Re-Thinking and Re-Positioning Archives: Taking Archives to the Children

Abstract

The archival profession is in the process of re-orientation towards a post-custodial identity. One issue that is involved in this re-orientation is the "opening up" of archives to the public and attracting current and potential/new users. South African archives have done much during the past seventeen years to address the barriers to access created by the historical past, and the alienation from archives of most South Africans during the apartheid era. Public programming, or "outreach", however, is still not playing an important enough role in South African archives, especially when it comes to exposing children to archives. The importance of becoming involved in outreach towards children, and in particular, the importance of educational programmes for children is highlighted in this article. Reference is made to possible ways in which this can be addressed.

Keywords: Archives, Children and Archives, Educational Programmes, Public Programming, Outreach