Archival information service researchers argue that an analysis research on users should be preceded to provide services effectively. Ultimately, it is to plan archival information service to meet the current demands and to design services for potenti...
Archival information service researchers argue that an analysis research on users should be preceded to provide services effectively. Ultimately, it is to plan archival information service to meet the current demands and to design services for potential users. Lots of researchers are emphasizing the importance of user analysis as stated above, but it isn't known how people working in archival institutions think of it.
Therefore, this study aims to collect general opinions about the current state of user analysis, its strengths and barriers from employees in archival institutions. It is necessary to understand how people in archival institutions think, as hands-on workers to establish the foundation and direction of analysis research.
For achieving this purpose, this study first examined studies in Canada through literature search. This research was to ask how employees working in archival institutions think about the user-based evaluation during the focus group interview which is one of qualitative research methods. It was meaningful to consider studies in Canada where is aggressively carrying out researches on the use of archives, and it helped to claim the legitimacy and appropriacy of the research method, by suggesting case studies which analyzed users' opinions, based on experience.
Next, an in-depth interview with employees in domestic archival institutions was designed and performed. The in-depth interview which is a qualitative research method, was to ask about experiences of employees in archival service centers to analyze the present state of user analysis and its limits, and to extract improvements. After the interview, research results were summed up and explained from qualitative data collected.
Then, the current condition of user analysis in Korean archival institutions and limits was discussed, based on the interview results. In addition to this, this study figured out reasons why the current user analysis in archival institutions isn't working well and considered what effort would be needed for settling this problem. Lastly, the user analysis plan appropriate for the current archival institutions in Korea was suggested.
It is not that these improvements extracted from analysis results are for the user analysis only. Much effort is required throughout the archival management area and it would help to find proper improvements to solve general problems in archival institutions.
This study is short of representativeness, since there is a lack of samples from employees in archival institutions for the in-depth interview. Besides, interviewer's subjectivity might be involved in it, due to properties of the in-depth interview. Nevertheless, this study has significance in the way that it comprehended realistic opinions from hands-on experience through the in-depth interview with experts of archival management.
It is expected that opinions of hands-on employees would serve as the foundation for practical improvements in the archival management field in future that has a high difference between theoretical background and realistic duties.