Focusing on the needs of the end-user community

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Focusing on the needs of the end-user community

• Dr Elizabeth Hallam Smith
• Director of Public Services
• The National Archives, UK

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This presentation will cover

• What do archive users want?
• How well are we meeting their needs at present?
• The potential value of EAD and TEI in doing this
• How can we best realise this potential?

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What do archive users want?

• Source The National Archives (formerly the
  Public Record Office), Kew, London, UK
• Reader surveys 1994-2003
• Public services feedback
• Research for and with the LEADERS Project

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The National Archives website
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Overall statistics re TNA

• In 2002 The National Archives hosted 300,000
  onsite visits
• In 2002 there were 80 million page downloads from
  the website www.pro.gov.uk (now
  www.nationalarchives.gov.uk)
• Satisfaction ratings
• Onsite services rated as good or excellent by 94
• Online services rated as good or excellent by 85
• See Journal of the Society of Archivists, 24 (1),
  2003, pp. 35-53 for an overview of service
  enhancements

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Who are our users?The National Archives what
is the purpose of readers research?
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The National Archives readers research
interests
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Based on TNA experience do users want the
impossible?

• Access
• Rapid and simple access usually by topic
• Assurance that all sources have been covered
• Content
• Images of the records
• Transcriptions
• Validation
• Assurance of authenticity and accuracy
• Context
• Understanding of provenance catalogue data

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What dont they want?

• Complicated systems
• Jargon
• Being patronised
• Being made to feel inadequate
• Cybertrash e.g. genealogical scams

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Knowledge base of new onsite users 93
familiarity with research interest
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But 66 did not know HOW to find what they were
looking for
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Only 2 did not find anything and there were
other benefits too
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What online resources did TNA website users
consult?
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How well are we meeting their needs? Recent
academic research

• Good academic research on information-seeking
  behaviours of digital library users
• Less academic work on archive users
• LEADERS research a useful contribution
• Primarily History research project on
  information-seeking behaviours of university
  history professors
• almost half not using online materials
• most do not recognise or understand EAD

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Implications collectively we are

• not taking user requirements sufficiently into
  account
• not tailoring services to needs of different user
  segments
• not educating users
• not marketing to users
• Overall we are
• not optimising our assets

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The value of EAD and TEI

• Underpin what users want
• TEI is socially inclusive
• EAD
• supports cross searching
• allows users to reach beyond Google and into the
  Invisible Internet
• creates national and international networking
  opportunities e.g. A2A

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Where do we go next?

• Carry out more research into user needs by
  segments - and apply it!
• Improve catalogue front ends
• More linking of catalogues and images
• Better support for topic based searches
• Optimise benefits of EAD by developing more
  cross-searching and networks
• Better marketing of our products and services by
  user segments