2009 Emmett Leahy Award Recipient Announced

Orlando, Florida October 14, 2009. The Emmett Leahy Award Committee is pleased to announce that on October 14, 2009 Mariella Guercio received the 39th Emmett Leahy Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Information and Records Management Profession at the Annual Business Meeting of the Institute of Certified Records Managers.

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Named after Emmett J. Leahy, the Emmett Leahy Award is presented annually to recognize an individual whose contributions and outstanding accomplishments have had a significant impact on the records and information management profession. The Emmett Leahy Award is differentiated from other awards in the information and records management profession in that an awardee's individual contributions must have moved the profession in a significant direction it would not have otherwise moved without the awardee's direct, personal contribution. Other awards recognize contributions such as membership in a professional organization, demonstration of industry service, authorship of papers and presentations which are all commendable and meritorious. In the case of the Emmett Leahy Award these are not necessarily a threshold requirement for Emmett Leahy Award consideration.

The Emmett Leahy Award Committee selected Mariella Guercio as the 39th recipient of the Emmett Leahy Award because of the impact her work has had on the management and preservation of electronic records. Currently the Chair of the Master of Records Management and Archival Science Program, Vice President Technology, and Provost at the University of Urbino, Italy, Guercio has had a major impact on records and information management in Italy, Europe, and around the world:

Over the past decade and a half she developed innovative records systems for organizations in the public and private sectors, from banks to utility companies, and from regional and city administrations to insurance companies.
In 2000, while serving on an Italian Parliamentary Committee drafting legislation regulating public offices, she persuaded the Committee to include in the legislation a requirement to establish a records management office, staffed by a records management professional with graduate education in records and archives management, in each department of every level of government. This requirement has had a profound effect on professional records managers and the institutions they serve.
In 2003 Guercio designed and developed an entire graduate level program on Electronic Records Management and Preservation that is delivered by four universities, and was adopted by the European Commission as the foundation of a European Masters Program in Electronic Records Management and Preservation.
Since 1999 Guercio has delivered records management training to more than 2800 records managers, archivists, and administrators through continuing education courses along with presenting courses on archival science, records management, digital preservation, and archival description to more than five hundred graduate students while directing more than 70 graduate theses on life cycle records and information management.

Guercio's impact on the records and information management profession extends far beyond Italy. Her records and information management skills, knowledge, and experience have been manifested in a number of different domains.

As one of the six subject matter experts who participated in the drafting of Model Requirements for Electronic Records Management (MoReq 1 and 2) for the European Commission, she is widely recognized as having been the seminal thought leader in framing these requirements.
She has had a leading role in influencing the European Union Cultural Affairs Committee and the Forum for Information Society to incorporate records management and preservation of electronic records into their programs.
She has been a co-director of digital preservation projects for the European Commission Electronic Research, Preservation and Access Networks (ERPANET) and the European Union Cultural, Artistics, and Scientific Knowledge for Preservation, Access, and Retrieval (CASPAR). The latter is intended to establish a digital preservation infrastructure for Europe.
She has shared her knowledge, skill, and experience in records and information management around the world through workshops, presentations, and lectures on records management and the preservation of digital records. In addition, she has published three books and numerous articles in scholarly and professional journals on records management, archival education, and electronic records preservation.

A recurring theme in Guercio's highly visible academic, public, and private records and information management endeavors has been an emphasis on the responsibility of records professionals to articulate to the citizenry at large and to those who govern that accountability and transparency, democracy and justice depend on good records, which in turn require a highly educated community of trusted professionals to manage these records throughout their life cycle. This is a global emphasis that has no geographic or political boundaries.

About the Emmett Leahy Award

The Emmett Leahy Award is the highest award for individual accomplishment in the information and records management profession. Given in honor of Emmett Leahy, the renowned and legendary pioneer of information and records management, this award annually recognizes an individual an individual whose contributions and outstanding accomplishments have had a major impact on the records and information management profession. Selection of the award recipient is made by the Emmett Leahy Award Committee that is composed of the last ten winners of this prestigious award. The Emmett Leahy Award is presented at the annual meeting of the Institute of Certified Records Managers that is held concurrently with the ARMA International Annual Conference. Past winners have included users, educators, archivists, records managers, and consultants - both within the United States and internationally. The expenses of the Emmett Leahy Award Committee are underwritten by the Huron Consulting Group as part of its commitment to promoting and recognizing excellence in records management.

The Emmett Leahy Award Committee is an independent entity and is not a part of the Institute of Certified Records Managers, ARMA International, or Huron Consulting Group. The selection of the annual Emmett Leahy Award recipient is the exclusive responsibility of the Emmett Leahy Award Committee.