Impact of Internet-based
Discovery Tools on Use and Users
of Archives*
regionale clusters die hun collecties in gezamenlijkheid ontsluiten, zoals de
Delftse erfgoedinstellingen1, en presenteren instellingen zich op het internet
met virtuele vraagcentra, zoals in het project Leidse Poort. Daarmee komen veel
belovende mogelijkheden binnen handbereik van convergentie, samenwerking
en integratie met andere kennisterreinen. De partners buiten de erfgoedwereld
staan al klaar."2
The advent of the Internet has increased the amount of information concerning
archival agencies and records that is publicly available. Whether this develop
ment has made primary sources more accessible is debatable. Accessibility in this
case refers not only to physical issues of availability of descriptions or even
digital copies of archival records, but also to intellectual and cognitive abilities
required to make effective use of this information about primary sources. For
example, archival finding aids, the primary descriptive tools used to provide
summary and logistical information about archival and manuscript materials,
can seem arcane and technical for novice and expert archival users alike.
Furthermore, displays of surrogates for primary sources vary considerably from
place to place making it difficult for users to recognize common information
elements. The archival researcher's ability to access information about primary
sources on the web exceeds the accessibility of their representations.
The accessibility issue is significant because the web has also signaled a shift
from access to primary sources at a physical repository where they were
intellectually mediated or interpreted by a reference archivist to a situation
where indexes as well as actual archival documents are displayed with minimal
context, few explanatory notes, and no mediation. On the web, human media
tion by an archivist between the researcher and primary sources is not directly
available.
This paper draws on recent research by the author and other researchers to
examine how users identify and locate primary sources, user's understanding
and facility with networked and analog archival access tools, and how archivists
might assist researchers to become experts at using archives. This research
demonstrates why accessibility is so hard and explores some of the archival
implications in the areas of the design of access tools and systems and the
development of archival user education programs. This paper is organized into
four sections: 1) the research and the reference processes, 2) archival
researchers, 3) archival automated systems and the representations they deliver
and 4) what happens when processes, people, and systems interact in the
networked environment. In each of these areas, the factors influencing
accessibility will be discussed.
ONDERZOEKERS IN EEN DIGITALE ONDERZOEKSOMGEVING
1 Geïntegreerde en thematische ontsluiting van de Collectie Delft, een samenwerking tussen het gemeente
archief, de stedelijke musea en de archeologische dienst, http://collectie.delft.nl.
2 Raad voor Cultuur, "eCultuur: van i naar e. Advies over de digitalisering van cultuur en de implicaties
voor cultuurbeleid" (z. pl. 2003) 19.
150
ELIZABETH YAKEL
Reprinted from Comma. International Journal on Archives 2003.2-3, 191-200.
151
