Dr. David Thomas, Visiting Professor at Northumbria University
David has spent most of his career at the Public Record Office (PRO) and The National Archives (TNA). He joined the PRO in 1974, after completing a history degree at the University of London. David completed his doctorate whilst working at the archive, and became a part-time lecturer at University College, London in 1979. He continued to juggle his work at the PRO with lecturing (until 1989) and his varied research interests. These interests include Shakespeare, forgeries and fraud in archives, historic churches and the sensitivity review of digital records.
In 2005 David became Director of Technology at TNA, until his retirement in July 2014. Since December 2014 he has been a Visiting Professor at Northumbria University’s iSchool.
Recent Publications:
David Thomas, Beggars, Cheats and Forgers, a history of frauds through the ages (Pen and Sword History: Barnsley, 2014)
Valerie Johnson and David Thomas, ‘The user perspective – how research is being transformed’ in Michael Moss (ed), The Transition to the Digital (forthcoming 2015)
David Thomas, Valerie Johnson, and Sonia Ranade, ‘Size Matters: The Implications of Volume for the Digital Archive of Tomorrow. A case study from The UK National Archives’,, Records Management Journal (forthcoming, 2014)
Valerie Johnson and David Thomas. ‘New Universes or Black Holes? Does Digital Change Anything?’, in Toni Weller (ed.), History in the Digital Age (Routledge: Abingdon, 2013).
Valerie Johnson and David Thomas. ‘Digital Information: “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom…” Is Digital a Cultural Revolution?’ in Nancy Partner and Sarah Foot (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Historical Theory (SAGE: Los Angeles, 2013).
David Thomas, ‘A new view of digital preservation’, in Lucia Maria Velloso de Olivera and Isabel Cristina Borges de Olivera (eds.) Preservacao, acesso, difusado: Desafios para as instituicoes arquivisticas no secula XXI (Associacao dos Arquivistas Brasilieros: Rio de Janiero, 2013)
Amanda Spencer, John Sheridan, David Thomas, David Pullinger, ‘UK Government Web Continuity: Persisting Access through Aligning Infrastructures’ International Journal of Digital Curation, 2009, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 107-124
David Thomas, ‘Forgery in the Archives’, Archives, 2009, Vol 34, No 120, pp. 21 – 35
David Thomas, ‘Resources Management and Planning’, Janus Archival Review, 1995 Vol 1, pp.63 – 69
David Thomas, ‘The Elizabethan Crown Lands, their Purposes and Problems’, and ‘Leases of Crown Lands in the Reign of Elizabeth I’ in Richard Hoyle (ed) The Estates of the English Crown (1992)
David Thomas, ‘Security of the the Public Record Office at Kew’, Janus Archival Review,1991, Vol 1,pp.110 – 115
David Thomas, English translation of Michel Duchein, Archives Buildings and Equipment, International Council on Archives, Paris 1988
David Thomas, ‘Architectural Design and Technical Equipment for the Physical Protection and Conservation of Documents’, Mitteilungen des Osterreichischen Staatsarchivs, 1986, Vol 39, pp.233 – 251
David Thomas, Shakespeare in the Public Records, 1985
David Thomas and N.E. Evans, John Shakespeare in the Exchequer, Shakespeare Quarterly, 1984, Volume 15, number 1, pp.315 – 318
David Thomas, Financial and Administrative Developments, in Howard Tomlinson (ed), Before the English Civil War, 1983
David Thomas, ‘Leases in Reversion on the Crown Lands 1558 – 1603’, Economic History Review, 1977, Second Series, Vol XXX, , pp.67 – 72
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