Dear All,

As you are hopefully already aware, the theme for 2008 Archives Awareness 
Campaign is “Take Your Place in History”, with the emphasis on community 
archives. The 2008 Campaign will seek to show how different groups have 
worked to bring about change and raise awareness about social issues 
amongst decision-makers and opinion-formers. Please see note below for 
further details.

Are you already planning to hold an event relating to the AAC theme in 
November? As part of the campaign, we are looking to support a large event 
from each region to be held during November. We hope to be able to support 
one event from each region and the home nations - East of England, East 
Midlands, London, North East, North West, South East, South West, West 
Midlands, Yorkshire, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. If you have any 
suggestions or would be willing to host an event, please contact me. Many 
thanks to those who have already been in touch.

If you are intending to participate in AAC 2008, please do register your events 
on the website - http://www.archiveawareness.com/contributors/register. 
Ideas for events so far include using records relating to acts that initiated 
social change, such as the Pensions Act (100th anniversary this year) and the 
NHS (60th) or events based on records relating to these, encouraging groups 
to look at records of influential local figures, local newspapers opening up their 
archives, holding events with BME groups, events encouraging communities to 
donate their records to archives etc. If you have any images either of similar 
events held in your archives (e.g. sessions working with community groups) or 
of relevant archival documents, please do send these to me so we can update 
the website.

Please docontact either myself of Rene Kinzett 
([log in to unmask]) if you have any queries or would like to be 
involved.

Many thanks,
Kiri Ross-Jones
NCA AAC Volunteer Officer

---------------
Archivist
Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Richmond
Surrey, TW9 3AB
[log in to unmask]
Tel: +44 (0)20 83325476






ARCHIVE AWARENESS BRIEFING

Archive Awareness Background

Archive Awareness Campaign (AAC) was originally designed to address the 
issues of under representation of UK archives to the public and within the 
media, especially in comparison with the museum, gallery and library sectors.   
The campaign began with ‘Archive Awareness Month’ in September 2003 and 
since then has taken place over a longer period each autumn.

The campaign is spearheaded at the national level by The National Council on 
Archives (NCA) in partnership with The National Archives (TNA) and the 
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.  .

At a local level, organisations are responsible for putting on events and 
generating local publicity.  Involvement is on an opt-in basis and archives 
decide their own level of involvement in the campaign.  

Aims, Audiences, Messages

Short term aims: encouraging participation in archive events; increasing media 
coverage
Long term aims: increasing awareness and the use of archives among existing, 
new and different users.
Key messages resonate through events and media coverage: archives are 
relevant to you; archives might surprise you; archives are a pathway to the 
past; archives are accessible; archives are the cornerstones of our 
constitution and can explain actions and opinions.  These have been 
communicated via the strap-line, ‘Everyone has a history and we’ve got a bit 
of yours!’
Key audiences: Schools, community archives, black and minority ethnic 
groups. 

Archive Awareness Campaign 2008: Take Your Place in History 

The national theme for Archive Awareness Campaign 2008 is “Take Your Place 
in History”, with the emphasis on community archives and the records of black 
and minority ethnic communities. The 2008 Campaign will seek to show how 
different groups have worked to bring about change and raise awareness 
about social issues amongst decision-makers and opinion-formers. 

The main season of events takes place in Autumn when local archives will be 
hosting workshops, exhibitions, open days, lectures and school projects to 
help celebrate the amazing wealth of their collections and promote the theme 
of this year’s Campaign.  A national launch event is planned for the 5 
November and one event per region and home nation will also be organised.

Archive Awareness Campaign events also take place throughout the year and 
can be found in the events section of www.archiveawareness.com