The messages about Designatory Letters seem to reinforce the point that
the general public have little understanding of what we do and in many
cases have never even heard of archivists. It is obviously important that
archivists should continue to develop their existing skills and to develop
new ones but I can't see this greatly improving our status as perceived by
those outside the profession. My own feeling is that CPD enables us to
keep our employers and ourselves happy, it shows we're not complacent, its
what any self respecting profession should do. If we want improved
recognition and status we need to raise the profile of the archive
profession so that when we tell people what we do we no longer encounter
blank looks.
Alan Hayward
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|