It was in Terry Eastwood’s class on Archival Public Services that I chose to make a presentation on users of archives. I was curious about the type of requests made. In doing the research, I noticed that the literature on the subject of user groups is extremely sparse. Within that small body of work, three main categories of archival literature on users can be discerned: articles that make assertions regarding who archival users are without data to back up the claims; articles written about specific and identified user groups; and articles that examine various means of increasing use of archives. While I won’t bore you with an examination of my readings, it did appear to me that information regarding users of archives is woefully inadequate,if not entirely absent. Therefore, I decided that when the opportunity was right, I would prepare and present a user study, with the hope that others would begin to disseminate their own findings.

At the White Rock Museum & Archives, where I am now the archivist, I have a minimal budget. Therefore, when I assign resources to various projects, it is imperative that I meet as many user needs as possible. It seemed obvious that in order to assign resources appropriately, I needed to first identify the patrons, and determine whether their needs are being adequately met.

On January 1, 2002, I began to track patron requests with the express purpose of compiling and disseminating the data. I am not going to share the success rate of answering requests, nor the time needed. Instead, I am sharing the type of requests I received.

To prepare for the study, I created a new user request form with a note indicating that my institution was conducting a study of user’s research topics, and requesting their consent for participation. Over the course of 2002, I received 106 user requests, 92 of which indicated the patrons’ consent to participation – a rate of 87%. (Institutional staff and volunteers were not included in the study).

The types of requests were as follows:

a) 18 % (17/92) of the requests had a genealogy focus. Genealogy is defined as the search for information about relatives in order to further the researcher’s understanding of his/her family tree.

b) 32% (30/92) of the requests were regarding a specific building/location/geographical feature/monument (such as the train station, a hotel, or a business). Of the 30 requests, six were from people tracing the history of a specific home not necessarily theirs.

c) 38% (35/90) of the requests were of a topical nature. Topical research is defined as information on a general topic, such as social housing or women. Of the 35 requests, four were requests for information on the history of White Rock in general, and seven patrons indicated they were doing research for school projects (at primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels).

d) 4% (4/92) of the requests were for assistance in locating a person thought to be still living. Such requests – often being from former residents wishing to re-connect with friends and acquaintances, rather than being directed at family history – did not meet the definition of genealogical research used for this study.

e) 8% (7/92) of the requests were from people looking to have copies of images they believed were at the Archives.

Note: Where a single request could be assigned to more than one category, multiple entries were to be made. In the result, only one patron’s request required this treatment.

While the scope of this study was preliminary and limited, I believe that it has provided some useful information. I would like to see other repositories share their statistics in this manner; such an exchange of information can help us, as archivists, determine who our users are in comparison to other institutions. This can enable us to better meet user needs, look at trends in users over time, and perhaps identify user groups we have not previously identified. Only by reaching out to our patrons can archival institutions create an higher profile, and survive into the future.

Back to Table of Contents

© 2003 Archives Association of British Columbia