Toward the Year 2000

Selling the Collections: Internal Marketing in Archives and Records Management

“…21 According to Eulenberg, "the challenge for the corporate archivist is to provide the required rate of return by insuring that the corporate archives does indeed fulfill its management function. " 22 But despite this acknowledgement and the push for a closer connection between archives and records management, 23 there was a growing sense that archives had not been effectively marketed to institutional sponsors and users. 24 In 1986 Larry Hackman identified the skills that would be necessary for business archivists to remain viable, all of which had implications for internal marketing and echoed the guidelines set by the SAA Affinity Group; these included program planning, advocacy, communication, basic management, leadership skills, and other attributes that would be needed to persuade businesses to retain records of "secondary" value.…”

“…24 In 1986 Larry Hackman identified the skills that would be necessary for business archivists to remain viable, all of which had implications for internal marketing and echoed the guidelines set by the SAA Affinity Group; these included program planning, advocacy, communication, basic management, leadership skills, and other attributes that would be needed to persuade businesses to retain records of "secondary" value. 25 Hackman was among several practitioners and scholars in the archives, records management, and history community who recognized that the core records duties (description, appraisal, reference, etc.) were taking a backseat to competing enterprise functions.…”