In 2018, my coworker and I came up with a new approach for us to do outreach into the community. Amongst various barriers to access within archives (open hours, security, cursive writing, or fragile documents to name a few), the physical archives can be one of the biggest challenges. Just getting to the archives can be a physical an mental challenge. What bus takes me there? Where do I park? Do I have to bring my ID? What if I ask dumb questions? Will they have anything useful after I made all this effort to get here? Do I even belong there?
With these questions in mind we decided going out into the community might be a good approach. Bringing the archives out of the building and to places that were easier to access like a public library. We called it the Archives Roadshow.
We partnered with the local library branches to find out if they would be interested in us coming to them with a presentation about the archives and when would they want us to come. We did online promotion as did the main library for five branch events over the course of a year. By the number of people who came to our events, some might say it was a failure. However, in archives we think in the long term, success doesn’t have to be measured by the number of butts in chairs.
I was proud of the work we did, so I wrote an article for the Society of American Archivists newsletter Archival Outlook. I never submitted it. The pandemic started. I left my job. Now I wondered if it was still relevant and could I still tell the story.
But then I re-read the piece in January of this year. I still felt proud of the work we did and I liked the way I described the Roadshow. I believe archivists might learn something about their own outreach efforts and how they might try to be more accessible. So I decided to submit it, even though I was not sure how it would be received. I would let the editors make the decision instead of me making it for them. How can anyone support my writing if I don’t put it out there?
In the end, they really liked the piece, enough to put it on the cover and have a two page spread. I feel validated and completely exposed. Archival Outlook has a print circulation of more than 5,500 as well as a digital edition.
One of the reasons I write is to have an impact on people; to offer new ways of thinking about things. So this should feel like a huge success. And it does, but it is also terrifying. But I do have to remember I am not alone in this and my amazing partner always tells me the truth about my writing, good or bad or “its not quite there.” She thought it was good. I will trust her gut, until I get better at trusting my own.
Re-doing a search update
I spent a bit more time after my last newsletter searching the City’s database for the file and I finally found the file record. The file title is “SW Park Ave overcrossing Stadium Freeway [I 405]” which is actually spot on, but I was coming at it from the wrong direction. I thought it had to do with an urban renewal project and I had forgotten the freeway was called Stadium Freeway initially. I have asked for the file to be scanned so I can write about the actual issue instead of the frustration of not finding it.
Really an honest and informative post. Carry on.