Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810829355 ISBN 13: 9780810829350

Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 1994

Now in Paperback! As institutional budgets become tighter and information sources wider and more complex, archivists, manuscript curators and staff of special collections seek ways to broaden the use of their materials, bringing their services and their story to wider publics. Advocating Archives: An Introduction to Public Relations for Archivists presents practical advice on how to find and relate to these publics: how to better serve the client in person, launch a fund-raising campaign, work with the media, market programs, organize programs around historical events, train and successfully use volunteers, and avoid the most common public relations errors by planning. Written by archivists with previous professional or practical experience in these fields, Advocating Archives offers simply written, practical guidelines for the professional or manager who either develops their own public relations program or works with public relations professional in their institution. Three studies in archival public relations, taken from the daily experience of their writers, provide material for the instructors in archival management courses. Part of a long-term public relations initiative undertaken by the Society of American Archivists, the book aims to make public relations skills an integral part of archival management, and to help the archivist, curator, or special collections professional direct the public's response to their work.

About the Author:

Elsie Freeman Finch has been a leader in the development of public relations and education programs for archives since she began her career in the mid-1960's. Recently retired as manager of public education programs for the National Archives and Records Service, she also taught in secondary schools, university and adult education programs and worked in advertising and public relations firms.

Review:

...the volume is firmly focused on outreach in the context of archives...public relations is presented not as an optional add-on to the core functions of acquisition and preservation but as a core function in its own right...The authors write enthusiastically but with a practicality... [Each of the] essays has something useful to say and archivists and other information professionals, struggling to make ends meet in these difficult days, would benefit from listening and learning....

Aimed at the archivist who is not a public relations expert, this is a very useful how-to book for people actually working in the archives and for students taking an archives class. The chapters dealing with starting a friends group and managing volunteers would also be useful to those working in public libraries....

...an excellent manual for archivists, for all managers for non-profit programs, and for anyone who wants to improve the image and usefulness of any service organization...The essays are clearly written, their authors expound their assigned topics well, and they are complementary but not repetitious. This book should be in most libraries. It is essential for archivists, record managers, librarians, and other professionals....

The SAA Committee on Public Information...labored over this book during the course of half a decade. The result is this practical and useful collection of essays...very helpful.......

...an excellent presentation of ways to make the public and your own organization aware of your archives' existence and, more importantly, its worth...Finch has collected information invaluable in crafting outreach programs that get and keep public or organizational attention....