outreach

n. activities and programs that promote use of archives, archival resources, and archival collections activities and programs that educate about and advocate for archives and archivists

Notes

Outreach takes on many forms and has many terms and phrases associated with it: educational programming, public relations, marketing, publicity, promotion. At times it is equated with advocacy, but as noted by Kathleen Roe, “Not all outreach activities are specifically directed to accomplishing awareness or advocacy goals. Yet each provides an opportunity to incorporate, at a minimum, improving awareness of the value of archives.” [Advocacy and Awareness for Archivists (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2019), 11.] Examples of outreach include exhibits, publications, events, lecture series, social media, teaching and instruction, workshops, presentations, and tours.