chief Executive of the Archives and Records Association said:
“I’d like to congratulate both our New Professionals of the Year – this is the first time the award has been shared and it’s good to know we have such a wealth of talent coming through into the profession, congratulations to both Tom and Nicole.”
Distinguished Service Awards
The Distinguished Service Award 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.
One Distinguished Service Award was made to James Ranahan for Distinguished Service in Archives.
James (or Jim as he is known) was nominated for being “an innovator who leads by example, particularly around diversifying collections and their users. Jim is committed to opening up access to not just collections but also for people entering the archives sector as a career, recognising that this can sometimes be difficult.”
He currently works at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and has previously led Archives West Midlands.
Read James’ full nomination here.
Andrew Nicoll, Chair of the Archives and Records Association said:
“The Distinguished Service Award is the opportunity for ARA to acknowledge those in our profession who have gone above and beyond. Jim Ranahan is highly respected, well known and a much-loved colleague in our profession. His commitment to others is exemplary, and the care and attention he gives to ensuring his work benefits so many others is an example we should all recognise and aspire to. Having first met Jim about 20 years ago when he served on the Council of the Society of Archivists, I have always enjoyed meeting him, catching up, and listening to the work he has been engaged in, and seeing the impact that he continues to make. We all join in congratulating Jim in this recognition.”
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