A charter for our service

This Charter outlines the services we offer to the community at large, to individual researchers and to the owners (or donors) of documents. It also tells you what we ask of you as a searchroom user and tells you how you can make a suggestion or complaint.

We will do our best to maintain these standards. We expect you to let us know if the services you receive fall below those set out in this Charter and we will always welcome your suggestions and comments - good or bad - on our performance.

What you can expect from us

Services to Schools, Societies and Voluntary Groups - the Community at Large

We will:

Services to researchers

If you are a user, you can expect us to:

• treat you courteously when you contact us by letter or telephone and when you visit our searchroom;
• reply to your letters and enquiries within two days;
• answer telephones promptly (normally within four rings) and reply as soon as possible to answerphone messages;
• find a seat and microfilm reader for you in our searchroom whenever you visit - no booking or appointment needed;
• provide catalogues, indexes and reference books to help you identify, use and understand the documents you need for your research;
• get out any document for you to see - or warn you of delays, restrictions on access or unavailability - within five minutes of the request being made;
• offer a choice of copying facilities to cater for most document types and formats;
• always take care to listen and to give you accurate and helpful advice using plain language.

Services to owners or donors of documents

If you place documents in our care, you can be assured that we will:

• take all necessary steps to protect and safeguard the documents entrusted to our care;
• send written acknowledgement (if required) within a week for all gifts and loans of material placed in the archives;
• provide final lists of all incoming records within three months of their arrival, informing you at the time of deposit if cataloguing is likely to take longer;
• store your records and supervise their use to the standards laid down by the British Standards Institution and the Royal Commission on Historical manuscripts.

What we ask of you as a searchroom user

We ask that :

• you will observe our searchroom users' code of conduct which exists to protect the documents and the interests of their owners and to sign the visitors' book as an undertaking to do so;
• you handle the documents with care, remembering always that they are unique and irreplaceable;
• you treat us as you would wish us to treat you;
• you give us information we need in order to understand and answer your queries.

If you have a problem or complaint about our service

• talk to the duty staff, who will try to sort things out for you; or if your complaint is about our enquiry service contact the person who dealt with your enquiry. Wherever possible we will try and deal with the problem there and then. If we cannot sort out the problem immediately we will investigate it and let you know the outcome. We will aim to give you a full answer within 5 working days. If we need longer we will let you know either in writing or by telephone.
• if you are not satisfied with the response that you have received then we will need to take the matter further by referring it to a more senior member of staff: please contact Nigel Lutt, Operations Manager, or Kevin Ward, County Archivist.
• if you are still not satisfied you can ask that an internal independent review be carried out by officers outside the service area. We will aim to give you a full answer within 15 working days. If we need longer we will let you know either in writing or by telephone. This is the final stage of the Council's internal complaints procedure.

You can also report the problem to the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service User Panel.

If you have made a complaint about our service then we would welcome any comments about how you feel your problem was dealt with and the efficiency of the complaints procedure outlined above.

Your Feedback to Us |

If you would like to make suggestions or comments, please:

• use the forms available in the office for comments and suggestions. We will reply within one week to all comments and suggestions. Our aim is to listen, to learn and to improve. We can't meet all your needs but we can promise to look carefully at all your suggestions and act on them when we can;
• help us by telling us about the archive material outside Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service suitable for deposit or under threat, so we can try to secure and preserve it.

Your Feedback to Us|

A Summary of Your Comments, Compliments and Complaints