Manuscript Collections on the Web, SPEC Kit 307 (October 2008)

Walton, Donnelly Lancaster

SPEC Kit 307: Manuscript Collections on the Web · 105
“Almost all of our reference requests come to us via e-mail and specifically cite the finding aid that the researcher
has consulted online.”
“Computers are available to patrons in the reading room. From there, they can browse our online finding aids.
This tends to be the first place that our researchers turn. In some cases, after searching online, they use our card
catalog located in the reading room. We do not provide paper copies of online finding aids.”
“Knowledge gained by casual observations of reference staff.”
“Online finding aids are seen by more but not necessarily put to better or more significant use.”
“Online information is used more, both the EAD finding aids and the collection descriptions on the Web site.”
“The types of reference requests we receive indicate that the online finding aids are used more often than in-
house finding aids.”
“There are no numbers to back this up at the moment but it standard reference practice to go to the online
finding aids first, then to the paper as the next level of research if something isn’t found.”
“This is only an impression that I have, based on the increase in the number of e-mail requests and long-distance
users.”
“We don’t produce paper finding aids anymore. We use the online finding aids in-house.”
“We have no in-house finding aids available to the public. All our finding aids are either online or in published
form as monographs.”
“We have not assessed the use of in-house finding aids this answer reflects an impression.”
Yes, in-house finding aids are used more
“Impression of staff involved.”
“It is hard to answer this question because you don’t define use. Since we do not provide container lists with
our online finding aids, to use our collections, it is necessary to visit the onsite versions or request that specific
container lists be e-mailed or mailed. We get lots of casual and preliminary browsing to the collections area of our
Web site, but would be difficult to correlate this use with the use that leads to a request for material.”
“Only because most of our collections don’t have online finding aids.”
“Presently there are more print-only finding aids than online finding aids. Outside users tend to rely on online
finding aids, while onsite researchers rely on in-house finding aids.”
“We have many more in-house finding aids right now so their usage statistics (if we had them) would be higher.”
No, they are used about the same
“About the same number of researchers use collections without online finding aids, as use collections with online
finding aids (i.e., some collections have only online aids, others have only in-house aids).”
“Since we don’t track the use of in-house finding aids, we can’t really tell.”

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SPEC Kit 307: Manuscript Collections on the Web (October 2008) resources

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SPEC Kit 307: Manuscript Collections on the Web · 105
“Almost all of our reference requests come to us via e-mail and specifically cite the finding aid that the researcher
has consulted online.”
“Computers are available to patrons in the reading room. From there, they can browse our online finding aids.
This tends to be the first place that our researchers turn. In some cases, after searching online, they use our card
catalog located in the reading room. We do not provide paper copies of online finding aids.”
“Knowledge gained by casual observations of reference staff.”
“Online finding aids are seen by more but not necessarily put to better or more significant use.”
“Online information is used more, both the EAD finding aids and the collection descriptions on the Web site.”
“The types of reference requests we receive indicate that the online finding aids are used more often than in-
house finding aids.”
“There are no numbers to back this up at the moment but it standard reference practice to go to the online
finding aids first, then to the paper as the next level of research if something isn’t found.”
“This is only an impression that I have, based on the increase in the number of e-mail requests and long-distance
users.”
“We don’t produce paper finding aids anymore. We use the online finding aids in-house.”
“We have no in-house finding aids available to the public. All our finding aids are either online or in published
form as monographs.”
“We have not assessed the use of in-house finding aids this answer reflects an impression.”
Yes, in-house finding aids are used more
“Impression of staff involved.”
“It is hard to answer this question because you don’t define use. Since we do not provide container lists with
our online finding aids, to use our collections, it is necessary to visit the onsite versions or request that specific
container lists be e-mailed or mailed. We get lots of casual and preliminary browsing to the collections area of our
Web site, but would be difficult to correlate this use with the use that leads to a request for material.”
“Only because most of our collections don’t have online finding aids.”
“Presently there are more print-only finding aids than online finding aids. Outside users tend to rely on online
finding aids, while onsite researchers rely on in-house finding aids.”
“We have many more in-house finding aids right now so their usage statistics (if we had them) would be higher.”
No, they are used about the same
“About the same number of researchers use collections without online finding aids, as use collections with online
finding aids (i.e., some collections have only online aids, others have only in-house aids).”
“Since we don’t track the use of in-house finding aids, we can’t really tell.”

Help

104 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
“We do not track individual digital finding aids, nor finding aids as a group. The Libraries has some general tools
for counting and analyzing ‘hits’ of files, and this might give us some information. Since our finding aids have
been harvested by any number of search engines and other projects, however, I doubt there is a realistic way to
gather much useful information about how and by whom they are used. Our perception, however, is that where
in-house finding aids were rarely sought out, when we now place a finding aid online, we very frequently have in
our in-boxes, within a matter of days, a reader request relating to the collection. This does not _always_ happen,
of course, but frequently enough to suggest that online finding aids are found in ways that in-house documents
could not and were not found.”
“We observe at a high level, the number of hits to our online finding aid pages. In January 2008, the top 100
pages visited on our Web site included 5,000 visits to the finding aids. (This does not include hits to subsequent
levels of the finding aids.)”
“We use a statistic database to keep track off finding aid usage.”
“Web logs record which documents (finding aids) were opened and how often.”
“Web page statistics through the Online Archive of California. Of course, through Web statistics you cannot tell
how a person is using the finding aid, or if the finding aid was even useful for their informational needs.”
“Web Tracker.”
“Web tracking.”
“Web tracking software allows us to see general Web statistics for all online finding aids. This provides some
vague but useful information.”
“Web usage logs provide a gross picture of discovery and usage.”
“We’ve just implemented Google analytics in Arizona Archives Online and we look forward to seeing data.”
“When patrons request a collection in the reference room they are asked how they found out about a collection.
We record these answers. At this point, this is the only usage tracking we are doing.”
30. Does there appear to be any difference in the frequency of use of in-house and online finding
aids? N=41
Yes, online finding aids are used more 33 81%
Yes, in-house finding aids are used more 5 12%
No, they are used about the same 3 7%
Selected Comments from Respondents
Yes, online finding aids are used more
“All finding aids are online.”

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SPEC Kit 307: Manuscript Collections on the Web (October 2008) resources

106 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
Other
“Can’t evaluate this yet.”
“Difficult to assess.”
“I was not aware until I began this survey that these online usage stats are available, so I cannot say which are
used more.”
“Impossible to determine in the absence of statistics for use of online finding aids. Researchers in reading room
use both. Researchers who contact the reading room by mail, e-mail, or telephone are directed to online finding
aids whenever possible.”
“Unable to determine because the usage is not tracked.”
“We do not have in-house finding aids.”
Additional Comments
31. Please enter any additional information regarding manuscript collections at your library that may
assist the author in accurately analyzing the results of this survey. N=20
Selected Comments from Respondents
“A preliminary in-house box list is done for each collection to allow us to place collections into storage. We have
pretty good control over our collections in-house. However, only 9.4% of our collections are fully processed.”
“At Notre Dame all modern manuscripts are held in the University Archives, which is administratively separate
from the University Library system.”
“At our institution we consider any unpublished materials that aren’t official university records to be manuscript
collections. Our manuscript collections are diverse—we have everything from plantation records to Congressional
papers to women’s club records.”
“At Western we do not formally segregate university records from MSS collections in the archives so some
arbitrary decisions were made in responding for physical content (especially unprocessed) and time devoted to
MSS work by staff.”
“Because of the wide variety of types and levels of inventories no effort was made to count those that included
series.”
“Comment regarding question 11: All have been converted we don’t have legacy finding aids at UCSD.”
“Given the decentralized nature of special collections here, it is difficult to report accurately the investment of staff
resources in processing manuscripts. Many small departments have many things to do.”
“Historical Collections and Labor Archives is one unit of the Special Collections Library at Penn State-University
Park. With a total of nearly 950 collections, we are the smallest unit. Special Collections has developed a
database and is currently committing staff to describing all collections at the collection level in order to automate

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Page 9Survey Results click to expand contents

Page 111Representative Documents click to expand contents

Page 113Manuscript Collection Web Sites click to expand contents

Page 137Finding Aid Web Sites click to expand contents

Page 163Web Sites of Collaborative Online Resources click to expand contents

Page 179Arrangement and Description Guidelines click to expand contents

Page 187Processing for the Web click to expand contents

Page 195Selected Resources click to expand contents

SPEC Kit 307: Manuscript Collections on the Web (October 2008) resources

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SPEC Kit 307: Manuscript Collections on the Web (October 2008) resources

SPEC Kit 307: Manuscript Collections on the Web (October 2008) resources