Improving access to the records of landed estates: balancing archival and user perspectives.

This paper draws on the findings of doctoral research that surveyed and evaluated from the perspective of the user past and current archival cataloguing methodologies for the records of long-lasting landed estates in the UK. It reports on the findings of focus groups that explored users’ opinions of a sample set of descriptive paper and electronic finding aids of various depths and levels. The results reflect user views that are important to current professional practice. These range from heavy reliance on assistance from archivists to lack of awareness or very limited use of key online archival finding aids and related resources. Just as important was the strong desire for access to paper finding aids as well as electronic ones for research purposes. Convincing arguments were made for retaining both formats at a time when professional efforts have focused more on online delivery.