Rate My Professor Tom Riley

Tom Riley serves as Archivist at Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hākena, part of the University of Otago Library in Dunedin, New Zealand, a position he has held since June 2017. Hocken Collections is a major research repository encompassing archives, art and photography, published and special collections, Māori materials through Te Hereka Taoka, and a digital capture unit. It supports scholarly inquiry into New Zealand history, literature, art, and culture. Prior to his current role, Riley worked at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. His education includes studies at Victoria University of Wellington. As an archivist, Riley manages preservation, access, and promotion of significant cultural holdings, contributing to both academic research and public engagement.

Riley's notable contributions include preparing the successful nomination for the Colin and Anne McCahon Papers to the UNESCO Memory of the World New Zealand Register in 2020, the first such inscription for a New Zealand artist at Hocken Collections. This 4.21 linear metre collection, acquired through donations from the McCahons and others between 1974 and 1991, documents the lives of artist Colin McCahon (1919-1987) and his wife Anne (1915-1993) from 1918 to 1987. It features family correspondence revealing wit and intimacy, professional letters with figures like John and Anna Caselberg, Doris Holland, Ralph Hotere, and Toss Woollaston, project materials for murals such as Waterfall and Urewera, annotated religious texts, a 1958 America trip notebook, childhood drawings, a hand-illustrated book William and his home by the sea for McCahon's son, and unique items like a Mad Magazine copy and Anything Left-Handed catalogue. Riley has also contributed to the digitisation and launch of the Herries Beattie collection in June 2024. He engages the public through lectures, including on preserving family documents and photographs for Heritage Month with ARANZ and the history of Dunedin's Athenaeum Library and Mechanics Institute. Riley serves on the National Digital Forum board and handles nominations for the ARANZ Michael Standish Prize. He supports the New Zealand Alpine Club archive at Hocken and has addressed Dunedin City Council on archival matters.