Survey of Distance Users
During the winter of 2008/spring 2009 we decided – following a suggestion by a member of staff – to carry out our first ever survey of the increasing number of customers who contact us by e-mail. We used ‘Survey Monkey’ in order to design a survey, and a total of 216 responses were received out of 764 sent out – a 28% response rate which is a good rate of return for a survey which is not ‘face-to-face’.
We would like to thank everyone who took part in the survey. Overall, the results reveal high levels of satisfaction with our service – but we have also looked at your comments and criticisms, answered them in detail, and will make improvements where possible.
It is also evident that internet users have higher expectations than ever of their ‘on-line experience’. It is for this reason that we have made development of our website and databases a priority. It now stands at more than 2,000 pages. The Community pages provide illustrated histories of many parishes and places in the county, and more are planned in the future. Our new expanded database of our document catalogue entries (some 60% of the total, and growing) is also available, while the gaol database now runs from 1800-c1876 and includes 32,500 entries, with about 100 being added every week.
The results
'Distance Users' are people who contact us by e-mail. During the year 2008-2009 we dealt with 2402 enquiries, over two thirds of which were family history related, with others being building/property (45%), land/legal (4%), and general local history (21%).
We organised this survey ourselves and had a response of 216 people over the period from Sep 2008 - April 2009.
1) Your area:
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23.6% of enquiries came from people in Bedfordshire, 50.9% from people elsewhere in the UK and over a quarter - 25.4% - from overseas ( Australasia 15.3%, North America 4.6%, Europe 4.3%, Africa 0.9%)
2) How did you find out about Beds & Luton Archives research service?
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35.2% via this website
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23.1% via a different website
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4.2% via telephone
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2.3% via the BLARS newsletter or leaflets
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8.3% word of mouth
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of the 26.9% (58 people) who found us by other means 26 did so via internet search engines, 2 via family history magazines, 15 had visited the archive, 3 used the Access to Archives website, 3 came via the Bedfordshire Family History Society, 18 were directed from a different archive repository.
3) How many times have you used the BLARS enquiry & research service?
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50.5% once
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29.2% two or three times
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10.4% four or five times
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9.9% over five times
4) How did you rate the following aspects of our research service? % shown of excellent/good
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Speed of initial response: 77.6% 19.6%
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Helpfulness of initial response: 75.7% 19%
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Quality of commissioned research: 75% 22%
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Speed of commissioned research: 69% 25.5%
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Value for money of commisioned research: 69.5% 20.75%
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Quality of photocopies: 50.5% 41.5%
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Value for money of photocopies: 50.5% 33%
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Quality of digital images supplied: 67.5% 28.5%
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Value for money of digital Images: 60.5% 29%
5) How did you rate the quality of the service you have received overall?
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75.9% Excellent
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20.4% Good
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3.2% Average
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0.5% Poor
6) What are your main reasons for contacting this archive?
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79.4% family history research
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13.1% personal leisure/recreation
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6.1% work in connection with your employment
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2.8% formal education as a student/researcher
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2.3% non-leisure personal or family business
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9.3% other
7) What use will you be making of the information provided? Tick all that apply:
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63.2% share with family & friends
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56.1% private/personal use and enjoyment
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16% share with group or society
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12.3% publish an article/book/website
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10.4% to prepare for a future visit to the archives
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4.2% educational use
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1.9% practical business or legal use
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0.9% use in tv programme
8) Are there any changes or improvements you would like to see made to this service?
Online Access:
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make information available to the public without going through an archivist.
Our response: A lot of information is available on-line, but much is not. You will always need archivists to search and interpret original material.
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More of the archive available on line.
Our response: The percentage is increasing year by year (currently 60%), but at the same time we also need to catalogue the new material received, assist enquirers, and carry out outreach work such as talks and events.
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The actual searchable catalogue is the best of any regional archive I've used. Can't wait until it's complete.
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The wording to [the reply] my email enquiry was helpful but appeared a little disinterested. Perhaps, this could be tweaked?!
Our response: Difficult to comment here without knowing what the text was.
Access - opening hours etc.
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For travellers from overseas, who are usually on a schedule governed by time, it would be most helpful if archives in all areas were open 7 days a week. Even if there was a call out / appointment facility for the times the archive could not be manned for the whole of each day it would be helpful.
Our response: This is the ideal, but financial and staffing constraints make it impossible. We would comment that few ,if any, overseas repositories are open every day.
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extended/weekend opening times - or make BMD microfiches available at Bedford Reference Library.
Our response: Ideally, yes, but a staff of 14, including three part-timers can only be stretched so far. An increased staff and an enlarged budget would be necessary for weekend opening. The BMD microfiches are held by Bedford Central Library.
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More information on site as to where records not kept at the centre may be found. For example, burials at Southill Church are with the church wardens and not at your centre.
Our response: We do have a list of original parish registers| (and fiche copies) on our website. The inference is that material not listed is still with the church, but perhaps we could spell this out more explicitly.
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Should have one central place for a person to contact someone to ask for information, as someone who's from Canada like I am doesn't know all the names of places and what diocese they fall into.
Our response: The National Archives, Kew, is the nearest thing there is to a central ‘one-stop’ shop, but they do not hold many local sources, so inevitably you are going to have to do some background research into which local repository to contact.
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Perhaps more information could be gathered on such places like the 'Girls Home'. This would seem to me, something of great value to many people who were born there. But your staff did have information which is great. I think anyone studying the historical facts of unwed mothers - at this early period - would hope for even more info.
Our response: We have taken up your suggestion and are preparing a guide to the sources for children in care, pre-c1950, together with a names index for pre-1910 material. This is to cater for the increasing number of enquiries we have received on this topic in recent years.
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Its asking a lot for us expats that are researching and like myself, that need to research an ancestor in one county i.e Woburn beds Uk and then info in Northants records office to try to link the whole project, by having a central researcher at Luton also access Northants links for the ancestor, especially for us overseas.................. and bulk bill instead of repeating to other Records offices within the uk what and whom we are researching.
Our response: This is the nature of research in the UK; when ancestors cross boundaries you have to approach another record office. You could employ a record searcher in the UK, but that is likely to be expensive.
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A simple possibly free look up service - you could have an online form to submit request.
Our response: We are glad to give advice on sources free of charge, but we do have to charge for any research. You can e-mail us direct| with any enquiries, without the need for an on-line form.
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Would like to see more of the Russell Archives sorted.
Our response: So would we, but the archive is a vast one. It is usable.
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Is it possible somehow to encourage further deposits to be made in the archive - I'm afraid people will be inclined to throw valuable information away and it is lost for ever. However I imagine there is a capacity level that you will need to consider.
Our response: We do encourage individuals and institutions to deposit material with us, and do make direct approaches occasionally to shops and schools. You are right about capacity – we desperately need more space – but continue to take all the material we can.
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The web site stated that limited parking by the centre was available, upon reaching the barrier was informed for staff only. There were very few visitors in the centre and all spaces must have been occupied by staff. The alternative was welcomed but very muddy. In line with most customer oriented services the nearest spaces should be reserved for short stay customers. Perhaps a booked space system?
Our response: We are sorry to hear about your experience. The staff should have let you in the car-park if there were spaces available. Unfortunately, we have little influence over car parking matters, and there are various pay-and-display car parks nearby if the spaces are full. A ‘booked space’ system would be impossible to administer; what happens if someone is late for their booked space and it is bagged by another user?
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Well, I guess there must be something slightly critical so that I don't look like a total sycophant. For outsiders not knowing administrative bodies and processes, it would be good to have a like to a page explaining who does what, who has which responsibility with Beds and Luton record keeping. F'rinstance, I became a little confused about inquest records between a coroner's office and other offices.
Our response: Point taken, but with something as specialist as coroners’ records it’s probably best to e-mail us for individual advice.
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I would like for photographs to be available to view online. This makes it easier to research generally as I am a long way from Bedfordshire and unable to just 'pop in'. My area of interest is not specific enough to involve a member of staff to search on my behalf so online photographs would be excellent. Bucks CC have a good catalogue of photos on their archive website for example.
Our response: We do have some photographs on our Community website pages, while we are also digitising the Chrystal postcard collection (ref: Z1306). But given other priorities – and tens of thousands of images - we cannot do more at present.
Value for money and charges:
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The inability to order publications and pay "on line" is not user-friendly. Would like to see a facility where I can pay online via credit card so as to purchase CD's, micro fiches, books. Provide credit card payment access via the website for purchasing photographs and making payments. (3 separate comments)
Our response: We have been pressing our host authorities since 1999 for a facility for on-line payment, but without success as yet. We cannot ‘go our own way’ and install a system such as Paypal.
Our response: This charge is explained on our website under: Our Policy on Copying. The minimum charge of £5 (£5.25 from 1 April 2010) is weighted bearing in mind that: (1) many documents are fragile or of non-standard format and require considerable care – and time – when copying. (2) material has to be retrieved from storage by staff and put back, with all the associated paperwork that involves. (3) we do not charge for postage and any waste copies. (4) the charge covers 5-10 sheets according to complexity – if in doubt you can ask for an estimate. (5) £5 is the minimum viable amount for a credit card payment – with all respect to N. Devon and Devon £1.40 + postage is simply not worth charging.
General feedback:
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None at all ...as far as I’m concerned the only problem would be how one improves this already outstanding service
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Very good website
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I consider the service to be entirely satisfactory.
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So far, so good!
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No, it is still the most helpful County Record service I have come across.
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No. Service is excellent.
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No - please continue providing your excellent service, bless you All !!
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Just keep the same fantastic staff
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Overall as I have stated I have found the service excellent but there are still one or two staff who give off a feeling that you are bothering them with your enquiry.
Our response: We are sorry to hear that.
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As I had no complaints, there would be no changes to the service. I found all the staff involved very easy to deal with and wouldn't hesitate in using your service again.
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I cannot think of any improvements on what I have used the service for. Although it did not progress me on my family history it helped me eliminate another area of research.
9) What are your main reasons for using e-mail to contact us rather than visiting us in person? Please tick all that apply:
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71% live too far away to visit
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40.9% wanted to check the archive held relevant information
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40% found e-mail more convenient
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23.7% saved on travel costs
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14.4% don't have time to visit
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11.2% needed advice on available services
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7% wanted to follow up on results from a previous visit
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6% wanted to commission research
10) Has the availability of our research service meant that you visited the service in person fewer times?
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45.8% did not need to visit at all
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25% visited fewer times
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29.2% visited anyway
11) Have you used any of the following online resources in the course of your research?
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BLARS website 76.3%
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BLARS online catalogue 54.3%
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BLARS gaol database 33.1%
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A2A 52.9%
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National Archives website 81.5%
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Familysearch 68.5%