Publishing activities of state archives in Croatia as a promotional tool and in the context of public relations

Cilj je ovoga rada analizirati povijesni razvoj nakladničke djelatnosti državnih arhiva u Hrvatskoj te suvremeni proces upravljanja arhivskim izdavaštvom u kontekstu promotivnoga alata i odnosa s javnošću. Analiza povijesnoga razvoja nakladničke djelatnosti provedena je na temelju dostupne literature te dokumentacije pojedinih arhiva i Ministarstva kulture i medija. Istraživanje o suvremenom upravljanju nakladničkom djelatnošću provedeno je jednokratno putem upitnika u razdoblju od 2. do 7. ožujka 2022. godine. Analiza povijesnoga razvoja nakladničke djelatnosti rezultirala je ključnom spoznajom da su državni arhivi u Hrvatskoj prepoznali tehnike ranih modela odnosa s javnošću (tiskovne agenture i agenture javnoga informiranja) te ih pokušali implementirati u organizaciju vlastite nakladničke djelatnosti. Rezultati istraživanja suvremenoga procesa upravljanja izdavaštvom državnih arhiva u kontekstu promotivnoga alata i odnosa s javnošću ukazuju na potrebu njegove reorganizacije, posebice u fazi strateškoga planiranja i evaluacije, te daljnjega stimuliranja razvoja digitalnih inačica arhivskih publikacija.Archival public relations are defined as a complex communicational process (by focusing on the coordination of the public and private interests) whose purpose is supposed to manage the archives’ public image and, depending on the possibilities, support its marketing (advertising) activities. The special emphasis within analysing possibilities of the applicability of public relations in the activities of contemporary archives is put on publications, since they are one of the best known and  most popular archival programs. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the historical development of publishing activities of Croatian archives, as well as the contemporary managerial process of archival publishing as a promotional tool and in the context of the public relations. The analysis of the historical development of the publishing activities of Croatian archives had been based on the available literature, as well as documents of the individual archives and Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia. The research in the network of the state archives (regional archives and the Croatian State Archives) on managing the publishing activities had been conducted on a onetime basis via the questionnaire in the period from the 2nd to 7th March 2022. The main finding of the analysis is that the Croatian archives soon became aware of the techniques of early public relations’ models and tried to implement them to the publishing activities. The strategic planning of their publishing activities,including the analysis of preferences of archival public based on the continuing interpersonal communication between archives and users, as well as the analysis of the communication with potential media and wider general public, can be considered as the important segment of public relations, whose purpose ought to be part of the archival management. The specified models imply a two-way symmetry of the public relations. Due to the fact that already in the mid-20th century the planning of publishing activities included interpersonal communication with actual users of archival services, it implies an early implementation of informational-communicational aspects in the strategic planning of archival program activities meant for their users i.e. the attempt of integration of the discipline of the public relations in archival project management. The publishing activities within the primary tasks of the archival network of state archives in independent Republic of Croatia formally kept continuity based on the existing Archives and Archival Institutions Act. Publishing of archival publications is stimulated by users’ needs for better understanding and finding of archival records, as well as by archives’ endeavours to increase as much as possible the sales of their services. According to the available information on the websites of the Croatian archives, and catalogues of the National and University Library in Zagreb on their publications from 1991 to 2022 (published on their own or co-published with other institutions), it can be concluded that archival publishing activities have gone into full swing after democratic changes. Still, the publishing policy did not undergo major changes compared to the earlier period. After 1991 the publishing activities are still mostly focused on publication of archival sources with the aim of increasing their availability. Apart from that, the results of research concerning the contemporary archival publishing activities in Croatia as promotional tools and in the context of the public relations indicate the need for their  reorganisation, especially in the phase of strategic planning and  valuation, with additional stimulation of the development of digital versions of archival publications