Thing 15: Advocacy for Libraries

Libraries, like museums, have seen a big change in their attitudes in recent years as regards their users.  They have not stuck with the traditional way of doing things but instead have taken a good look at the type of services and experiences people want and set out to providing these.  By widening their services they have also broadened their customer base which has revolutionized libraries.

Archives I fear are somewhat lagging behind and here I must blush and admit that it its partly because of the sticks-in-the mud like me!  Rather than going out of our way to meet user demands we try to educate users by telling them not to expect too much too fast because gosh we are dealing with such rare and fragile items and it takes so long to process them appropriately and really, you should be grateful that we are even considering doing something about it.

Yes, I exaggerate but there is a grain of truth in what I say.  However, the archival world is moving on.  Archives and Records Association and the National Archive (UK) run a joint annual advocacy campaign called Explore Your Archive, which encourages archives across the UK and Ireland to raise awareness of archives by showcasing their collections and interacting with people and local communities.  It takes place for a week in mid-November and has proved extremely popular.  I am embarrassed to say that so far we have only participated once and then the best we managed to do was to stick an Explore Your Archive poster on our front door!  How sad is that.

I did a quick search on the internet to see what archives across the world do for advocacy and was quite saddened to see that the answer is precious little.  However, in America, October is known among the archival community as Archives Month, during which repositories organize special events to raise public awareness of their collections.  Apart from that, it seems that advocacy is pretty much left for individual archives to deal with as they see fit.

Even though at my place of work we have done very little to promote what we do, I am actually a great supporter of advocacy.  I think it is really the one thing that can and does make a difference.  However, I think it's more than just a question of participating in a joint event once a year.  Ideally, advocacy should be a permanent state of affairs, a constant goal and something built into the archive's daily or weekly activities.  The more you shout the more people hear what you're saying!  Hmm, I think this course is beginning to have an effect on me!!

Weird images to be found on the internet