Reports of the 2023 Distance Enquiries Service Survey now available

47 archive service took part in the Distance Enquiries Service Survey between October and December 2023.   

Taking part is an excellent way to obtain feedback from those accessing services remotely and this survey did not disappoint. Over 1,650 users of archive services responded to tell us the reasons for their visit, their views on the services given and information about themselves. The result is a valuable tool for participating services, to aid future planning, as well as for the sector to generate a national profile of archive users, to help determine future planning and priorities and to advocate on behalf of the sector.  

All participating services received their individual reports earlier in the year, and the Headline and Benchmarking Reports are now available on the ARA website. The headline report is a high level analysis of responses, helping us to identify trends across the sector, whilst the benchmarking report contains the data from respondents from all participating archives, allowing comparison across countries, regions and by archive type. 

Both reports are available at https://www.archives.org.uk/resources.

The Surveys Group is now considering the next survey, the Survey of Visitors to Archives, which will take place in Autumn 2024.  Details will be published early in the summer, but to register an early interest please contact us at arasurveysgroup@archives.org.uk.

Please also let us know if you would be interested in joining the group, we’re particularly interested in hearing from colleagues outside of local authority archives and those in Scotland and Ireland.