Ryan Michael Lowry

Relevance for Archives

            In Nina Simon’s book, The Art of Relevance, she argues that a public history project needs to marry relevance to their overall mission in order to reach the desired audience. One hobby I have is listening to podcasts whenever I am driving, sleeping, or doing chores. One podcast I discovered recently that I think has a lot of potential is “Archives in Context,” a podcast created by the American Archivists Editorial Board and the Committee on Public Awareness of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The purpose of this podcast is to use popular media as a tool for increasing the public’s awareness of what archives are and what the people who work in them do. While the mission is great, they fail to draw in a huge audience that isn’t already a part of the public history field. If “Archives in Context” were to follow Simon’s advice about targeting a specific audience and marketing towards what they want rather than what the creators want, then they would be able to bring the story of archives into the public eye more efficiently.

            One of the issues with this podcast is it uses highly technical terms that those who do not work with archives might not understand. This terminology can be off-putting to audiences as it can isolate them and make them feel like they do not belong as part of the conversation. The show fails to cater their show to the wider audience that might not have the background required to understand the daily tasks of an archivist. They lack what Simon calls “Open-hearted Insiders,” or individuals who work from the inside—in this case, the hosts of the podcast—in order to make their content more accessible to those on the outside—the wider community. They need to better understand this concept if they are going to achieve their mission then they need to operate with the goal of making themselves relevant rather than professional.

            One thing that the podcast does really well is its use of service-learning examples; the hosts bring on guests who work in archives and let them tell their own stories that they experienced in the real world. By doing this the hosts are creating empathetic connections between archives and their listening audience by showing that archivists are not some elite, isolated group, but rather are people with unique stories and traits. For example, they bring on guests like Jacqualine Price Osafo who is the executive director of the American Archivists Society to explain in a more nonchalant way how archives work. The problem, however, is these stories are often embellished with specific details about the workings of archives that are not given context. The personal touches of these stories are then lost when the public cannot recognize or understand the context—in this case, technical terms and job duties—leading to a lack of new listeners.

            To solve this problem, “Archives in Context” could practice using shared authority, something that Simon argues is necessary to make one’s goal relevant to the public. By getting the community in which, they are trying to reach involved in the process of making the podcast, they can gain valuable feedback on how to overcome the obstacles that listeners face. Simon brings up several examples in her book on how getting the community involved always ends up helping the project gain more popularity and importance. Instead of just lecturing to listeners, the hosts could bring listeners on to the show for interviews or allow the audience to give more direct feedback regarding the program. While getting the community involved is a great place to start, the podcast also has to redefine the purpose of its show in order to truly appeal to the public.

            Simon argues that one must constantly stand by the community they are reaching out to and must always strive to make their content more relatable. While “Archives in context” have a mission to make archives/archivists more accessible to the public, they must detail who they are wanting to reach out to in order to narrow their mission. Rather than just stating that they want the public to be more informed about how archives work, they should narrow down what specific groups they wish to attract. Are they only wanting older audience members, or are they trying to gain traction with younger viewers? Do they only care about those with a background in history/preservation, or are they wanting to reach out to those who have little to no experience in the field? Simon says that by trying to reach out to everyone you end up gaining no one; “Archives in context” must determine who they want their listeners to be in order to better tailor their show to that community. If they wish for younger audiences to enjoy the program, then perhaps they could bring on pop culture icons and connect their work to that of an archivist. If they want to make archives more relatable then perhaps, they could start their episodes with brief explanations about the purpose and benefits of archives. Right now, they are trying to make themselves relevant to everyone which is actually making themselves accessible to no one, they need to refine their mission in order to gain more clarity on how to best accomplish it.

            I want to close by mentioning that this podcast does have a lot of potential and value and my suggestions are only to help further develop its potential. They have amazing guests, qualified hosts, and real-world examples, and are great at incorporating audience feedback. I just feel that if they were to be more specific in who they are targeting and what they want them to gain from the podcast then they might garner a larger audience. Archives are an important part of society that functions as an essential backbone of business, education, and governance so it is important that more people learn about what archivists do. Just, instead of making it seem like an elite profession they should instead try and branch out to specific groups and tailor their program to them in order to better accomplish their goal of making archives relevant.