Persona: Archivist

Owned by Rain Michaels (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Aug 13, 2015
5 min read

The following personas seem to group together under the category of "archivist" – please consolidate into one or two personas with very specific stories.

Matt Francis (Unlicensed) has taken responsibility for consolidating and refining these personas by . 

Consolidated Personas:

Reference Archivist (Based on the MITRE and Scott’s Rory personas)

Rory, Reference Archivist, 26 years old.

  • Needs to answer questions for onsite and remote researchers, and connect them to appropriate resources.

  • Needs to be able to easily find the physical location information (e.g. box and folder number) of materials from their digital surrogates.

  • Must be able to easily navigate archival inventories from different resource records in order to locate additional relevant materials for researchers.

  • Rory can get grumpy when he cannot quickly search through the collections data to locate materials for patrons.

University Archivist (Based on Scott’s Maynard and Aaron personas and Sue’s Anthony persona)

Anthony, University Archivist, 15 years of experience.

  •  When assisting patrons, needs to be able to search for unprocessed accessions but can't always find them because there is no way to search for "Unprocessed"

  • Wants to be able to sort collections by processing status.

  • When on the reference desk needs to have the ability to quickly toggle between the staff-side and public user interfaces when viewing full-length online collection finding aids.

  • Wants the ability to dynamically correct typos and other errors found in finding aids and have the ability to immediately display the corrected finding aids once the corrections have been made in both the staff-side and public views of that finding aid.

  • He has little patience with technologies that require multiple windows to be open and complicated key sequences to be able to toggle between the staff and public user interfaces of the tool.

  • Wants to be able to search for materials by the specific record series number (such as 2/10/1)

  • Must be able to obtain the box location information so he can quickly go to the appropriate box to retrieve materials, including when the location information is stored in a PDF file that is linked from the resource record.

  • Becomes grumpy when he is forced to read long lists of unrelated collection content or has to wait more than 15 seconds for the collections management system to pull up the collection record for that record series.

Archives Administrator (Based on Scott’s Norma persona)

Norma, Director of a small university archives, 35 years old.

  • Has a good working knowledge of basic computer programming and EAD because her Library's Systems Office is unwilling to work with any open source software program that require significant reprogramming time to meet the archives user needs.

  • Needs to be able to simply customize the layout of collection content in her archives' collection management tool, and be able to customize the colors of this content display to match the color scheme and themes of her archives website.

  • Doesn't have time to learn new computer programming techniques.

  • Bristles at the thought of not having enough time to adequately focus on the historical interpretation of her archives' collections for new exhibits.

Technical Archivist (Based on Dara’s Scott persona) – more of a backend persona and not part of the PUI project, keep for record

Scott, Technical Archivist, 30 years old.

  • Refines metadata in special collections to agree with authorized subject, agent thesauri and databases.

  • Manages digital objects.

  • Needs to be able to query subject and agent terms, would like to be able to merge duplicate items.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Personas

MITRE (Business) Personas

  • Archivist / full service researcher
    • Pam, Female, 50 yrs. old
    • Answer questions for researchers and connects them to resources

University Archives/ Special Collections Personas (added by scott)

  • Maynard, professional archivist with over 30 years of experience as University Archivist, 60 years old.
    • Needs to quickly located correspondence of University President George Stoddard regarding 1952 military training guidelines for the university's ROTC program for the current President of the University.
    • Wants to quickly search by the specific record series number for the President George Stoddard Records to locate the correspondence series within that specific record group which he vaguely remembers as being 2/10/1.
    • Knows that a specific box and folder listing of that specific record series content is linked as a PDF file from that series' collection record.
    • Must also have the box location information so he can quickly go to that box and find the correspondence that he knows exists.
    • Becomes grumpy when he is forced to read long lists of unrelated collection content or has to wait more than 15 seconds for the collections management system to pull up the collection record for that record series.
  • Rory, new young professional reference archivist with less than one year's experience, 26 years old.
    • Receives an email reference inquiry from a researcher in Australia who has found digital image of Herbert L. Clarke holding his 1907 C. G. Conn cornet while a member of the Sousa Band. The researcher knows the archives has many of Clarke's cornets, and needs to know what the serial number of that instrument.  The low-resolution image doesn't provide the researcher has found doesn't provide enough visual image to determine which horn is in the picture.
    • Rory needs to know which box and folder of the Clarke collection has the original photograph that was digitized.
    • Once the photograph has been found, he must then locate the two 1907 Conn cornets in the Clarke collection to determine which was being held in the photograph.
    • Rory is a bass guitarist with no experience working with brass instruments, and tends to get grumpy when he cannot quickly locate things for researchers.
  • Aaron, University Archivist with fifteen years of archives experience working in small and medium size archives as a lone arranger with two archival volunteers, 43 years old.
    • When on the reference desk needs to have the ability to quickly toggle between the staff-side and public user interfaces when viewing full-length online collection finding aids.
    • Must have the ability to dynamically correct typos and other errors found in finding aids created by the archival volunteers.
    • Must have the ability to immediately display the corrected finding aids once the correction has been made in both the staff-side and public views of that finding.
    • He has little patience with technologies that require multiple windows to be open and complicated key sequences to be able to toggle between the staff and public user interfaces of the tool.

  • Norma, director of a small university archives and special collections with a good working knowledge basic computer programming and EAD because her Library's Systems Office is unwilling to work with any open source software program that require significant reprogramming time to meet the archives user needs, 35 years old.
    • Needs to be able to simply modify the layout of collection content in her archives' collection management tool, and be able to modify the colors of this content display to match the color scheme and themes of her archives website.
    • Doesn't have time to learn new computer programming techniques.
    • Bristles at the thought of not having enough time to adequately focus on the historical interpretation of her archives' collections for new exhibits.

Academic Research Library/Special Collections/University Archives (added by Sue)

  • Anthony, University Archivist with 15 years of experience in UA/SC. 
    • Needs to be able to search for unprocessed accessions but can't always find them because there is no way to search for "Unprocessed"
    • Wants to be able to sort collections by processing status

Academic Research Library/Special Collections and Archives (Dara)

  • Scott, Technical Archivist
    • Refines metadata in special collections to agree with authorized subject, agent thesauri and databases
    • Manages digital objects
    • Needs to be able to query subject and agent terms, would like to be able to merge duplicate items