Chapter 3: Identifying Uses and Users of Archives

Here is the breakdown for chapter three of Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts by Mary Jo Pugh.

Uses of Archives

• Primary Uses of Records
• Secondary Uses of Records

- Informational Value

- Evidential Value

- Intrinsic Value

Understanding the users of archives

First, let's address some of the vocabulary presented.

The primary value of records is the value of a record created for its original purpose, such fiscal accountability

Secondary value is the value of a record beyond its original purpose. There are three types of secondary value; informational, evidential, and intrinsic.

Informational value describes the value of the information that records contain about people, events, objects, and places.

Evidential value refers to the value of the evidence that records provide about their creators and their activities.

Intrinsic value describes the value that records have as artifacts, tangible to links to our past and heritage.

Understanding the User

Staff Members of an Organization

Corporate or organizational archives are preserved so that the institution can understand its history and have sources of current and past policies. Archives help solve problems and prevent problems from becoming reoccurring events. These archives document infrastructure, legal issues, marketing, public relations, development, administration, and institutional memory.

Staff members of an institution using an archive usually require extensive reference help and are usually seeking an answer to a specific question or solution to a specific problem. It is critical that a reference archivist be aware of the contents of these collections and understand how to gain access to these records.

Scholars

Though it assumed that scholars are the largest population of users in archives, they actually make up a small percentage of the total user population.

To assist scholars reference archivists need to undersand that nature of scholarly inquiry, research methodologies, and the use of archives in all disciplines. Reference archivists should understand that scholars come to an archive to usually survey a large body of materials. Scholars also often enter an archive seeking an individual item or collection that might be cited in another scholarly work, so it is important the archivists understand how to retrieve these sources from the information cited.

Students

Not all academic research is conducted by experienced scholars. Students make up a large population of users, especially at university and manuscript archives. Students are an important population of user for archives. It is crucial for reference archivists to communicate the value of archives to these young scholars. The more people an archive can reach, the more important archives will be seen in our society.

A reference archivist must also be prepared to handle a variety student inquiries. Students working on a graduate dissertation or an undergraduate paper will approach the reference archivist for assistance. Patience is key in dealing with students who might not have a developed research strategy. Explaining the sources of archival materials to students might also be necessary to those inexperienced with archival research.

Genealogists

Genealogy is a very popular hobby in America and as a result, has increased the use of archives. Genealogists are seeking information about family members. Reference archivists will have an excellent opportunity to educated genealogists about archives. Again, it is important to deploy patience when dealing with this user who might not be experienced in researching archival materials. It is important to archivists to become familiar with resources that genealogists are likely to use, as those will be commonly requested. Perhaps an archive should microfilm a heavily used collection or allow some materials to be housed in the reading rooms due to frequent use.

While it is important to understand the different types of users that an archive might experience, it must always be remembered that all of these users are information seekers.

It is vital for archivists to understand the collections they house and the resources available for information retrieval. Not all information needed is in the form of a physical document. Perhaps the archive has an extensive web posting of Executive Board minutes. A user might not need the original document to obtain the information they are seeking. Finding aids can also confirm whether the information needed is even contained with the archive itself.

Overall, a reference archivist must be prepared to handle queries from experienced and unexperienced users. A thorough knowledge of the holdings and retrieval resources is needed to best serve the user populations. It is important to be aware of resources that have a high usage rate for certain user populations. It should never be forgotten that an archive exists to serve these information seekers.