Old myths in new clothes: Expectations of archives users

Archivaria

Volumn 45, Issue , 1998, Pages 118-126

  Craig, Barbara L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77953916795     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. "Archives Practices in Sewing Researchers, " Session 4 "Archives and Their Public. "
2. Doug Saunders, "People Who Slip Through the Net, " Globe and Muil(22 August 1997).
3. Andrew Nikifomk, "The Digerati are Bluffing, " Globe and Mail (4 October 1997).
4. The posting to the discussion list, Archives and Archivists included the following topics: "WWW Patron Inquiry, " "End user searching and EAD, " "7/97 Web Site Survey-Medium Long, " "Manuscript Use Studies, " and "References Services-Common Complaint."
5. Also see "electronicldigital expectations, " a series of postings on the Archives and Archivists list in the late summer of 1997.
6. I am grateful to a reviewer for directing my attention to Mark Brogan's "Regulation and the Market: a Micro-Economic Analysis of Strategies for Electronic Archives Management, " Archives and Manuscripts 22, no. 2 (1994). pp. 384-94. Brogan's discussion of economic theory suggests a new perspective on archives functions. Its implications are less developed than Frank Upward's exploration of archives which was conceived, using as its model, sociologist Anthony Giddens's structuration theory of society. Nevertheless, it bears discussion largely because of the dominance of economic ideas in the expanding information business.
7. See for example, Frank Upward and Sue McKemmish, eds., Recordkeeping for accountability (1994). pp. 7.4748.
8. The strong showing of new channels dedicated to biography and history should alert us to the heightened need to educate the public, vigorously and vocally, on the differences between the nature of authority in archives and the nature of authority in the artistic creation of author, editor, or promoter.
9. See Terry Cook, "Viewing the World Upside Down: Reflections on the Theoretical Underpinnings of Archives Public Services, " Archivaria 31(Winter 1990-91). pp. 123-34.
10. See Barbara L. Craig, "What Are the Clients? Who Are the Products?'The Future of Archives Public Services in Perspective, " Archivaria 31 (Winter 1990-91). pp. 135-41.
11. The e-mail reference survey was posted to the discussion list Archives and Archivists under the heading "E-mail reference questionnaire (long), " 4 May 1997.
12. Paul Conway, Partners in Research (Pittsbugh, 1995).
13. The survey asked the history of medicine community for information about their use of existing guides and their preferences for information in any future new guides or research tools. See "What Research Tools do Historians of Canadian Medicine Use? What Do They Want and Need for the Future? Report and Analysis of a Survey, 1996-1997, " Canadian Bulletin of Medical History (in press 1998).
14. A research study of users' preferences in the display of archival description was recently undertaken by Wendy Duff of the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto. [See the article by Wendy Duff and Penka Stoyanova, "Transforming the Crazy Quilt: Archival Displays from a Users' Point of View, " in this issue of Archivaria-Ed.]
15. Fred R. Reenstjema, 17 September 1997 posting to the discussion list Archives and Archivists concerning adeptlinept service and satisfiedldissatisfied searchers.