ASDAL 2006 - ARS, pt.3

Bill Sumners is the Director and Archivist for the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville, TN. He's here to speak to us about the ways his archives communicates with users and potential users. With the whole outside world, actually. It's good to get these views from institutions outside our small circle of institutions.

He says you have to start with the people that are your main core of users. Let them know what you have, so they can make good use of those materials. They aren't going to come into your library if they don't know that there is something there that they can use. The web is a really good way to start. Give good information about what is included in your collection, what your institution can and cannot do for users, your mission, and contact information. Sure, it sounds basic, but that's only because it is basic. Hopefully we all have that sort of information on our websites.

Key things, he says, are 1) Make it look good, 2) Make sure it's easy to navigate, 3) Make sure it's uncluttered, 4) Keep it up to date, 5) Make sure it will download quickly to as many users as possible, 6) Include contact info, 7) Include links to related sites, 8) Solicit feedback and amend your site accordingly. OK, maybe I didn't get all of the points, but these are basic Best Practices. If our web sites don't follow these principles, maybe it's time to look at our websites again.

We're about giving access, not as much protecting the collection. At least not as much as we used to be, at least not to the detriment of making the collection useful. Our collections are of little value if they are never used. If the collections do get used more, you've been successful.

Well, now it's time for lunch, so I'm going to see if I have time to grab something quick and get back so other people can set up. Yes, I'm the AV guy again.