Moving Forward and Making a Difference in Archival Institutions Through a Multifaceted Approach to Public Programming

Abstract

Traditionally, archival institutions neglected building relationships with their constituencies and focused on other operational functions. There are number of strategies that can be used to build such relationships, including public programming. Effective public programming strategies depend on sound public programming planning, appropriate research strategies, and ethical principles. It is evident that attempts to build relationships between the archives and their constituencies are a recent phenomenon in Africa. In fact, it seems to be an afterthought both to practitioners and scholars. Building relationships with users will make memory institutions visible and successful. Public programming, with its focus on the public that the organisation serves, is one of the tools that may be used by memory institutions such as archives to bring the archives to the society and the society to the archives.