October is Archives Month! Shannon Bowen Maier, SRMA Archives Month Coordinator, in celebration of this momentous occasion, will be acting as your personal publicist! Need help with a press release? Want publicity for your Archives Month event? Call Shannon! She will be sending announcements to regional public television stations, working with local newspapers, and scheduling airtime on weekend news programs. Shannon is committed to getting the word out that archives are an important source for reliable information to help citizens understand the past, shape the present, and plan for the future.

The Society of American Archivists also has great information about commemorating and celebrating Archives Month. At the Society’s web site, http://www.archivists.org/archivesmonth/, you can find tips about writing press releases with impact, planning events, and working effectively with the media. These are skills that are useful throughout the year, not just in October!

A simple way to spread the word about Archives Month is to download and print SRMA’s 2009 Archives Month poster, available here (PDF , 3.83 MB). Hang the poster in your reading room, the lobby of the local public library, take copies to schools, and maybe even the coffee shop downtown. You can check out other Archives Month posters at http://www.statearchivists.org/archivesmonth/.

Let Shannon help you raise awareness about your repository’s collections and programs. You can reach her at sebowen@uwyo.edu or 307-766-2579. Happy Archives Month!