An Archival User Study: Researchers in the Field of Women's History

The growing number of researchers interested in women's history since the 1970s has placed new demands on archival resources in Canada. In 1978, Canadian historian Veronica Strong-Boag called for two actions on the part of archivists in order to deal effectively with the needs of this new group of users; firstly, existing collections need to be reappraised for their value for women's history and, secondly, new materials documenting women must be acquired. Very little, however, has actually been achieved by archivists in these areas in the eleven years since StrongBoag's plea for action. Few archival repositories have reappraised their holdings for their value for writing women's history, and those institutional guides to women's history sources which have been published in Canada have largely been undertaken by the users of these materials and not by professional archivists. Similarly, a considerable amount of documentation pertinent to the study of women's history has not been sought by archival repositories, particularly at the regional level, in Canada.2 In order for archivists to respond adequately to the needs of researchers in the field of women's history, they must first understand the kinds of information which this particular user group requires. This paper attempts to examine the informational needs of historians researching women in archives. The methodology employed combines two types of user studies, the questionnaire or survey, and the reference or citation analysis. The purpose of the survey is to ask questions about researchers' use of and attitude towards archival materials and finding aids. The reference analysis attempts to discover the questionnaire respondents' actual use of primary