I thought both Gary Collins and Caroline Shenton made some excellent points.
What we need is a consistent approach that combines education of both the
general public and media, with some traditional PR type activities, like
establishing relationships, making contacts, etc, thinking of "stories" to
draw interest. I think a number of interesting points arise from this:
Susan Davies hit the nail on the head on Friday when she pointed out there
could be an opportunity to plan some useful content for the National Grid of
Learning to provide a well-focused introduction to archives. Perhaps
someone from the Archives in Education Group might have a view on this?
It is not just about education of the media, but education of everybody, ie
all our users, using outreach to the best of our collective abilities. More
and more people are visiting archives and are keen to learn, they are a
captive audience - some of them might even be journalists and programme
makers (!)
I thought others might be interested to know exactly what figures we might
be looking at so I have done a little research amongst a small and friendly
PR consultancy that I happen to know. Obviously, it would depend on exactly
what was wanted but a regular retainer is what they would suggest and would
probably prove cheaper than one-off projects. A figure of £12,000 pa was
suggested. (£7 each per SoA member per year) The image problem is not going
to be corrected by one-off reactions to TV shows (tho' that can't harm) but
by a long term drip feed of information into the right hands.
This subject has obviously touched a nerve and excited quite a bit of
interest among us, how can we progress it?
Helen Osborn
Archivist & Records Manager
Young & Co.'s Brewery, P.L.C.
The Ram Brewery, Wandsworth, London SW18 4JD
e:mail - [log in to unmask]
Tel: +44 20 8875 7000 Fax: +44 20 8875 7100
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