The Archivist and Public Relations

ARCHIVIST is a public servant in charge of a cultural and intellectual enterprise. He offers as his services the basic archival functions of collecting, arranging, storing, retrieving, and providing reference service on records and often such advanced activities as publishing scholarly editions of public documents or participating in university graduate instruction. An aggressive program to provide and expand archival services must include an effort to communicate these activities to the public, or rather to the publics : archive users, both professional and amateur, nonuser friends of archival and historical endeavors, and completely indifferent citizens. A well-balanced information program has something to tell all these publics. American archivists have generally and regrettably failed to acquaint their constituencies with the services they provide. This failure has held back the work of the archival profession. Archivists are handicapped in providing services by low salaries, low budgets, and low status. Too often the archivist is regarded by public officials as an unwelcome meddler, by academic researchers as a librarian rather than a colleague, and by the general public as a dusty curiosity, if the general public is even aware of his existence. This low esteem is reflected in lack of support for the archives and little use of its available services. A vigorous information program can go a long way toward raising both the prestige and the usefulness of the institution and its personnel. This program can function in two ways that are not entirely separable. The first is communication to the public of the Archives' problems and services, in order to attain such goals as prestige, needed legislation, or increased appropriations. One of the great masters of this approach, Mary Givens Bryan, spent many years explaining, publicizing, and garnering support for her institution; it worked; Georgia's State Archives now has what may be the finest archives building in the world. Second, an information program can be a direct part of archival