Nigel Beale and Terry Cook on the Importance of History, and the neglect of Library and Archives Canada
By Nigel Beale
Nigel Beale met Terry Cook to discuss the challenges facing libraries and archives worldwide, conflicting mandates, the differences between born and made digital material, and the importance of source documents.
From 1975 to 1998, Terry Cook worked at the then Public, later National, Archives of Canada, where he was responsible for directing the appraisal and records disposition program for all media as well as for the development of policies and methodologies which dramatically altered the national archival system.
In 1998, he founded Clio Consulting Inc., and since then has been working for national, municipal, and academic archives, as well as archival associations.
Terry Cook has published over 80 articles. He is the author of The Archival Appraisal of Records Containing Personal Information: A RAMP Study With Guidelines (1991) and co-editor of Imagining Archives: Essays and Reflections by Hugh A. Taylor (2003).