Tawny Ryan Nelb has a BA in American Studies and an MA in American History. After work for the Hoover Presidential Library and ten years with the Yale Manuscript and Archives Department, she became an independent archival consultant and historian in 1986. She has published over 30 articles and four books on historical records preservation and local history topics. Her co-authored manual on architectural records won the SAA Waldo Gifford Leland award. She co-teaches the SAA Architectural Records Management workshop and has been raising issues about born digital architectural records since the 1980s.