New Book Explores Archival Contributions of Canadian Scholar Terry Cook

“All Shook Up”: The Archival Legacy of Terry Cook, a new book edited by Tom Nesmith (University of Manitoba), Greg Bak (University of Manitoba), and Joan M. Schwartz (Queen’s University), and jointly published by the Society of American Archivists and Association of Canadian Archivists, explores the contributions of eminent Canadian scholar-archivist Terry Cook (1947–2014) to the broad landscape of archival theory and practice. Join the editors for a virtual book launch and panel discussion on Wednesday, June 10, at 8:00 p.m. ET via ACA’s Facebook page and pre-order your copy in SAA's bookstore. 

Cook was deeply passionate about archives and the people who cared for them, and his legacy resides in his holistic way of thinking about archives, memory, history, and society. For the first time, thirteen of his groundbreaking articles are brought together in a single volume. They’re paired with commentaries by leading archival thinkers who reflect on his influence as a scholar, colleague, educator, and mentor. The articles span his career, covering topics such as the history/archives debate, archival appraisal, the post-custodial era, digital records, Indigenous peoples and documentary justice, the records continuum, postmodernism, and power, memory, and identity. In addition, three essays reveal ideas Cook honed as a graduate student that shaped his later archival thought, the eclectic reading he drew from his personal library, and his reflections during the final year of his life. The book also includes a comprehensive bibliography of his publications.

With a foreword by Ian E. Wilson (former Librarian and Archivist of Canada), contributors include Nancy Bartlett (University of Michigan), Brien Brothman (Rhode Island State Archives, retired), Barbara L. Craig (University of Toronto, retired), Jennifer Douglas (University of British Columbia), Andrew Flinn (University College London), Anne J. Gilliland (University of California, Los Angeles), Verne Harris (Nelson Mandela Foundation), Chris Hurley (Commonwealth Bank, Australia, retired), Randall C. Jimerson (Western Washington University, retired), Eric Ketelaar (University of Amsterdam, retired), Heather MacNeil (University of Toronto), Michael Piggott (Deakin University Senior Research Fellow, retired), Ala Rekrut (Archives of Manitoba), Jennifer Rutkair (Queen’s University), Joanna Sassoon (historian, archivist, Perth, Australia), and Geoffrey Yeo (University College London).

“All Shook Up” is for anyone who seeks to understand archives—as documents, as institutions, as a profession, as a complex human activity that shapes how we think about the past, act in the present, and plan for the future. In the style of his favorite rock star Elvis Presley, Cook’s essays are designed to “shake you up,” to inspire you to embrace the full human experience of archives, and to open that experience to others. Learn more about the book at https://tinyurl.com/All-Shook-Up.