Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Anthony Cocciolo

Anthony Cocciolo, dean of the School of Information at Pratt Institute in New York City, is the 2018 recipient of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for his book Moving Image and Sound Collections for Archivists, published by SAA in 2017. The award is given for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, and practice. 

In Moving Image and Sound Collections for Archivists, Cocciolo tackles the immediate concern of audiovisual collection care and the importance of digital reformatting for archivists who may not be familiar with these formats but nonetheless find themselves responsible for caring for them. The volume presents real-life cases based on interviews alongside practical information and observations from Cocciolo’s own experience teaching about audiovisual collections. Handsomely designed, the book includes tables, sample forms, and color photographs that supplement the text to provide a manageable workflow for gaining control over audiovisual collections and for considering next steps, such as prioritizing records for digital reformatting. 

The Award Committee noted: “The book successfully fills a need in the archival literature while simultaneously maintaining a neutral stance on reformatting technology that might become obsolete in the future. This ensures that the book will remain a useful text in the archivist’s bookshelf for years to come.”