Thanks to those who replied to my query this morning - further responses are
still welcomed.
This is an issue which is causing concern; others have been told to do
something similar and have identical problems with it. Two respondents
pointed out that the PSQG survey picks up on the ethnic issue, but not too
systematically - covering a very short period, being voluntary, and seeking
information on what everyone seems agreed is a very small user group, all it
needs is to be based on the wrong fortnight and it could easily miss every
ethnic minority user in an Office. It was suggested I flag up the issue to
the Data Protection list for feedback in that area, which I have done, but
without result so far. But a strong viewpoint was that the whole business is
getting out of hand; that it is not acceptable to ask people that sort of
question, that you couldn't guarantee they wouldn't amuse themselves at your
expense anyway, and that record office users are going to be those people
for whom the contents of the Office have some meaning - which in our case is
neither a recent immigrant from the Middle East, nor yet a family historian
whose family for the past three centuries have all lived in Lancashire.
True, there are issues surrounding the acquisition of sources reflecting the
changing ethnic makeup of the county, and the matter of ensuring that no one
is actively excluded from use of the service, but neither of these is
addressed by simple "bean-counting".
The problem remains that we and others are being asked to do something which
is (a) largely impossible in itself, and (b) unsuitable for purpose -
assuming the purpose is to prevent discrimination - in that the number of
people of any type walking through the door is not going to reflect how much
the Office welcomes them but how far the Office can provide what they
require. First acquire the material of interest, then ask whether people are
coming to use it - but of course that requires much greater resources which
our employers are not always willing to provide than simply counting heads.
Carl Boardman
Oxfordshire Record Office
Oxfordshire Record Office is a section of Cultural Services in Oxfordshire
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