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Friends
of Kentucky Public Archives, Inc.
The Friends of Kentucky Public Archives, Inc., is a
group of private citizens concerned with helping the
Public Records Division of Kentucky's Department for
Libraries and Archives fulfill its role as a vital information
link between people and government. The Friends organization
supports the management, preservation, and responsible
use of Kentucky's public records and serves as an advocate
for the Kentucky State Archives, which the division
manages.
 When
the Friends organization was founded in 1983, it was
with the idea of helping the division more effectively
carry out its goals and to help with things the division
couldn't do with limited government funds alone. A special
goal was to carry to a broader public the message about
the remarkable wealth of our public archives, the variety
of our State Archives' holdings, and their exciting
potential for research use. Over the past decade, Friends
members have carried out this mission in a variety of
ways, by:
-
 creating
the Thomas D. Clark Endowment Fund to provide internships
in archival administration at the State Archives and,
through this program, to assure the education and
training of those who will protect and preserve Kentucky's
extensive archival and manuscript holdings in future
years;
- sponsoring
the annual Kentucky Archives Institute, to introduce
citizens to Kentucky's historical records and their
research use;
- securing
grant funds for the State Archives for needed equipment
and special program support;
conducting more than twenty regional workshops held
throughout the state, to help communities and individuals
discover and celebrate their own pasts;
- sponsoring
special lectures and exhibits to acquaint the public
at first hand with this remarkable documentary legacy;
working jointly with other organizations to encourage
teachers to make imaginative use of archival resources
in the classroom, through the KERA reforms; and by
- creating
an annual Public Archives Symposium where scholars
share the fruits of their research and the general
public and discuss the way they use archival records
in their work.
 The
Friends have also created a program to recognize outstanding
contributions by government officials to the management
and preservation of public records in the Commonwealth,
knowing that there is a vital link between officials
who create and manage public records in government offices
and archivists who subsequently preserve and make these
records available for research.
The Friends
need you to join with them in this important work, as
stewards of Kentucky's irreplaceable documentary heritage.
You can support the preservation, wider use, and sound
management of our Kentucky archives. Please join and
ask your Friends who love Kentucky history to join,
too!
For further
information about the Friends, please write to P. O.
Box 4224, Frankfort, KY 40604, or, through the department,
call 502-564-8300, ext. 252.
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