Understanding Administrative Use and Users in University Archives

Abstract

Abstract:The users of institutional archives range from local and professional historians to lower-and upper-level administrators. In many cases, administrators are the primary user population. Past archival studies, however, have focused on users with principally a historical purpose. The lack of research is surprising since most archival programs rely on their parent institutions for funding. This study is an initial attempt to examine administrative use and users in a university archives setting. It raises some interesting questions concerning how administrators analyze primary sources, what types of finding aids are most appropriate, and how much interpretation archivists need to do. The research suggests that archivists should look at themselves less as the historical voice in an institution and more as part of the administrative team.

Participatory archive: towards decentralised curation, radical user orientation, and broader contextualisation of records management

“…Other user groups or even researchers of other scholarly disciplines have attracted considerably less attention. Gilliland and her colleagues (1998;1999) have studied archival records in elementary school contexts and, for instance, Yakel and Bost (1994) and Kostiainen et al (2003) have worked with administrators. Even in these cases, the notion of use has had a rather record-centric character.…”

Archives, Quo Vadis et Cum Quibus?: Archivists’ self-perceptions and perceptions of users of contemporary archives

“…Sundqvist (2015) reviewed 36 such studies identifying Duff and Yakel as most prolific authors with five publications each. Also Huvila (2008) found that the empirical approach to studying archival users has strengthened in the 2000's, sometimes focusing on the more usual expert user groups, such as historians (Duff, 2002;Duff & Johnson, 2002;Tibbo, 2002;Toms & Duff, 2002;Duff, Craig, & Cherry, 2004) and sometimes turning attention to non-experts, such as children (Gilliland-Swetland, 1998;Gilliland-Swetland, Kafai, & Landis, 1999) or administrative workers (Yakel & Bost, 1994;Kostiainen, Valtonen & Vakkari, 2003). Vilar andŠauperl (2014) also warn about a lack of serious systematic investigation of types, characteristics, needs and behavior of archival users -all of which should be taken into account when developing digital collections or contemplating archivistic competences.…”

Improving the user experience of professional researchers: Applying a user‐centered design framework in archival repositories

“…In 2005, Pugh wrote that professional archival users as a group (distinct from scholarly professional researchers), typically “expect considerable reference assistance” and “often work under time constraints.” (Pugh, 2005, p.47) In 1994, Elizabeth Yakel and Laura Bost synthesized their findings from a series of interviews conducted with administrative users of university archives, (a subset of professional researchers), in which participants even admitted to sacrificing better precision for time saved by having archival staff complete their research requests. (Yakel & Bost, 1994) Meeting deadlines and operating within budget are external constraints that exert considerable influence over the specific information needs and overall user experience of professional researchers in the archives.…”