Our 2007-2008 performance

Some achievements and performance information 2007/08

We hold 480 cubic metres of Archives dating from the 12th century and manage 590 cubic metres of semi-current records. This is sufficient to fill about 6 km (or about 4 miles) of shelving! The Service is part of the Information and Systems portfolio of the County Council recognising its importance to the Councils' corporate memory and both local and national Society's community memory.

For details of our budget see; Cost of the Archives & Records Service|

Access to the Archives

• Average speed of full response to outside written enquiries: 1.02 days [Target: 2 days]
• % same day answers to outside written enquiries: 72.5% [Target 75%]
• Production of over 14000 documents annually for visiting searchers and answering enquiries
• Document production target: 5 minutes per order (80.5% produced within this time in a 2006 survey - a fall of 9.5% since the 2004 survey but still very consistent)
• Telephone enquiries: 97.25% [Target 95%] answered within 4 rings
• Provision of disabled visitor spaces in the Car Park
• Involvement in TV and radio programmes using Bedfordshire Archives

Electronic Service Delivery (ESD)

• Increase in use of e-mail - now accounts for 62% of all incoming enquiries.
• Popularity of the Service's web-site presence  – over 1,000,000 hits per annum
• Installation of ADLIB-Archive database software for descriptive listing and indexing of our holdings – digitisation of over 40% of total catalogue lists by April 2007
• Working in partnership with HM Prison Stradishall (Suffolk) to "retro-digitise" the descriptive lists of our archives to add them to our database and make them available on the Internet – prisoners work towards a Computer Literacy and IT (CLAIT) qualification.
• Hits to the Service's interactive searchable on-line database of its holdings: 469,152
• Database of prisoners at the County gaol (1800-1879) with over 23,048 entries available online from July 2006.

The 7th National Survey of Visitors to British Archives Nov 2007

The full results comparing us with other offices are still unavailable at the time of writing (March 2008) but for now we have compared our results with our previous performance.

What did our visitors say about us?

Customer satisfaction ratings use the following categories: very good/good/average/poor.

• Customer care (helpfulness/friendliness) 93% 7% 1% 0% 
• Quality of advice given by staff 88% 11% 1% 0%
• Document delivery 73% 27% 0% 0%
• Service Overall 75% 24% 1% 0%
• Copy Services 41% 53% 5% 1% 
• Advance Information 49% 45% 6% 0%
• Quality of finding aids 41% 52% 8% 0%
• Microfilm & fiche viewing facilities 35% 54% 10% 0%
• Website 31% 52% 16% 0%
• Opening Hours 33% 55% 10% 2% 
• On site IT facilities 23% 56% 20% 2%
• Visitor Facilities 15% 51% 28% 6%
• Physical Access to and in the building 20% 54% 26% 2%

Below are the percentage of 'Very Good' ratings compared with the results from the last survey 2007/2006:

• Customer care (helpfulness and friendliness of staff) 93% 91% 
• Quality of advice given by staff 88% 80%
• Document delivery 73% 78%
• Service Overall 75% 66%
• Copy Services 41% 47%
• Advance Information 49% 58%
• Quality of finding aids 41% 58%
• Microfilm & fiche viewing facilities 35% 44%
• Website 31% 36%
• Opening Hours 33% 40%
• On site IT facilities 23% 32%
• Visitor Facilities 15% 27%
• Physical Access to and in the building 20% 20%

  Many comments were made on the survey about possible improvements.

  How did visitors feel they benefited from using the Service?

  38% of visitors spent longer than 3 hours here, with 16% here for more than 5 hours. More people walked/cycled (11%)  or used public transport (23%) to reach us than in 2006 (6% / 16%) and used local shops and services - 66% up from 46%, although there was a drop in those eating out locally, from 54% to 35%. Three quarters of visitors had looked at the website prior to their visit, and the number of 'first time' visitors rose from 21% in 2006 to 36% in 2007.

  The primary purpose for most visitors to the archive was leisure/recreational, but more visitors (33%) were here for functional/Citizenry purposes than in 2006 (21%).

  Here are some of the benefits our visiting users expressed:

  Strong agreement / Agreement 2007/2006

  Provides an opportunity for learning 67% 32% 70% 29%
  Helps preserve our culture and heritage 83% 17% 82% 18%
  Strengthens family/community identity  48% 45% 52% 41% 
  Supports business and administrative activity 21% 41% 19% 38%
  Supports our rights as citizen's rights 30% 41% 32% 35% 

  We also asked visitors how far they agreed with this statement:

  'The staff at Bedfordshire & Luton Archives have treated me fairly and sensitively during my visit.'

  86% (90 out of 105) strongly agreed

  12% (13 out of 105) agreed

  1% (1 out of 105) neither agreed nor disagreed

  1% (1 out of 105) did not answer the question
  

  Other Surveys

  In June 2007 we also carried out a pilot survey of our distance users

  6th Timed Document Delivery Exercise

  In March 2008 We asked our visitors whether we thought the Service provided good value for money. This is what they said.

  Customer Focus

  The Archives and Records Service was awarded its 5 ^th successive national Charter Mark in 2006. It is one of 1500 national holders – and one of only 20 to have won the Award on 5 consecutive occasions and so demonstrated continuous improvement over 15 years.

  Charter Mark is a national award for excellence in customer service. It involves independent assessment over 3 days to provide evidence and prove ' ;compliance' against 6 themes:

  Setting standards for customers and performing well against them

  Consulting and involving customers, partners and staff

  Acting fairly, being accessible to everyone and promoting choice

  Managing resources effectively

  Contributing to improving opportunities and quality of life of individuals and communities

  Volume of Holdings: Archives & Records Boxed and Stored in Metre Shelf Run

  Archives:
  4.4 km. linear metres
  
  Records Management:
  4.83 km. linear metres
  
  TOTAL: 9.23 km ( 5.77 miles )

  Benchmarks

  
   

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