Information Competencies of Historians as Archive Users: A Slovenia/UK Comparison

Abstract

Abstract. This paper reports a study of the characteristics, skills and competencies of historians, both amateur and professional, as users of archives. It makes two main comparisons: between professional historians and amateurs, typically genealogists and family historians; and between participants in Slovenia and in the United Kingdom. The study is in two parts. First, a detailed and comprehensive literature analysis, including information competencies of archivists where relevant, as well as those of users, to identify the main issues to be examined. Second, a Delphi study with a small panel of archivists from both countries, to establish consensus or divergence of opinion, and to explore the differences, if any, between amateur and professional historians, and will also investigate any national differences. The results show a high degree of consensus, and point to common issues in the skills and competencies needed by both groups, which should be explored in a larger study.

Information searching in cultural heritage archives: a user study

“…Previous research (e.g. Duff and Johnson, 2003;Yakel and Torres, 2003;Allison-Bunnell et al, 2011;Vilar et al, 2016) have identified amateur historians, e.g. genealogists and local historians, to be common users of archives, but this group is not identified in our material.…”

“…Previous research identifies historians as an active user group of cultural heritage archives (Duff and Johnson, 2002;Choi and Rasmussen, 2003;Tibbo, 2003;Duff et al, 2004;Zhou, 2008;Chassanoff, 2013Chassanoff, , 2018Sinn and Soares, 2014;Vilar et al, 2016). Other user groups that have been examined are genealogists (Allison-Bunnell et al, 2011;Duff and Johnson, 2003;Hamburger, 2004), film-makers (Treat and Judkins, 2018) and other academics, students and amateur researchers (Hamburger, 2004;Allison-Bunnell et al, 2011;Langa et al, 2023;Weber et al, 2023).…”

“…"Information searching" is one of the main activities of the TBII model, and Late and Kumpulainen (2021), in line with Sinn and Soares (2014), are interested in how the historians became aware of the collection and further ask how searching in the collection was handled, and what problems the historians faced while searching. Vilar et al (2016) compared archive information competencies of professional and amateur historians (e.g. genealogists) in Slovenia and the United Kingdom.…”

“…Previous research identifies historians as an active user group of cultural heritage archives (Duff and Johnson, 2002; Choi and Rasmussen, 2003; Tibbo, 2003; Duff et al. , 2004; Zhou, 2008; Chassanoff, 2013, 2018; Sinn and Soares, 2014; Vilar et al. , 2016).…”

“…Vilar et al. (2016) compared archive information competencies of professional and amateur historians (e.g.…”