Encyclopedia of Archival Writers, 1515 - 2015

Edited by Luciana Duranti, Patricia C. Franks

Hardback - £140.00

Publication date:

26 April 2019

Length of book:

596 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781538125793

The Encyclopedia of Archival Writers, 1515-2015, is a reference work that includes the profiles of authors of literature about records and archives in the Western world who have shaped the records and archives field over a span of 500 years. The 144 archival writers from 13 countries who are included in this volume were selected by an international advisory board on the basis of their impact on the records and archives profession and discipline, the presence of their publications in educational programs’ reading lists, and the frequency of reference to their work. Among the writers included in this volume are Albertino Barisone of Padua (1587-1667), Sir Hilary Jenkinson of England (1882-1961), Adolf Brenneke of Germany (1875-1946), Theodore R. Schellenberg of the United States (1903-1970), Robert-Henri Bautier of France (1922-2010), Terry Cook of Canada (1947-2014), Vicenta Cortés Alonso of Spain (1925-), Eric Ketelaar of the Netherlands (1944-), Aurelio Tanodi of Argentina (1914-2011), Ian Maclean of Australia (1919-2003), and Verne Harris of South Africa (1958 - ).

Arranged in alphabetical order, each entry includes a biography, intellectual contributions, and a brief essential bibliography. A total of 113 educators, professionals and students in the records and archives field—55 of whom are also profiled in this Encyclopedia--contributed to this volume.

There is no other book in any language that focuses on the life and work of authors of records and archives literature. In fact, there is not easily available information on such writers. Thus, most entries involved quite a bit of research on dead writers and interviews with the living ones. Several living writers supported this work by accepting to author their own entry

The Encyclopedia of Archival Writers 1515–20151 edited by Luciana Duranti and Patricia C Franks is a remarkable book. Spanning nearly 600 large pages with entries on 144 archival writers by 113 different contributors, many of whom feature themselves as entries, it stands apart from other contemporary publications in the field. The volume provides the archival profession with a way of viewing its history through the lives of its most significant writers and, in so doing, it is an important contribution, and an appropriate companion to the Encyclopedia of Archival Science that appeared in 2015. Duranti and Franks, the editors, the volume’s advisory board, and all the contributors should be congratulated for their labours. Acknowledging from the outset the achievement of the work, whose richness will be highlighted in the coming paragraphs, this review seeks to explore some of the questions this kind of big book raises.