National Awareness & Advocacy Strategy for Canadian Archives
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
National Awareness & Advocacy Strategy for Canadian Archives Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives Taskforce on Awareness and Advocacy Strategy Date: 2021-01-13 Awareness and Advocacy Taskforce: Heather Gordon, Jacinthe Duval, Christine Lovelace, Claude Roberto, Dominic Boisvert, Emily Lonie, Krista Jamieson, Nancy Marrelli, Sophie Desruisseaux, Terry Eastwood, Vicky Tran and Yves Frenette. ii Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................. 1 Awareness Strategy ......................................................................................................... 1 Advocacy Strategy ........................................................................................................... 3 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4 2.0 Origin and Orientation of the Taskforce .................................................................. 5 3.0 Recommendations for National Awareness ............................................................ 7 3.1 Selection of Target Audiences .............................................................................. 7 3.2 Media ................................................................................................................... 7 3.2.1 Audience overview........................................................................................ 7 3.2.2 Desired results .............................................................................................. 9 3.2.3 Key messages ................................................................................................ 9 3.2.4 Recommendations for communication and engagement .......................... 10 3.2.5 Outcome measures ..................................................................................... 15 3.3 Teachers ............................................................................................................. 17 3.3.1 Audience overview...................................................................................... 17 3.3.2 Desired results ............................................................................................ 19 3.3.3 Key messages .............................................................................................. 20 3.3.4 Recommendations for communication and engagement .......................... 21 3.3.5 Outcome measures ..................................................................................... 23 4.0 Recommendations for National Advocacy ............................................................ 25 4.1 Selection of Target Audience ............................................................................. 25 4.2 Politicians ........................................................................................................... 25 4.2.1 Audience overview...................................................................................... 25 4.2.2 Desired results ............................................................................................ 26 4.2.3 Recommendations for communication and engagement .......................... 27 4.2.4 Outcome measures .......................................................................................... 30 5.0 Recommendations for individual archives and archivists ..................................... 32 5.1 Media ................................................................................................................. 32 5.1.1 Actions ........................................................................................................ 32 iii 5.1.2 Outcome measures ..................................................................................... 36 5.2 Teachers ............................................................................................................. 37 5.2.1 Actions ........................................................................................................ 37 5.2.2 Outcome measures ..................................................................................... 38 5.3 Politicians ........................................................................................................... 39 5.3.1 Actions ........................................................................................................ 39 5.3.2 Outcome measures ..................................................................................... 41 6.0 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 42 Appendix A: Funding Opportunities43 Federal Funding Opportunities: .................................................................................... 43 Provincial and Territorial Funding Opportunities: ........................................................ 43 Appendix B. Literature Reviews ................................................................................... 45 I. Canadian Literature Review ................................................................................... 45 II. French Language Canadian Literature Review ...................................................... 46 III. Australia and New Zealand Literature Review ................................................... 47 IV. International Advocacy Events ........................................................................... 48 iv Executive Summary The Awareness and Advocacy Taskforce envisions a Canadian public that values and supports archives, understands the services they provide, and makes use of their holdings; and it foresees a coordinated and effective approach to advocacy on behalf of archives to ensure ongoing efforts to preserve and give access to Canada’s documentary heritage. In order to promote a positive and understandable profile for archives, it is essential to develop and implement a collaborative approach to communications, advocacy, marketing and outreach. This report therefore recommends a strategy and structure to enable archival associations to work together in order to promote broad, high impact initiatives to promote awareness and advocacy. The Taskforce identified three target audiences as key to efforts to increase awareness: media, teachers and politicians. In an effort to reach out to these audiences, two strategies were developed: an Awareness Strategy for media and teachers and an Advocacy Strategy for politicians. The Taskforce recommends the creation of two national working groups, one for awareness and one for advocacy. These working groups would be tasked with directing, coordinating and maintaining focused awareness and advocacy activities across the country. This report also includes strategies for individual archives to help them impact awareness and advocacy in their spheres of influence. Here is a summary of the recommendations for both strategies: Awareness Strategy Media—National Recommendations M1 Create a National Awareness Working Group: The Canadian Council of Archives (CCA) should convene a National Awareness Working Group that would include, but not be limited to, representatives from the ACA and the AAQ. M2 Develop an introductory communications course for archivists: The National Awareness Working Group could create and make available an online course inspired by similar existing programs. This kind of training should be included in archival studies programs across the country. M3 Develop a media training course for archivists: The National Awareness Working Group could create and make available a course dedicated to training archivists in giving effective media interviews. This kind of training should be included in archival studies programs across the country. M4 Develop a national editorial calendar: The National Awareness Working Group should create and maintain a national editorial calendar that archivists across Canada could contribute to and use, with the aim of highlighting the same event, topic or issue from unique angles/local perspectives. 1 M5 Develop a social media hashtag that could be used by all archivists: The National Awareness Working Group should create social media hashtags using humour or interesting facts to capture the attention of the media and the general public. Media—Recommendations for Individual Archives M6 Establish and maintain an ongoing relationship with local media: Through meetings and phone calls, archivists could create an ongoing relationship with newspapers, radio stations and television programs from their areas so that archives could be present more effectively in local media. M7 Develop an editorial calendar: Develop a calendar to track ideas and plan content to be produced by your institution M8 Engage with local journalists on Twitter: Archivists should engage and provide expert commentary to tweets sent out by journalists. M9 Develop a section dedicated to the media on archival websites: Archival centres should have a section on their website that offers resources to help journalists navigate archival holdings and find their stories. Teachers—National Recommendations T1 Develop standardized training for archivists: The National Awareness Working Group should develop training for archivists on how to create educational resources and presentations. T2 Partner with provincial and territorial education curriculum committees: The National Awareness Working Group, alongside provincial and territorial archives and associations, should