Publication Date
January 2006
Abstract
Outreach programs are meant to expand archival audiences beyond “traditional” users. In her 1978 article, “Education Programs: Outreach as an Administrative Function,” Elsie Freeman Freivogel argues that the archivist’s first job “is to recognize that we have many publics . . . that include, among others, teachers at all levels of the educational system; elementary, secondary school, college and university students; genealogists, avocational historians, government employees, publicists, media professionals, and the merely curious.” Because Web-based and digital projects address “many publics” in relevant and familiar ways, they are easily integrated into archival outreach activities. Although user groups have not changed dramatically since Freivogel compiled her list in 1978, many of their assumptions have. Studies of the uses of new technology in special collections and archives illustrate how the Internet and the World Wide Web have dramatically changed user expectations.