This thesis examines the informational needs of historians researching women as a subject in archives. The research methodology employed combines two types of user studies, the questionnaire and the reference analysis, in order to determine both the use and usefulness of archival materials and finding aids for historians researching women. This study begins with an overview of the literature on user studies. The thesis then outlines both the kinds of materials and the information historians researching women require. Finally, this study looks at the way historians researching women locate relevant materials and concomitantly the effectiveness of current descriptive policies and practices in dealing with the needs of this research group. This thesis concludes by suggesting a number of ways in which archivists can respond to the informational needs of historians researching women in archives. Firstly, a considerable amount of documentation relevant to the study of women remains to be acquired by archival repositories. While archives should continue to acquire textual materials, more emphasis needs to be placed upon the acquisition of non-textual materials since these materials are also very useful to historians researching women in archives. Secondly, archivists must focus more attention on the informational value of their holdings since the majority of historians researching women are interested in the information the records contain about people, events or subject area and not the description of institutional life contained in records. Thirdly this study demonstrates the need for more subject oriented finding aids. Archivists can improve subject access to their holdings through the preparation of thematic guides, by the creation of more analytical inventory descriptions and by indexing or cataloguing women's records. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

This thesis identifies a university's typical administrative structure for the purpose of establishing a framework which working university archivists can use to acquire control of university records. The organizational structure of Canadian universities is examined with respect to their functions, juridical persons, and their relative competences. This study may be defined as a "functional analysis." The intertwined concepts of function, competence, and juridical persons serve as foundations for this thesis. A function is defined as the whole of the activities, considered abstractly, necessary to accomplish one purpose. A competence is the authority to carry out a determined sphere of activities within one function. Such authority, however, has to be delegated or assigned to a given office or individual, and that office or individual is termed a juridical person. Therefore, a link is forged between a function and a competence through a juridical person, because it is a juridical person who carries out certain duties and responsibilities within a specified function. Since juridical persons create records in the course of executing their competence, a functional analysis establishes the provenance of the records and places the records of an administrative body in the context of their creation. A functional analysis also reveals and explains the relationships and bonds between the records, record series, and record groups that comprise an administration's archival residue. These objectives -- understanding the organizational structure of the administrative body, identifying its functions, determining the provenance of its records, and placing records in the context of the activities that generate them — help archivists and records managers acquire a fundamental level of intellectual control over the administrative body's records. Without this knowledge, archivists and records managers cannot proceed with any of their own practices. By studying the history and development of universities from the Middles Ages to the twentieth century, this thesis identifies four functions which are common to all universities: Sustaining Itself, Teaching, Research, and Service to the Community. A number of juridical persons, either in the form of administrative bodies or individuals who comprise the administrative structure of the university, are then examined, and the functions with which with they are entrusted are ascertained by studying their competences. As a result of this analysis, the typical organizational structure of a university is revealed, the functional provenance of records created by universities (as a whole) are identified, and its records are placed in the context of the activities that generate them. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to investigate staff attitudes to access and outreach in the three provincial and two of the university-based private archives of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. The position with regard to physical, legal and bibliographic access, including reference services and user education, was explored through visiting the five archives and discussing the situation with archives staff, using the "Checklist for a visit to an archives repository" as the first survey instrument. A survey was then conducted among the 45 staff members, using the second survey instrument: "Survey of archives in KwaZulu-Natal: staff questionnaire", in order to find out if archives inKZN hold outreach activities to publicise themselves and promote their use, and if so, which activities are held, and what attitudes staff hold with regard to these activities. To provide the necessary background information, a literature review was done. The archival situation was looked at from all aspects, starting with a brief overview ofthe history, development and usage ofarchives in the Western World, Africa and South Africa and focussing on the current policy and situation in KZN. Background information was also given on the issues of reference services, public programming and outreach in archives generally and in South Africa in particular. The results of the checklist and questionnaire were then analysed, and revealed difficulties with physical and bibliographic or intellectual access, a lack of user education, and deficiencies in staff qualifications and training. It was found that four out of five archives had held outreach activities, and that there was a growing awareness ofthe need to publicise archives. Activities preferred by staff and user differed from archive to archive. Staff needed to be aware ofwhich type of activity would appeal to each different sector ofthe public. Staff attitudes varied on such topics as best ways ofencouraging users into the archives, factors causing archives not to encourage new users, and factors causing lack of interest of potential users. It was found that there was a dearth of public relations training both in degrees and diplomas, and of in-service training. Recommendations were then made for, among others, improvements to premises, reading room service and user education; upgrading of archives qualifications; provision of in-service training and outreach workshops, based on the findings of the study. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.