n.an individual who seeks information from and/or consults archival resourcesSaffady 1974, 141Quite simply, the researcher wants to know what the archives has that might prove useful to him. A second, related type of inquiry concerns the availability of pertinent materials in other archives, historical society manuscript collections, and research libraries. A third type of question relates to the provenance of records, that is to the circumstances under which archival materials were created and acquired.Conway 1986, 395Users, in the most elementary sense, are people who seek information in archival materials. They may be researchers who visit repositories or who use items obtained from archives. Dowler 1988, 85Ideally, the reference archivist should be able to steer the researcher to those sources that may satisfy a question, regardless of the form of material or its location.Kepley 1989, 162The heart of the reference process lies in understanding the researchers’ questions and suggesting the kinds of records that the institution and other related repositories have that may be of use.Ericson 1991, 74In other words, we must do what our researchers have been doing all along: bring together traditional textual archival records with audiovisual and artefactual documentation, using the mix of information thus gained to satisfy our enquiries.Millar 2010, 19Ultimately, archives are kept in order to be used, for any number of reasons by any type of user. Researchers, scholars and average citizens refer to archives to find proof; to gather information for research; to illustrate, illuminate or explain. Bastian, Sniffin-Marinoff, and Webber 2015, 33Archives[:] User/patron/researcher ¶ Library[:] Patron/user/customer ¶ Meaning[:] An individual who uses the collections and services of a repository[.]Minchew 2019, 87By collecting and making documents accessible to researchers and preserving materials that have permanent value, archivists play an important role in helping ensure transparency in government.Holden and Roeschley 2020, 85All researchers, whether clients or descendants consulting their own records, or anyone else consulting the older, open records, must complete a reader registration form on which they list their contact information and agree to the restrictions listed previously.Zamon 2024, 12A request that can wait would be a researcher planning a visit to your archives to spend the day reviewing documents related to research or someone asking a question out of curiosity.
Notes
The most common terms are patron, researcher, and user, often used interchangeably. Other terms used earlier in the archival literature are reader and searcher.
