Archives Outreach and Advocacy: Promoting and Developing your Collections

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Archives Outreach and AdvocacyPromoting and
Developing your Collections

• Florence M. Turcotte
• Research Services Archivist
• University of Florida
• Society of Florida Archivists
• Annual Meeting
• June 8, 2007

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What is Outreach?

• Trying to bring our message to more people
• Message services, collections, and why we have
  them, and why users need to consult them

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Why Reach Out?

• Our materials have value to our users
• For research
• For personal interest
• For fun, and even
• For profit
• We need support from our constituents
• For collection maintenance and development
• To ensure a future for our archives

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Curriculum Support

• Step 1 Get on the Syllabus!
• A project involving primary resources
• Orientation session, followed by individual or
  team consultations
• How? Go to faculty meetings and office hours
• Cultivate your contacts among graduate students
• The archivist is the TAs BEST FRIEND!

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Excerpt from syllabus for AMH-3630American
Environmental History

• Archive exercise
• You will write a five-page paper using archival
  materials from the University of Florida Special
  and Area Studies Collections.

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AMH 3930 Research Assistance African American
Experiences in Florida
Students on the steps of the Stanton Institute,
Jacksonville. Early 20th century?
Students protesting the closure of Lincoln High
School in Gainesville 1969
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Connect with Students
HIS 4944 Preserving History An Internship in
Historical Archives
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Bibliographic Instruction

• Supporting Academic Programs in
• History
• Museum Studies
• Book Arts Printing
• Cartography Geography
• Literature
• Creative Writing
• Anthropology and Cultural Studies
• Library Science

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Documentary Projects
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Connect with Colleagues

• Do in-house training and outreach
• Get on the tour for new employees
• Have an open-house event
• Host an outside lecturer

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Connect with Users

• Genealogists can be strong advocates for archives
• Research for Fun? We can do that!
• Ggists and Avists have common goals

• Well-preserved records accurately described
• Safe, open and easy access to records
• Good funding for archives development and
  maintenance
• Digitization is a priority

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Community Outreach

• Open House events
• Lectures open to the public
• Exhibits related to local history and culture
• Collection Development
• Soliciting archival materials from local business
  people, politicians and civic groups
• Securing funding from stakeholders
• These all yield long term dividends

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Take it Outdoors!
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Connect with K-12 Students

• History Fair Projects
• School Tours
• Partnerships with Grant Projects

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Connect with Stakeholders

• Donor Relations
• Board of Directors
• Friends Group
• Alumni - Almost all used the library
• Partnerships with Development Personnel
• Tours and Exhibits
• Guest Lectures and Presentations
• Get the Archives into the Fund Raising Proposal

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Describe your Collections, then put the finding
aids online

• Be consistent with your finding aids
• Easy to understand interface
• 1-Stop Shopping Search all finding aids with one
  engine, from one page
• Make it easy to find out if you have what they
  need, then get them to the Box and Folder quickly
• Once you have good descriptive guides, put them
  on the Internet

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Show It!

• Exhibitions
• Advantages good outreach for hidden
  collections attracts donors and researchers
  increases access
• Disadvantages Time-consuming, expensive,
• security concerns catalogs collect dust
• Solutions Get students involved, do an on-line
  exhibit, apply for a grant

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Exhibit Catalogs
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On-line Exhibits
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On-line Exhibits
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Digitize It!
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What is Advocacy?

• Getting out the message about Archives
• Getting people to understand the value of records
  conservation for future generations

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Why Advocate?

• Advocacy ensures the future by preserving the
  past

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Thank You
Flo Turcotte Research Services Archivist Departmen
t of Special and Area Studies Collections Universi
ty of Florida [phone] x215
http//web.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/