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Re: Let them eat cake



Hello, Lydia.

I find that an honest estimate of the time it will take to reply to such requests is better than either silence or false promises.  That so-called delay is likely to have more to do with a first-come, first-served policy than it does with the complexity of a given request.  Where the volume of inquiries received is high, a three-week turnaround is reasonable.  Your suggestion for speeding replies assumes that there is staff to spare for the purpose; few of us can boast as much.

Judy Robins, C. A.,
Collections Supervisor,
Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
520 N. Northwest Highway
Park Ridge, IL  60068-2573

Tel:  847-825-5586

Fax:  847-825-1692

e-mail: j.robins@ASAHQ.org



-----Original Message-----
From: Lucas, Lydia [mailto:lydia.lucas@MNHS.ORG]
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2002 4:46 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Email & Increased Research Requests


As I interpreted the comments on the 3-week delay, the objections seemed to
focus not so much on the duration of the delay as on an auto-reply that
suggested it would take at least 3 weeks to come up with a response no
matter what (i.e., how simplistic) the question.  This is not really very
good public relations.  As a researcher (which I occasionally am), I like to
know up-front what sort of a delay I can expect.  I also, however, like to
think that my request has been screened by a sentient being, so that the
estimated response time bears some relationship to the nature of the
request.

For an institution that responds to e-mail requests at all (and I realize
that staffing limitations make this difficult or prohibitive for some), it
generally shouldn't be all that burdensome for someone (a clerk or a student
is just fine) to do a quick review of the e-mails, route each one into the
proper queue, and send off one of 3 or 4 boilerplate replies, or perhaps an
actual answer if the question is really simple.  In this way, the 5-minute
question can get answered and out of the way, a request that requires more
staff time can take its place in line (and the length of the line might vary
considerably from time to time), and the utterly unreasonable or
we-don't-do-this request can be handled (also perhaps pretty quickly) in
accordance with institutional policy.

Lydia Lucas
Head, Processing Department
Minnesota Historical Society
345 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: Denman, Joan [mailto:JDenman@WW2.FSU.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2002 3:08 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Email & Increased Research Requests


In earlier emails, Rick Barry and Peter Hirsch, wondered if the example
of the Bentley Historical Library's three weeks delay in responding to
reference requests is portending the future. I think it is.

We are finding that many people, especially students with paper
deadlines fast approaching, will contact us for assistance on a World
War II topic. Since we have a limited staff that can assist with
reference requests, we have had to ask people if they intend to visit
the Institute or not. Currently we are unable to conduct any research in
our collections for on-line (or phone) patrons and must insist that
people use our facilities on-site. Those who are willing to travel to
Tallahassee are given as much assistance as staffing will allow. It is
becoming more apparent that numerous people expect your complete
collections to be online or for you to provide them with extensive
research. What is the experience of other repositories?

--
Joan E. Denman
Senior Archivist &
Archival Manager
Institute on World War II
& the Human Experience
Department of History
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2200
850-644-9033
Email: jdenman@ww2.fsu.edu
Institute's Email: ww2@ww2.fsu.edu
Institute's webpage: www.fsu.edu/~ww2

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