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Connect to the mission of your institution .

Working with Patrons Presentation Society of Indiana Archivists Fall Workshop Alison Stankrauff October 7, 2011. Understanding Your Patrons Means Understanding Your Institution, Its Constituent Bodies/Customers. . Connect to the mission of your institution .

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Connect to the mission of your institution .

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  1. Working with Patrons Presentation Society of Indiana Archivists Fall WorkshopAlison StankrauffOctober 7, 2011

  2. Understanding Your Patrons Means Understanding Your Institution, Its Constituent Bodies/Customers. • Connect to the mission of your institution. • Meet with and get familiar with the ‘head honchos’ of your institution – your administrators, directors, deans, etc. • Get familiar and friendly with your customers – all your customers. If you have frequent patrons, consider meeting them outside the archives for coffee, etc.

  3. Understanding Your Surrounding Community. • This means understanding how your institution fits into the community. - And if it does not mesh, that’s an opportunity to find ways to reach out to the community at large and let them know about the archives! • Connect the mission of your institution with the mission of the archives – and just how these might be important to – and of interest to – the community. • This is, again, a potential outreach opportunity.

  4. Understanding Your Virtual Community. • How do people reach you virtually? • Are there ways that you can enhance and grow this access and connection? • Consider social media, blogs.

  5. Figure Out Who You’re NOT Serving – But SHOULD Be – and Reach Out to Them. • This may be underrepresented segments of your community or your user-base. • This is an opportunity to create interest – and allies – for the archives!

  6. Reaching out– the Importance of Meeting Your Patrons Where They Are, When They’re There. • Doing a general demographic survey • Assessing new user expectations and impediments to use • Assessing users’ Information Seeking Behavior • Use of finding aids • Faculty educational goals and methods • Efficacy of archival literacy sessions • Metadata and presentation standards for digital collections.

  7. The Reference Interview – and how it may differ from that in a Library setting. • Much of the reference interview per se is the same from an archival to a library setting. • But one way that it differs is that you as the archivist can really engage your patron(s) in a detailed conversation about the collection – and look over the finding aid with the researcher. • In asking them what they need/want to get at, ascertain if the finding aid answers their needs. If not, there may be related collections that may complement/supplement your patron’s information needs.

  8. Develop the Best Methods to Reach Out to Your Patrons and Make Pleasant and Comfortable Research Experiences for Them. • If your patrons don’t understand the finding aid, this is an opportunity to make a deeper connection – and understand how they seek out information – and try to reach them at that point. • Something to consider is to offer access to unprocessed material. I do this pretty regularly in my shop. This is a great opportunity, too, to learn more about the collection from the user’s point of view – and thus structure the finding aid or inventory accordingly.

  9. How Key it is That We Stay On Top of – and Using Outreach and Research Methods. • Very key! • Understanding fully who our core customer base is already is important. • Understanding who is not part of that base – but should be – is just as important. • You can accordingly develop outreach to those already well-served and those not yet served – using traditional methods as well as reaching out in new ways.

  10. Our Patrons Can Become Allies in Many Respects – Including Advocacy for Funding – on Local, State, National Levels. • If we’re reaching people with their needs met – they will be grateful, and want this access to continue. Often their testimony/letters/emails/telephone calls to decision makers are the strongest when funding matters come up, etc.

  11. Staying Current With Those Populations via Survey Methods – and then REALLY Implementing the Results. • This may entail doing things like: - Restructuring how we present our finding aids - Bending some policies (at times!) to meet users’ convenience levels - Changing hours for best and most convenient access.

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