The newspaper “Arkhivnye Vedomosti” as an element of the communication strategy of the Sverdlovsk region archives

Abstract

The development of information technologies contributed to the large-scale transformation of human civilization, influenced all aspects of society, including reconstituting the strategy for the development of archives as a public institution. The communication function of archival institutions and departments came to the fore from the shadows. The article uses the experience of the archival service of the Sverdlovsk region as an example to consider one of the channels of interaction between archivists and the external environment – the corporate publication “Arkhivnye Vedomosti”. The content analysis of all the issues of the publication allowed assessing the newspaper’s contribution to the overall corporate strategy of the regional archival service in terms of openness to society. It was revealed that over the 23 years of its existence, the publication has repeatedly changed its typological characteristics, demonstrating the changes in the communication strategy of the Sverdlovsk archives. New approaches required special competencies from archivists: the professionalism of the authors from among the archive employees increased, the genre range of the newspaper and its functions expanded. Having evolved from an organization newspaper to an image periodical, the “Arkhivnye Vedomosti” today remains a stable channel of communication, preserving the format of departmental press, bringing to the forefront the function of informing the readers about the current and future activities of Sverdlovsk archivists.