Career Conversations: Disability and Hiring

In my experience, librarians believe they try very hard to be aware and supportive of people with differing abilities, both physical and intellectual. Our successes in this area tend to be public facing, with detailed attention paid to construction of public spaces, design of accessible online content, and creation of inclusive public programming. We talk about library services and outreach to people with disabilities—the web pages, articles, and blog posts out there are legion. Yet when it comes time to make hiring changes within our ranks, inclusivity doesn’t happen. While I genuinely believe we want to support diversity in hiring, we fall short.

Dyslexia-friendly fonts: Using Open Dyslexic to increase exhibit access

In two recent exhibits at Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University, we made the decision to try to increase the level of access to both the objects and their explanatory texts, for patrons who suffer from dyslexia. One of our then-student workers, herself dyslexic, proposed to library administration that our exhibits would be more welcoming if we had a way to provide for dyslexics and ease their exhibit experience. We agreed that this was an excellent idea and, in fact, kicked ourselves for not having thought of it earlier. We present this small summary of our experience in order that other institutions might see it as a useful case study for adapting their own exhibits or public programming to meet the needs of dyslexic patrons and visitors.

Preserving Memory Through Branding

This chapter examines the role of museum brands as the connective tissue of several museum activities, including advocacy, promotion and public programming. Albeit broadly examined with reference to businesses, branding is rarely looked at in the museum context. By providing a review of the literature on museum branding, supported by extracts from interviews with museums managers conducted in the 2008-2018 period, the authors emphasize how the role of brands has progressively become more critical in the museum context and how brand management processes are increasingly developed in order to support museum activities. The chapter emphasizes how museums are not only institutions aimed at preserving their collections, but also organizations that should build an active relationship with their publics. Brands are, therefore, described as relational tools that can help museums to manage the relationship with their different stakeholders, including donors and funders. Managerial implications and future directions are outlined.

Use of Public Programming Strategies in Promoting Access to Documentary Heritage at Zimbabwe National Archives

Archival institutions have a potential to transform the socioeconomic and political development of a people. It is therefore critical for them to be visible and accessible. To this effect, public programming emerges as a critical archival function performed by archivists to enhance the visibility and utilisation of archives. Through a grounded theory research approach, this study established that the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ) performs a plethora of public programming activities to improve the visibility of the institution in the public domain. The potential of public programming activities to improve the utilisation of the archives at NAZ was found wanting as the institution lacked a planned schedule of outreach activities. This explains why visits to the research room were dwindling, hence the need for archivists to be proactive in reaching out to the people. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate public programming as the cornerstone to achieving better recognition and subsequent use of documentary heritage.

African Heritage Isn't ‘Dead'

Memory institutions collect, arrange, describe and preserve collections for the benefit of the community. While the drive is hinged on the desire to promote accessibility and use of heritage assets, memory institutions' approach to heritage management may condition institutions to be responsible for the erasure of some aspects of the heritage. Studies have demonstrated that memory institutions, preserve as well as give access and usage of the collected heritage to the world. It is argued that without strategies of having the heritage consumed, memory institutions risk being redundant. Using some lessons from the BaTonga of Zimbabwe, this chapter outlines the lived and performed heritage in the context of discourses of advocacy, outreach and public programming strategies. It is argued that promotion and funding of memory institutions should be very conscious of the lived heritage which plays a very significant role in defining and promoting the heritage as well as institutions themselves.

A Framework for Advocacy, Outreach and Public Programming in Public Libraries in Africa

Public libraries are regarded as partners in the development process in Africa, yet they bemoan the fact that they are not adequately supported both by their principals in terms of resources and recognition, and by their users in terms of usage levels that justify their existence. This chapter presents a review of literature on the advocacy, outreach and public programming carried out in public libraries. The thesis advanced is that it is through these processes that public libraries can engender the support they require. However, advocacy and public programming can only be effectively carried out where libraries have reached out to communities to provide relevant services that are informed by their context and needs. The themes arising from the review suggest a framework for public libraries that includes five areas, namely, strategy and leadership, partnership and collaboration, community engagement and involvement, assessment and reporting, and equity and social inclusiveness.

Collaboration on Public Programming by Memory Institutions in Botswana

Public memory institutions such as libraries, archives and museums (LAMs) are mandated to preserve the cultural and documentary heritage of their nations for posterity. Such preservation is not an end in itself but the means to make holdings in their care, regardless of format, accessible to the public. However, studies have revealed that although LAMs are annually funded and they may also have rich accessible collections, they are underutilised and generally invisible. Funding from national coffers has dwindled since the global economic recession and the LAMs experience difficulties in attracting and retaining users. This chapter seeks to determine strategies deployed by LAMs to increase usage of their collections, establish the benefits of LAMs public programming and highlight challenges encountered in public programming. Also described in this chapter are some factors to consider when memory institutions undertake public programming initiatives in a collaborative manner. The data collected through desktop research was analysed using content analysis.

Moving Forward and Making a Difference in Archival Institutions Through a Multifaceted Approach to Public Programming

Traditionally, archival institutions neglected building relationships with their constituencies and focused on other operational functions. There are number of strategies that can be used to build such relationships, including public programming. Effective public programming strategies depend on sound public programming planning, appropriate research strategies, and ethical principles. It is evident that attempts to build relationships between the archives and their constituencies are a recent phenomenon in Africa. In fact, it seems to be an afterthought both to practitioners and scholars. Building relationships with users will make memory institutions visible and successful. Public programming, with its focus on the public that the organisation serves, is one of the tools that may be used by memory institutions such as archives to bring the archives to the society and the society to the archives.