2014 EMMETT LEAHY AWARD WINNER, JULIE McLEOD

Dr Julie McLeod is Professor of Records Management in the iSchool at Northumbria University, UK having joined after a 13-year career in industry delivering and managing information, library and records management services for research and development scientists in the electronics, coatings and pharmaceutical sectors. She has worked on innovative work-based and distance learning education initiatives with The National Archives, BBC, Deutsche Bank, the European Central Bank and other organisations. A member of the BSI and ISO committees on records management, she has led JISC and AHRC funded research on electronic records management (e.g. Accelerating positive change in electronic records management (AC+erm) www.northumbria.ac.uk/acerm and research data management DATUM www.northumbria.ac.uk/datum) which have had impact on professionals and academics globally. 

She pioneered the development of the innovative Northumbria International Witness Seminar Series which engages international audiences in examining significant records and archives challenges through debate. She has published widely, including co-authoring and editing several books, is Editor of the Records Management Journal (www.emeraldinsight.com/rmj.htm), the only international peer reviewed journal in the discipline that is published independent of a professional body, and is a member of the editorial boards of other esteemed journals. She has served as a member of UK Arts & Humanities Research Council Panels and its Peer Review College. In 2013 she became the first academic Fellow of the UK Information and Records Management Society and in 2015 will be the first Dodson Visiting Professor in Archival Studies at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), University of British Columbia, Vancouver. 

At the ICA Conference, Girona on October 14, 2014

Each year the Emmett Leahy Award recognizes an individual whose contributions and accomplishments have had a major impact on the records and information management profession. The award was established in 1967 to honour the spirit of innovation, dedication, and excellence in records and information management demonstrated by Emmett Leahy, who pioneered the development of the lifecycle approach to managing records and information in the US Government.  The Committee looks for evidence of high quality original concepts, approaches or methodologies and their impact on programme development and management, innovation, education, and professional and organisational leadership.      The 2014 Emmett Leahy Award winner is Julie McLeod, Professor in Records Management at the iSchool, at Northumbria University, in the United Kingdom. The Committee believes that Julie’s sustained professional leadership in records and information management has, and will continue to have, a major impact on how private and public sector organizations around the world manage their information assets.      Julie began her career as an information manager for research scientists. She joined Northumbria University in 1994, at a time when records management was viewed as an administrative process for paper records; universities only offered optional records management modules on archives courses, and there was no research or theoretical base for records management.      Over the last 20 years, Julie’s innovative contributions to education, research and professional leadership have helped change the face of the discipline in the UK and internationally.  Her work has been characterised by her consistent commitment to linking good practice principles to real practical challenges.         

• Julie has pioneered academic development of records and information management by creating high quality education programmes that provide a range of new opportunities for gaining academic qualifications, from undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, to continuing professional development courses, work-based distance learning, and new programmes that integrate records and information management with other disciplines, for instance law and computing.

• Since 1995, Julie has edited the Records Management Journal, first as co-editor, and as then sole editor from 2005 onward.  She has steered its development from being primarily UK based to being a highly respected peer reviewed international journal, with coverage spanning all continents, articles submitted from dozens of countries, and an Editorial Advisory Board of academics and practitioners drawn from eight countries across four continents.  Over 700 organisations and institutions now access the journal in 74 countries.

• Her two decades of active involvement in national and international standards committees have contributed to the development of ISO 15489 and the current revision work. She has championed the practical implementation of the standard by authoring a guide to its use, speaking at conferences and embedding it in education programmes.

• Julie’s groundbreaking, inter-disciplinary research projects use innovative methods that link theory and practice to investigate the challenges of contemporary issues.  She has attracted over a million dollars from UK Research Councils and other funding organisations to support this work, which includes studies on accelerating positive change in electronic records management, the use of SharePoint in UK universities, and research on data management for health studies.

• Finally, Julie is a widely read author and presenter and has produced over 60 publications across the range of her research and education interests, including articles, and several books and sets of conference proceedings. She has given numerous keynote speeches, presentations, seminars and workshops in the UK and internationally in which she has championed and challenged thinking and practice from a global perspective.