Many commercial businesses employ professional archivists because of the economic and operational benefits they gain from exploiting their materials and sharing their stories. These are just some of the ways in which they use their archival materials:
- Marketing their stories to inspire nostalgia, a feeling of connection or confidence in a business or product
- Providing background information for stakeholders, such as potential funders, investors, new staff, volunteers, and customers
- As a source of inspiration for them to develop new services and products
- Sharing stories with staff and volunteers to engender a feeling of belonging and ownership and encourage commitment to the business
- For celebrating events, such as anniversaries and retirements
They may also share their stories for the indirect benefits brought through good public relations by using their archive materials for:
- Responding to enquiries from people researching ancestors, local history or business history
- Creating educational and therapeutic resources
A wide variety of business sectors including publishing, manufacturing, finance, retail, hospitality and energy have invested in their archive as an asset. Smaller businesses and third sector organisations can learn from them and share their stories for their own benefit and that of the wider community.
Heritage half hour
Activity C1: using your story as an asset
In this activity you will consider the ways businesses use their archive materials to share their stories and note down ideas for your own organisation.
This is a good activity for a group to get involved in and contribute their ideas. If you use it in a meeting it’s best to ask members to prepare steps 1-2 in advance. Alternatively, you could create a poster for people to add their ideas.
Open the Activity booklet and click on Activity C1.
Your story can be shared digitally or physically using copies of archive materials as standalone features, incorporated with other materials to illustrate a story, or elements of them used to create new materials. These are just some of the ways you can do this:
Websites and social media - Images of your archive materials can be used to illustrate your organisation’s website and social media channels:
- An organisation history section in your webpages where you can share your story with people on a more personal level
- Social media platforms, like the currently popular Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, which are good for sharing your archives and engaging with people
- Blogs, vlogs, podcasts and videos where you can use a combination of archive images and recordings to illustrate written and spoken stories giving them extra depth
Press, media and publications - News and documentary programmes often use materials from the archives to illustrate stories. Whether you are writing press releases, magazine articles or creating your own publications, sharing images of archive materials will enliven nostalgic reactions when talking about the past.
Exhibition and presentation - Some organisations use copies of archive images to decorate interiors, such as pictures hung on walls or murals, to tell their story in an informal and engaging way. They are also used for more formal exhibitions or presentations for marketing.
Educational and community and public engagement resources - Working with schools and/or community groups to incorporate your archive materials into resources such as learning packs for curriculum subjects, reminiscence activities for people with dementia, or local history guides.
Creative works - Elements copied from archive material can be incorporated into creative works such as artwork, music, film, and drama, or archive materials can inspire new, totally different creative works. For example, archive-inspired co-creation of murals or sculptures to regenerate derelict spaces in a captivating way that tells the community's story.
These can be good projects for volunteers and some can help build positive relationships within communities and widen your reach, as well as contributing to the common good. The materials don’t have to be very old, you can celebrate something that happened just a month ago. New enterprises just starting out can use their archive materials to celebrate their achievements as they develop.
Toolkit tea break
Archivist’s example: spreadsheet of notable dates
This spreadsheet has been adapted from one used by Archivists to pinpoint suitable dates for sharing archive materials on social media.
Activity C2: creating a sharing plan
This activity will help you to identify opportunities for sharing your story and create a calendar to maximise its potential. It involves a bit of research but over time you will be able to add to your calendar and build your sharing plan.
Open the Activity booklet and click on Activity C2.
Jargon buster
Accession is a formal donation of materials to an archive. Several accessions with the same origins may be taken in over a period of time.
Accruals are expected future donations of materials to a collection.
Researcher is the name archive institutions give to a person who visits the archive to look through archive materials. They may be carrying out academic or personal research on a particular topic, looking for inspiration or just looking for the pleasure of seeing things that interest them.
Find out more about these and other terms in the Jargon buster.
Glasgow Caledonian University Archive Centre is a public-facing archive institution dedicated to the safe-keeping and management of archive material for long-term preservation and access. The Social Enterprise Collection (Scotland), otherwise known as SECS, was established in 2011 and is just one of the many collections held in the Archive Centre. The SECS holds records of Scottish social enterprises and support organisations as well as papers of people who worked in the sector.
The toolkit has helped you to create and care for your archive but there may come a time in the future when you will want to donate it to the SECS. There is often a natural time to do this, for example many of the materials currently held in the SECS have been donated by retired practitioners and some are from organisations that are no longer in operation. Some large and active organisations have a moving wall agreement with the Archive Centre and this enables them to donate their materials on a rolling basis, such as every ten years.
Donating your archive materials to the SECS can offer many benefits:
- Providing expertise and following best practice for the long-term preservation and management of archive material
- Opening up archival materials to a wider audience and professionally cataloguing them in a way that makes it easier for people to look for items of interest
- Ensuring that an organisation’s story is available for current and future generations even if the organisation itself is no longer in operation
Contact the Archive Centre if you want to know more about donating material.
