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Re: institutional patronage



At the Minnesota Historical Society, we have seen a decline in in-person
use, but a steadily growing number of hits on our Library & Archives web
page, along with stable or increasing numbers of materials retrieved.  In
other words, fewer in-house patrons are using our holdings more intensively,
and lots more people are investigating them than was the case before we had
a Web presence.  Web access to our Visual Resources Database (about 35-40%
of the entries in which also include the image) has generated more photo
orders than we were getting before.  Web access to our OPAC has resulted in
a (somewhat) larger percentage of on-site researchers who come in already
having sort of a clue as to what they might find here -- or coming prepared
to request specific materials.  Genealogy has definitely NOT been falling
off.  However, the oft-lamented propensity of the unsophisticated to assume
that everything is on the Web has definitely been in evidence.

So there's a trade-off.  One thing to bear in mind is that hits on your
Website are researcher contacts just as surely as are in-house visits and
mail requests (after all, that's why we create Websites), and you should
work with your IT people to get those hits reported to you so that you can
include them in your statistics.

Lydia Lucas
Acting Head, Processing Department
Minnesota Historical Society
245 Kellogg Boulevard West
St. Paul, MN  55102-1906
ph (651) 297-5542
fax (651) 296-9961
e-mail:  lydia.lucas@mnhs.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Russell Baker [mailto:russell.baker@mail.state.ar.us]
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2001 9:01 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: institutional patronage


Colleagues:
        I work at the Arkansas History Commission in Little Rock. We are the
Arkansas State Archives and have always been the traditional place where
patrons come for research sources on genealogy and local history. In 1997 we
have 14244 patrons. This was a high year for us. However, since them our
patronage has dropped to 11183 in 2000. My bosses want to know if this is
just us or or there other institutions like ours that have experienced a
similar drop in patronage. I attribute this drop to the intranet. Do your
have other ideas. Genealogy is surely disappearing as a hobby in the U. S.
Thanks for your comments and help.

Russell P. Baker, CA
Arkansas History Commission and State Archives
One Capitol Mall
Little Rock, AR 72201
501-682-6900
russell.baker@mail.state.ar.us <mailto:russell.baker@mail.state.ar.us>

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