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Re: Report of Surveys



I agree with much of what Charlie Schultz says. I am an advocate of more
archivists observing an Archives Week programs with pertinent activity. I
would prefer we term it simply  "Archives Week" and leave off the
"national" which (1) limits things if you want to cross borders and (2) has
the potential for confusion with various national archival institutions
(e.g., NARA)--is it the work of this agency or all archivists in the
nation? And I think the US Congress is less inclined nowadays to promote
specific weeks--the legislators have indicated they have been there and
done that enough already. But archival professionals need to use these
times when they have them, to create and generate activity across a broad
sweep.

I think group or wide-spread activity helps. We need something more than
the Little Jack Horner approach of sitting in a corner contemplating his
navel. We need to work with other groups who will have a reason to buy into
sharing mutual concerns with us. For example, using Charlie's idea of
governors, my experience has been to work with an aide whose sole
responsibility is to prepare resolutions day after day. Will the governor
ever know? Maybe yes, maybe no. But Kansas archivists went as a group to
met with the governor at signing time--and had their picture taken for
publicity purposes. That has more impact!

I also advocate more state-wide archival groups in the USA. These or
metropolitan groups (e.g., the New York City folks) bring things closer to
home. You cannot educate a multi-state legislature but you can talk to
legislators in your home state or council members in your town. And state
groups should be more than just social groups. They can do things like
developing scholarships for students pursuing an archival studies program
in their respective areas.

They can do other things for the public as well. Why only have an Archives
Week? We in Ohio are proud to have a merit award program that includes
recognition of persons not in the profession who contribute to the archival
enterprise. We also recognize students at State History Day who demonstrate
good use of archival sources in doing research for their projects. (There
are usually several judges at the state contest who are working
archivists.) These winners may not learn what archivists do but they may
well remember for their lifetime that a group of archivists gave them
encouragement--and be supportive when they become adults. I doubt we
Ohioans have a complete corner on this market. Tim Ericson used the first
Wisconsin Archives Week to complete action on a big new collection at
UW-Milwaukee. It only takes a little imagination to develop programs such
as these--in combination with the will to do them.

In short, you don't grab the bull by the horns until you do grab the bull
by the horns. I hope others will enter this discussion to inform us all of
the things groups of professionals are doing--be they metropolitan groups
or state associations or SHRABs or whomever--to advance our image. Who's
going to post the next message?
________
George W. Bain, Head of Archives & Special Collections
Ohio University Libraries, Athens, OH 45701-2978
Tel. 740.593.2710                               Fax 740.593.0138
Email <gbain1@ohiou.edu>

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