Our visitor figures have been stable for the past 5 or 6 years, because we
already run at capacity in the searchrooms. We have, however, noticed an
increase in telephone enquiries in the last month, mainly from first time
family historians. These have not yet turned into visits, thereby
increasing our waiting list of 2-3 weeks for a searchroom place.
Last summer we employed someone to put the text of our guide to the
archives on our website. Shortly after he'd completed the work our website
hits increased 5 fold (Sept 1999). I put this down to random enquiries
from search engines. Not so, however, for most of these extra hits are
from people who put 'Borthwick Institute' into their enquiry. So it looks
like we're being specifically targetted. The problem is we can't know if
these are existing enquirers making more use of the new resources, or new
enquirers. In other words, could we trace the present upsurge in visitors
back to September 1999?
If we can, then one possibile explanation is that September is when new
family history and local history classes start. If this is a red herring,
then an increase after Christmas but before the current TV programmes
could be due to presents of Family history computer programmes - assuming
the increase is from genies, that is. It would be interesting to know from
repositories experiencing visitor increases if they are also experiencing
changes in their user profiles.
Just a footnote on Breaking the Seal. I thought that on the whole it gave
a very good impression of archives. It made them interesting, alive and
enjoyable. It showed the importance of central record keeping, but at the
same time made it clear that there is a wealth of locally and nationally
important material outside the PRO.
Chris
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Christopher Webb, Archivist
Borthwick Institute of Historical Research
University of York
St Anthony's Hall
Peasholme Green
York YO1 2PW
UK
Tel: 01904-642315 e-mail [log in to unmask]
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