Comments compliments and complaints

This is a summary of your comments, compliments and complaints about our service from January - June 2011.

Numerous one word compliments such as 'helpful' are not listed here. This section is devoted to detailed feedback.

All forms: visitors’ book, feedback forms, letters/e-mails, Public Service Quality Group survey comments

Service in general – Total: 27

• I think that the staff are brilliant. I have been visiting the searchroom to scan thousands of newspaper glass negatives for my website. Since 2005 I have spent many many days there (15000 images scanned). I have been able to listen and observe. The staff are always very pleasant and very very helpful, but more importantly they have so so much detailed knowledge. I am amazed that they can remember so much about local (and elsewhere) history and where to find the appropriate information. This sort of knowledge is irreplaceable and so so helpful to the community. In these difficult times I hope that the powers that be realise this. Also, looking to the future, I think that more online terminals should be provided for visitors to use. I know that people can access the archive website at home, but it would sometimes be very helpful to have access in the searchroom in order to follow up - a lead on the day as it were.
• Just a thank you very much for such an informative visit!
• Staff are always very helpful and offer help with finding information
• Very helpful staff and knowledgeable
• Staff always very friendly and extremely helpful
• Excellent service - have visited other archives including Kew, and this is by far the best and most helpful
• Staff extremely friendly and helpful - thank you
• Most excellent customer service. Could not have been more helpful
• I always find the staff to be very helpful and knowledgeable - making searches fast and efficient
• The archive service has enabled me to research and claim several rights of way in the county of Bedfordshire. It is an excellent and much valued service
• We are fortunate to have such a good Archives and Records Service in Bedford. There is a dedicated team of knowledgeable and helpful staff. I can't praise them too highly. They seem to take a flexible, considered approach to organising their work. They always seem busy, but are never too busy to help. It is important that Archives and Records continue to be funded. Not only as a source of interest for many retired people doing family history but as sources of information about the past, to support research into local and national history and remind us how lucky we are today. Also to support enquiries into landscape and the built environment, for research or legal enquiries. I would like to see opening hours extended, but realise that in the current economic climate this is not possible.
• Under current economic climate to remain open for use of public is main priority
• I use a lot of archives and records offices. In comparison with other local authority RO's, BLARS is top for helpfulness, friendliness and service, and depth of information in calendars and online catalogues, but low on physical environment
• You do a great job! :o)
• I have always found the staff helpful and the surroundings congenial. Long may you continue to offer this excellent service
• Staff very friendly and accommodating/learned of subject matter - long may it continue
• Very helpful and knowledgeable staff
• I was warmly received at the reception desk, I explained what I required and was shown to the area. I did not have to wait a long time and the service was efficient with a smile.
• You have made me cry with tears of joy and sadness combined. Thank you so much for helping me find my mother[‘s grave]. I will be coming to England in the near future and will visit her grave.
• I just thought that I would send you a quick email to say thank you for all the help that you gave me with the research I have been making into my Great Grandfather. Thanks again for all your help and advice, it really was appreciated. My Grandmother was really pleased with the photos I took when I gave them to her for Christmas. (comprehensive military and other FH carried out for Christmas present for relative)
• It has obviously been a very complicated problem to research & I am most grateful form your hard work – it is obvious that I would have struggled to find anything had I been to the Archives myself! (Family history enquiry)
• Thank you for all your help – I managed to confirm some dates & find new things to check out. Very helpful staff & I found it quite easy to use all the facilities. But need more time! (feedback form)
• Very friendly staff. Eternally patient and helpful! Many thanks (feedback form)
• I have been using your family history research services for the past six months or so. The person assigned to my family history research request was Ms. Lynn Scadding. Ms Scadding was an absolute wealth of information. Her research reports were very professionally done and incredibly informative. You have a real gem in having an employee such as Ms. Scadding. She made this family history research experience a joy! Thank you so much!
• Trevor was ever so helpful and gave us lots of inspiring ideas and words of wisdom. It was worth making the journey: we will be coming back.
• You may not be the largest Record Office in the country, but you are certainly the friendliest and most helpful
• Had a very useful visit (previous day as well). Staff were friendly and extremely helpful in helping research into family history. No doubt we will be back

On-line/Access – Total: 1

The new (on-line) catalogue is wonderful. Many thanks for the fuller indexing. Next refinement perhaps scans of the actual documents? !!!

Complaints and Suggestions – Total: 12

• Finish putting all indexes online. We say: that is one of our priorities. It is huge job that we hope to complete over the next 5-10 years.
• Archive information being transferred to the internet
• Purpose built local studies centre embracing archive, library, information service, educational service (suggestion of improvement to the service) We say: Yes, that would be the ideal scenario
• Disabled access is possible but not easy. Facilities for people who bring their own lunch are minimal. We agree: these are among improvements which have been on our radar for years, but can only be solved by the provision of an entirely new building.
• A suitable place for visitors to eat their lunch (suggestion of improvement to the service)
• Access and visitor facilities are, I guess, a matter for the Council and it is time that the Council looked at upgrading the physical environment of the Archive Service
• I would like to see a letter collection which consists of 54 letters. Due to the current delivery system (4 items at a time) I have to order many times till I can finish this collection!!! I think this is unreasonable. We say: difficult to comment without knowing the precise circumstances. The ‘4 items’ rule is designed to ensure that staff can monitor the production of original documents and that orders don’t take too long to be retrieved from the stacks. We can sometimes be more flexible if you want to look at items in quick succession from a batch of material. Please do ask the duty staff
• Limited access to original documents. Transcripts not available after 1812. We say: the researcher is referring to parish registers. We have to restrict access to original registers, otherwise they would suffer from cumulative damage through over-use. Transcripts are not available after 1812, true, but most entries are on microfilm.
• Clearer directions once you're in the building. We say: there are quite a number of prominent signs, but we would be happy to have another look at our signage
• Thursday opening would be nice but I guess it is unlikely.  We say: back in March 2006, after consulting our users, we decided to shut on Thursdays and open late on Mondays. The idea behind late opening late on a Monday was to give people who work standard office hours the chance to visit us. Limited staff numbers mean that we cannot please everyone.
• The only suggestion I have is the possibility of opening on a weekend. Even 1 Saturday a month, as this would allow people who work Monday-Friday to view records and research family history. This is my first visit to a records facility and I hope the rest can keep up to my now high expectations. Thank you all.
• Searcher commissioned us to search newspapers, which are mostly not indexed, but then discovered that the family held the relevant cuttings anyway. Blamed us for our failure to find most of the cuttings they already had. We disagreed – given the lack of indexes, the huge bulk, and that some of his cuttings may not even have been local - but compromised by reducing the bill from £28 (one hour) to £15 (30 minutes)