The ARA National Surveys Group is pleased to announce that Registration for the 2024 Survey of Visitors is now open!

Taking part is an excellent way to obtain feedback from those accessing services remotely. 

Respondents tell us the reasons for their visit, their views on the services given and also information about themselves.  It’s valuable for services, to aid future planning, and also 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.

The survey will run from Monday 7 October 2024 to Sunday 8 December 2024 (inclusive).  Services can take part for the entire length of the survey period, or for a length of time of their choosing.  In order to achieve the best results, the minimum survey should run is 4 weeks, and the last date for registration Friday 4 October 2024.

There are some changes to the way the survey is run this year, which should make the process much easier.

There is now a flat fee to take part, rather than additional payments for the number of branches, hopefully streamlining the payment process.

The cost of taking part this year is £150 + VAT per archive service.    

The survey takes place onsite using paper questionnaires, and the following options are available for printing and for scanning the completed questionnaires.  The costs are:

Printing @ £0.32 per questionnaire + £15.00 for delivery

Scanning @ £0.45 per questionnaire + £15 for returns box

The minimum quantity of questionnaires is 50. Copies of scanned images will be provided electronically. All charges are subject to VAT, and the cost of postage for completed forms at the end of the survey is at the expense of the archive service.

There are also a series of options, from services opting print their own surveys and provide the data on a spreadsheet to a full printing and scanning option:

• Registration only – services will be provided with electronic copies of the survey guidance as well as all the associated survey materials, e.g. questionnaire(s), log forms, and data collection spreadsheet. Services will need to print physical copies of the questionnaires, or find a 3rd party supplier to do so, and ensure all responses are into the provided data collection spreadsheet. Any other method used for collection, which then requires adapting, will be subject to a surcharge.

• Registration and print – service will be provided with electronic copies of the survey guidance as well as all the associated survey materials, e.g. log forms, and data collection spreadsheet. Furthermore, survey forms will be printed on 2 sheets of A3 paper to form a booklet, and sent out to the service. However, all responses must be entered into the provided data collection spreadsheet. Any other method used for collection, which then requires adapting, will be subject to a surcharge.

• Registration, print and scan – service will l be provided with electronic copies of the survey guidance as well as all the associated survey materials, e.g. log forms. Survey forms will be printed on 2 sheets of A3 paper to form a booklet, and sent to the service.  A box will be provided for the return of the completed questionnaires to, it will be the service’s responsibility to ensure they are despatched using a secure method, it will also be at their cost. The questionnaire will be scanned, a full image of both sheets of A3, and then indexed to produce an output file in Excel format. Both the scanned images and Excel output files will be sent to the service electronically.

A Registration Form has also been devised to aid the registration process, and can be downloaded here. If a Purchase Order number is required on your invoice please email the number along with the form.  The Purchase Order should be for:

Archives and Records Association

The Keep

Creech Castle

Taunton

Somerset

TA1 2DX

The Registration form and the PO information should be emailed to surveyregistrations@archives.org.uk  

We are working with Shaffer and Co Ltd again for this survey, and they will be delivering the survey with ARA and writing the subsequent reports.  Please note that upon registration your contact details will be sent to Shaffer and Co Ltd, who will send you a survey pack consisting of the survey guidance as well as all the supporting survey documentation.

If you would like to find out more about the survey, or have any questions, prior to registering please contact the Surveys group at arasurveysgroup@archives.org.uk.