Tim Gollins

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT TIM GOLLINS

Tim began his career in the UK Civil Service in 1987, working in Information Assurance. Over the years, he has gained wide experience across IT user and system requirements, systems development and design, information management, and information security—primarily within large-scale government IT programs.In Tim earned an MSc in Information Management from the University of Sheffield, with a focus on Cross-Language Information Retrieval.From 2004 to 2008, he was instrumental in designing secure information management components for a major IT and business transformation program at the UK Cabinet Office. In 2008, Tim joined The National Archives, where he led initiatives in digital preservation and cataloguing. He played a key role in developing the business information architecture and initiating their “Discovery” system—The National Archives\' online catalogue. He also led the design and implementation of a new Digital Records Infrastructure, incorporating the parsimonious preservation approach he pioneered.In 2013, Tim was seconded to the University of Glasgow as an Honorary Research Associate, contributing to research on technically assisted sensitivity review of digital public records—an area he continues to be passionate about.From January 2015, Tim held senior leadership roles at the National Records of Scotland. Initially appointed as Head of Digital Archiving, he focused on the long-term preservation of digital records. In 2018, he became Head of Preservation & Information Management, overseeing teams responsible for both digital and physical preservation, information security, governance, and risk management.In March 2023, Tim joined Vanderbilt University as Director of Special Collections and University Archives. He leads a multidisciplinary team of curators, librarians, archivists, and digital specialists who collect, preserve, manage, and provide access to Vanderbilt’s rich collections of rare books, manuscripts, institutional archives, and born-digital materials.Tim has served on the Board of the Digital Preservation Coalition since January 2024 and previously from 2009 to 2015. He was also a member of the University of Sheffield’s iSchool Advisory Panel from 2010 to 2016.Expertise: Archives, Digital Archiving, Digital Preservation, Information Management, Information Security, Sensitivity Review, Information Retrieval Systems.