Encouraging People Through the Doors: Surveying Public Perceptions of Special Collections Libraries

Abstract

Several special collections libraries develop programs, marketing programs, and webpages to improve public access to collections. However, public perceptions of special collections libraries are poorly understood and library professionals instead depend on anecdotes or own experiences to identify barriers to access. University College London (UCL) Special Collections used an online survey to reach communities outside the university to understand what they think UCL Special Collections is and what interventions might encourage them to visit. Through their survey, it is easier to understand misconceptions about special collections and how it may discourage someone from learning more. Specific marketing and programming interventions applicable to special collections libraries are identified.

Keywords:

• Special collections
• public access
• stakeholder engagement
• marketing
• outreach

Introduction

In 2017, the Association of College and Research Library’s Competencies for Special Collections Professionals identified a key part of a special collections library professional’s work as addressing “barriers to access by engaging a diverse community of users with institutional collections” (Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), 2017). Several special collection libraries (SCLs), such as University College London (UCL)’s Special Collections, have spent significant amounts of time ensuring access to collections is available to everyone, not just established researchers. But what are those barriers to access? And what strategies should SCLs take to ensure potential users feel welcome exploring collections?

The Special Collections Outreach team at UCL encourages local residents to access and engage with UCL’s collections. It runs several programs aimed at improving access, including summer schools and Open Mornings. One of its cornerstone projects is The New Curators Project, a work development program which offers young people in East London training and work experience in the cultural heritage sector. However, despite good feedback on programs, the team has struggled with recruitment for projects like The New Curators Project.

Within the team, it is believed “Special Collections” as a term may be too vague for community members to understand, or they may feel intimidated by entering a UCL space. When designing outreach programs, the team builds in comms and sessions to address perceived barriers to access. Sessions begin with discussions of what “rare books,” or “archives” are. Social media posts and flyers minimize UCL branding so programs do not seem exclusive or overly academic. However, the team can only respond to feedback from people who engage with their programs – they cannot capture information from residents who do not attend an event or workshop.

To better understand barriers within the communities UCL is trying to engage, a study was undertaken on public perceptions of SCLs. Utilizing a survey asking both qualitative and quantitative questions, this research studies people’s initial thoughts on the meaning of “special collections” as well as specific barriers to using UCL Special Collections. These results can allow for better assessment of barriers to access and allow SCLs like UCL to make targeted interventions and identify areas for improvement.

Terminology

One of the challenges of studying definitions of special collections libraries is there is not an agreed definition of “special collections.” Within this study, SCLs are defined as organizations which include a mixture of library and archive collections, as well as a mixture of time periods and material. Collections will be in some kind of closed store and require someone to make an appointment in a reading room to access.

This study also assumes SCLs are open to anyone to use. There are exceptions to this rule, particularly in the UK where some institutions require a paid membership or a specific research need. The purpose of this article is not to say whether restrictive policies are right or wrong. Many of the findings of the research will be relevant to any SCL, regardless of their specific policies.

Throughout this paper, “people” is used to refer to community members, users, and members of the university community. Particularly for UCL Special Collections, engagement with an SCL may not just mean a registered library user. Instead, our potential “patrons” include library exhibition visitors, primary school students, hobbyists accessing digitized collections, and more. The Conference of European National Libraries’ Books and Audiences Network Group (BANG!) defined the potential external audiences that outreach activities like exhibitions could reach as “non-users” (Books and Audiences Network Group (BANG!), 2023). However, the line between “user” and “non-user” is entirely clear, especially for outreach activities like The New Curators Project where participants are a key audience, even if they are not registered library users. This study is not focused on a specific audience group, but instead is trying to understand in broad strokes what the general perception of SCLs are. To avoid confusion, “people” or “public” are used instead of specific audience names.

Literature review

Several SCL professionals acknowledge that the public is a key audience for archives and special collections libraries. SCLs, particularly publicly funded ones, have a responsibility to ensure the public feels welcome in their space (Smith, 2006). Public engagement is necessary for future collection development (Heron, 2014). However, the way in which we describe ourselves does not always reflect public audiences. If access and education is a key part of our work, it should be reflected in our mission statements (Smith, 2006).

Discussion about access to Special Collections often describe anecdotal stories of people being refused access (Gilman, 2010; V. A. Harris & Weller, 2012; Traister, 2000, 2003). Several articles reflect on how reading rooms can seem like inherently intimidating spaces (Friar, 2017; Torre, 2008) that reinforce white privilege (Caswell, 2017; Komich, 2022). Questions around access are tied to the origins of the Special Collections profession (Rossman, 2022). We are far removed from the 1930s and 50s, where Special Collections curators discouraged employing “so-called trained librarians” (pg. 129). However, today “a certain level of cultural knowledge is necessary to understand [special collections] purpose and even know of their existence” (pg. 140).

Despite the number of anecdotal stories, there is limited research into general perceptions of SCLs or into specific barriers to public access. Lack of consistency across the industry can make measuring access difficult. Institutions in the USA and UK do not record reading room visitor categories in consistent ways (Dooley, 2013; Dooley & Luce, 2010) and struggle to track how collections are used outside of their institutions (Cullingford, 2014; Kamposiori & Crossley, 2019). This lack of data impact outreach events and exhibitions. Case studies on outreach program generally focus on university students (Greenwood, 2019; Hammerman et al., 2006). Program such as exhibitions can be challenging to measure impact and collect feedback (Marini, 2019), and data on promising-sounding projects is limited by the Covid-19 pandemic (Dreyer & Nofziger, 2021).

SCLs have turned to websites and social media to address users directly. Online presence is often the first interaction someone has with a library, and it should be easy for the public to find resources and information on how to visit (Tucker, 2006). Social media can be a key tool for improving awareness of collections (Mulrennan, 2020). However, even successful social media campaigns can struggle to break into new audiences (Riehman-Murphy et al., 2022).

The impact of SCLs’ outreach work may be held back by perceptions of libraries and archives. Collections-based outreach is rarely recognized in university impact statements (Kamposiori, 2020). SCLs may bring institutional prestige, but their work to support research may not be as well understood and creates a gulf between special collections and academic libraries (Rossman, 2020). Beyond just the SCL sector, a literature review found that gender stereotypes negatively impact public perceptions of librarianship (Vassilakaki & Moniarou-Papaconstantinou, 2014). The review also found university staff do not understand librarian’s role within their own organizations.

Colleagues in academic and public libraries have addressed the issue of perception head on, including large-scale public surveys of library usage (Rosa, 2010). Academic libraries investigate perceptions in the context of “library anxiety.” There are several resources synthesizing current research in “library anxiety” (Gardijan, 2021) and use quantitative methods to measure perceptions of academic libraries (Leung et al., 2022; Mushtaq & Arshad, 2022). Academic library studies on individual case studies (Nicholas et al., 2015) and perceptions of space (Kim, 2017) can be a good source for understanding the kinds of questions asked by our academic colleagues.

While majority of library anxiety studies use quantitative data to measure a specific aspect of their service, Datig (2014) used a mixture of qualitative and quantitative questions to measure international students’ perceptions of “what is a library?” They found that students’ assumptions were shaped by cultural stereotypes, and the overall perception was that libraries are “academic” spaces. Studies of barriers to access can lead to specific suggestions for interventions to make community groups feel more comfortable using a library (Gupta et al., 2022).

Within SCLs, there have been a couple of similar studies of user perceptions. Reading room users have been surveyed to identify user needs, such as detailed finding aids (V. Harris, 2010). Library and Archives Canada studied public awareness of their work (Jedwab, 2014) and found the majority of respondents were not aware of the organization but is not clear if that correlates with a lack of awareness of what special collections libraries or archives are generally. At the time of writing, there are not any published articles measuring public perceptions of “special collections libraries.”

Materials and methods

An online survey was developed to measure public perceptions of SCLs. The survey was divided into three sections: demographic information, general perceptions of SCLs, and specific barriers to access. A free text field was included at the bottom of the survey for general comments. A copy of the survey is available in the Appendix.

Due to the variety of definitions of “special collections,” some questions focus on UCL Special Collections specifically. It was also thought that asking about a specific SCL collection would better capture specific barriers to access.

Survey questions were based on previous studies of library anxiety in academic and public libraries. Qualitative questions were inspired by Ilka Datig’s (2014) survey of international students, particularly their progression from broad questions like “What do you think libraries are for” to specific questions about New York University Abu Dhabi’s library (Datig, 2014). Ideas for multiple choice questions were taken from Gupta, Randhawa, and Po’s survey of South Asian public library users in Canada (Gupta et al., 2022). Quantitative studies like Leung et all’s study of academic library usage (Leung et al., 2022) and Mushtaq and Arshad’s study of public library perceptions (Mushtaq & Arshad, 2022) were referred to when writing questions. While the special collections survey does not use Likert scales to the same degree as these quantitative studies, they were useful in considering whether to make a question open ended or not.

To collect responses, the survey was shared on the author’s social media accounts, including Facebook (178 followers), Instagram (96 followers), their dedicated hobby Instagram (570 followers), and Twitter (200 followers). Friends and colleagues were asked to share the survey with their social circles.

Online groups were targeted based on geographic location and potential interest in collections held at UCL. Groups include:

• Two WhatsApp groups and one email list for members of Church of England parishes in Southeast London.

• WhatsApp group for Library and Information Studies students.

• Facebook group for an East London tabletop gaming club.

After a couple of weeks, 109 survey responses were recorded.

When sharing the survey, the goal was to break out of the library and university community as much as possible and capture responses from people who would not know about SCLs through their work or studies. However, not all library professionals will have exposure to SCLs, and their responses could provide additional insights. There was also a concern that, due to the method of collecting data, it would be difficult to collect more than 50 responses. To balance these concerns, the survey was shared with the WhatsApp group for Library and Information Studies students, along with a request that they in turn share with their own contacts. But it was not shared with SCL professional networks or other university groups.

Limitations

The only demographic data collected were age, profession, and education. It was assumed that a small sample size and detailed demographic information would lead to misleading conclusions. However, due to the reliance on personal connections, it is likely the author’s own demographics as a white, university-educated, American woman are overrepresented in the results. Future surveys would benefit from including additional demographic questions or targeting specific community groups.

Awareness of “special collections” may be influenced by exposure to the author’s social media posts. It is reasonable to assume some respondents have visited an SCL before due to personal connection to a library professional. However, library colleagues in other sectors were asked to share the survey with their contacts. Due to respondent anonymity, it is not clear how many responses came from the author’s own social circle or from contacts of people not working in an SCL. Partnering with researchers outside of SCLs, or using market research tools, may allow for better reach outside of the university and librarianship “bubble.”

Questions on the form were not mandatory, meaning that a small number of respondents (about 4 people) did not respond to every question. Some responses also had errors – such as responses being split across two open-text questions or letters replaced with characters. This may be due to people using their mobile phone to respond to the survey or to issues on the software end. For clarity, corrupted words have been replaced with the correct word in brackets.

Managing SCL bias in responses

Unsurprisingly, most people in the author’s social network are library professionals. Additionally, because this is a study about libraries, other library professionals may be more motivated to fill out the survey. However, informal conversations with colleagues in other sectors indicated there may not be a correlation between library experience and understanding the work done in a specific sector like SCLs. Filtering out all responses from library staff may mean filtering out responses from public librarians and academic librarians who have no prior knowledge of SCLs. This could mean losing information about barriers to access, especially for SCLs like UCL that are part of a larger academic library service.

Additionally, the author shares information about her work on social media platforms, including pictures from events and exhibitions. Social media followers and personal contacts are more likely to have visited a SCL because their personal connection to a UCL Special Collections employee.

To address the potential biases in data, respondents were also asked questions about their background to filter out potential social exposure to SCLs. The survey tool used was Qualtrics, which allows for automatic filtering of data depending on responses to specific questions.

Respondents were asked if they had visited a SCL before and if they had any work experience in a library, archive, museum, or university. When analyzing the data, multiple filters were applied to check for variations between different kinds of responses. Variations between difference respondent backgrounds are discussed in further depth in the results and discussion section.

This filtering process was not without its flaws, as 20% of people who responded yes to “Have you visited a Special Collections Library before” defined an SCL as a subject specific library. And while 73% of library professionals defined SCLs as a place where historic or valuable material is kept, 15% defined SCLs as subject-specific libraries. Because there was not one single audience group where all respondents had a clear idea of what an SCL was, the results section of this paper primarily focuses on all data. Due to the small sample size, it is not clear how much of the variations of people’s understanding of SCLs is an anomaly or statistically significant. A larger study with more demographic questions, may be better and identifying differences between specific backgrounds, as well as allow for better understanding of how exposure to SCL professionals shapes people’s understanding of special collections libraries.

Results and discussion

Demographics

Of the 109 respondents, the majority were between the ages of 25 and 44. 34% of the total respondents were 25–34 and 28% were 35–44. About 98% have attended university. Just over half have never visited a special collections library (51%) and 48% have not worked for a university or heritage institution. Library professionals are overly represented in the survey data, with 24% of respondents having worked in a library before. This is unsurprising given the dependence on personal connections when collecting survey responses.

General perceptions of special collections libraries

Two questions were asked to measure people’s general understand of SCLs. The first was a multiple-choice question measuring people’s searching behavior when looking for historical documents. Respondents could select more than one option.

The overall results are encouraging, with “Search Google” unsurprisingly being the first choice and “A library or archives” being the second. Online databases were also surprisingly popular, with 39% of all respondents indicating they would look for historical documents on a database.

The same responses remain popular even when focusing only on respondents who have never visited a special collections library before. Where 66% of all respondents selected “a library or archives,” 56% of respondents who have never visited a special collections library would look in a library for historical documents.

This data may indicate that the public expects documents to be in libraries and archives, regardless of firsthand experience with special collections. It is possible some of these responses may have been shaped by the survey itself. The survey mentions at the start that it is for a Library and Information Studies master’s program. If historical documents are not in a library, why would a library student ask about them? Multiple people distributing survey questions, without the covering paragraph about it being for a master’s program, may affect the rates at which people identify libraries as a space for historical documents.

The second question on general impressions of SCLs asked respondents to answer, “In your own words, what do you think a Special Collections Library is?” It was an open-ended question and answers were categorized into a thematic table.

Over half of all respondents (58%) mentioned rare, valuable, or historic items in their answer. Some of these responses focused on the importance of collections, for example “collection of the most prestige books in history.” Others, like “Somewhere you can request to view archives, & rare books and documents” incorporate both the collections and the work undertaken by SCLs staff.

Surprisingly, 26% of respondents identified “Special Collections” as a library which focuses on a specific subject. For example: “I assume it is a library which specialises in a particular area of literature or documentation rather than a general library which would have a broader range of more general interest literature.” This is not an unreasonable assumption – “special collections” is so vague of a term that people can interpret it in multiple ways. Even amongst people who identified special collections as a repository for rare and historic material, subject specific collections remain a theme. Of the responses categorized as “Historic/Valuable,” 16% mentioned subject specific collections. Answers include “Rare volumes with a particular theme” and “A library containing possibly rare materials on a niche topic…or something.”

UCL historically did not have a specific subject focus, and while they now have several areas they actively develop, are collections cover a huge range of topics and time periods. This contrasts with UCL’s other libraries, like the Science Library or the Institute of Education Library, which all have a clear subject focus in their name. More thought is needed in how SCLs can differentiate themselves from academic libraries while using language that is accessible to potential users.

A few answers specified rare material, without reference to historic or financial importance. Those were counted separately to avoid reading too much into people’s answers. For example, “I think a special collection library is a section in the library where there are articles or journals that cannot be found in the internet or other sections of the [library].” Their answers are consistent with the holdings of SCLs, but the emphasis of the responses is on how the items are unusual or difficult to find, rather than being the works of famous people.

Very few respondents said they did not know what an SCL is – even if they were not sure about their answers, almost all the people surveyed tried to provide a definition of “special collections.” It is encouraging that most of the responses are consistent with the kinds of items held in SCLs. The barrier to new users may not be the term “special collections” but other ways in which SCLs describe themselves.

Understanding access

To understand access expectations, the survey asks several questions about UCL Special Collections specifically. By making the questions as focused as possible, specific barriers to accessing SCLs can be identified.

The first question about access is free text and asks, “Who do you think is able to use UCL Special Collections?” Several respondents listed multiple categories and mentions of each category were counted. The overall total of answers on the thematic table is higher than the number of respondents.

Answers categorized as “UCL Students,” “UCL Staff,” and “UCL Academics” included responses that mentioned UCL specifically or provided enough context to reasonably infer the answer was UCL specific. For example, the response “Staff, students, visiting academics” was counted as UCL Staff, UCL Students and General Academics as “visiting academics” implies that “staff, students” is UCL specific. “General Students,” “General Academics,” and “General Staff” included external audiences as well as responses that did not specify an institution. “Researchers” includes responses that list researchers as a distinct audience.

“University members and researchers with specific criteria” includes someone who, while being a member of a university community, needs to meet a certain criterion to visit (e.g. apply for Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) member access). Similarly, “Anyone with Specific Criteria” includes a user not affiliated with a university who must meet a condition to access. For example, “Individuals that are vetted and pass a criteria to handle texts that cannot be replaced” and “Researchers, publib upon payment.”

Ultimately, there are several thematic categories because there are so many variations in response – significantly more variations than there were to the question “What is a Special Collections library?” Despite the variety of responses, there are some notable trends.

Across all respondents, 48% identify the public as having some form of access to UCL (including “anyone” and “anyone with specific criteria”). While a low percentage, it was much higher than was expected. This may be in part because a disproportionate number of people surveyed have a social connection to an SCL professional. A larger study of public perceptions may clarify if there is a significant portion of the population that assumes access to SCLs or if the initial survey sample was skewed.

There is a significant drop in percentage when adjusting for people who have not visited an SCL. About 36% identify the public as having access to UCL. Conversely, there is not a significant rise in the percentage of responses when adjusting for people who have visited an SCL. About 53% identified the public as being able to a visit UCL. While that number may be high, it also indicates there is room to improve how they communicate their policies to current audiences. If only half of the people who use SCLs know that many, like UCL, are open to the public then they will not refer friends and family who may be interested in our collections.

Even if the public believes they can use an SCL, they may not believe historic collections are relevant to them. To measure the kinds of things people think SCLs hold, a free text question asked, “what kinds of items do you think UCL Special Collections would have.”

Most responses were generic, like “Handwritten documents from the past, rare and out of print books.” This is probably due to the vague way in which the collection was written. A multiple-choice question might be a better way of measuring awareness of specific questions. However, the generic nature of the responses indicates room to improve how SCLs talk about their collections. Academic colleagues in spaces like the Science Library have a clearly defined subject in their title. UCL Special Collection’s broadness may make it difficult for people to associate specific collections with us.

A small portion of respondents identified specific collections held at UCL. Half of the responses were collections about UCL’s history. Several respondents identified London History – a topic that is tied to UCL’s name and is represented in their collections. Other identified collections include two mentions of the George Orwell Archive, two mentions of the history of education collection, and one mention of eugenics.

There were not enough specific collections identified at UCL to have a full picture of trends in what people are aware of at UCL. However, it is discouraging to see heavily promoted collections, like the George Orwell Archive, referenced infrequently. There are no mentions of other collection strengths as UCL, such as history of science and small press collections. Increasing public awareness of SCL’s collections could bring in more researchers – after all, if you come up more often in Google results for a topic, it will be easier for researchers to find your holdings. The exact relationship between perception of UCL Special Collections and use by researchers requires further investigation and long-term monitoring.

Investigating potential interventions

The survey also measured the efficacy of UCL’s current efforts to bring in new users. This section begins with a Likert Scale measuring the helpfulness of their current description is: “UCL Library Special Collections is one of the foremost university collections of manuscripts, archives and rare books in the UK.” Versions of this description is used on their website and social media profiles.

About 40% of respondents identified the description as helping a moderate amount. Controlling for variables such as not visiting an SCL or working in the library industry, “a moderate amount” remains the most popular choice. Clearly, there is room for improvement in how we describe ourselves.

Having established a baseline for UCL’s current description’s usefulness, users were asked to select interventions that would encourage them to learn more about UCL Special Collections. Options were provided, based off current UCL projects, and users were able to select more than one option. The overall total number of responses will be higher than the number of people surveyed.

“Information on important themes, time periods or authors in the collection” was the most popular response, with 75% of people selecting that as an option. This matches earlier responses where people identified an SCL as a subject specific library. UCL’s breadth of subject strengths makes it challenging to decide what themes or authors to highlight to potential users. But as very few people were able to identify any specific collections held at UCL, remaining general in the way they describe themselves may not be helpful either.

The second most popular responses were “exhibitions” and “information on who can visit.” Measuring the impact of specific exhibitions can be challenging (Marini, 2019), however it is clear there is demand for them. Ensuring there are clear ways for the public to access our exhibitions may help bring in new users. Likewise information on who can visit is an area of improvement. If public access is part of the commitment of SLCs, it should be prominent in our mission statements (Smith, 2006). Editing social media bio descriptions and website taglines to include “publicly accessible” may make potential users more confident that they can use the space. Putting information on access on the main page will help users find the information they need quickly and feel confident they are able to visit the library (Tucker, 2006).

Controlling for respondents who have not visited a SLC shows similar trends, with the top three interventions still being information on collections, users, and exhibitions.

Other interventions, such as guides on how to use an SCL, definition of terms, and open mornings were surprisingly low. When introducing UCL Special Collections to new audiences, they spend time ensuring people know what they mean when talking about “rare books” or “archives.” There is still a need for ensuring we explain terminology, but it may not be as helpful as talking about themes and authors in their collections.

While it represents a very small sample, none of the eight respondents who have not attended university indicated they would find definitions of terms useful.

There is not enough data to judge if this is a true trend or not. The survey also cannot tell us why people who have not gone to university would not find definitions of terms useful. It may be that because of their proximity to an SCL professional they are already familiar with the terms, or our terminology may not be as obscure as we think it is. However, it may indicate the time we spend defining terms like “rare books” or “archives” is not as important as we think. Overall, definition of terms was the least popular intervention with only 32% of respondents indicating they would find it useful.

The survey also asked respondents to identify barriers to access. Like the previous question, options were provided, and people could select more than one option.

The most popular response was “I’m not sure if I can visit UCL Special Collections if I’m not a researcher.” This reinforces the popularity of “information on who can visit” in the previous question. Even if users believe SCLs are generally accessible, they do not believe they fit in one of the categories for access. While SCLs have relaxed their entry requirements to allow for broader public access, they still have an air of exclusivity. Some of that is reflected by the fact only 36% of respondents identified “anyone” without restrictions as a potential user.

The free text section at the end of the survey reinforces this with stories of exclusivity and difficulty understanding requirements or getting through to staff. For example:

I found it frustrating that the Huntington Library would not [allow] me to access needed materials because I didn’t have good enough credentials.

I work in television and have had some a wide range of experiences accessing and clearing archive. Some collections [haven’t] even picked up the phone and some others have been incredible helpful (and enthusiastic!)

I think they are underutilized by students and non-professionals due to their obscurity and sense of exclusivity. From my experience using the awesome services at the Frick Collection in NYC (in person) when my former professor who works there suggested we take advantage of it’s resources.

When reviewing these responses, it is important to remember that this anecdotal data from a small sample size. The Huntington Library, referenced by one of the survey respondents, is one researchers writing about access have praised as welcoming (Gilman, 2010). However, it demonstrates the frustrations Daniel Traister described in 2000 are still, to a certain extent, true: “All of us know people who have been turned away from, had difficulties at, or experienced condescension, downright rudeness, or suspicion of their integrity, cleanliness, or general demeanor while trying to use–or simply not been encouraged to think about using – rare book and manuscript repositories” (Traister, 2000).

The second most popular response was “UCL is too far away.” While efforts were made to only survey people living in the UK, as the author is not British herself, some of the respondents will be from other countries. That said, the question was deliberately worded to include digital visits: “What might prevent you from learning more or visiting UCL Special Collections?” The number of responses indicating that UCL is too far away may reflect lack of awareness of their offering of free, digitized collections. This is reinforced by a comment left in a free text section:

I live in Cornwall and traveling to cities for personal interest projects is not always viable, but I am sometimes interested to access resources connected to my hobbies. [I]d want to be able to access as much as possible online. Even if there was a small cost.

Follow up research is needed to discover if the public is aware of SLCs’ digitization work and if they understand how to discover these collections. A second comment might identify one of the barriers to public awareness of digital resources:

If I can’t google that you have something, I'd be unlikely to find out, as most of my research nowadays is more casual so I don’t have contacts who would point me to useful places.

A quick test of googling one of UCL’s digitized collections, George Orwell’s Diaries, brings up a page from the British Library with links to UCL’s collections, but does not bring up any of UCL’s own pages. Likewise searching for George Orwell’s letters brings up a UCL News page about a donation of new Orwell letters, but no reference to the digitized collections. Ensuring digitized collections integrate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may help better connect people with digitized collections.

About 37% of respondents indicated they were not sure if they would be allowed to handle material in a Special Collections library. The difficulty for SCLs may be ensuring we are clearly differentiated from spaces like museums, where there is not an assumption of direct physical access and instead of a focus on high-security storage. One of the responses to the earlier question asking people to define SCLs said: “The first thing that comes to mind is the scene in angels and demons where they go to see an old book and someone shuts off the oxygen to the room and they almost die.” Similarly, myths surrounding white gloves have persisted for decades, spread by media’s depictions of SCLs (Schuessler, 2023). When bringing new users, we will be fighting both our own history of exclusion (Rossman, 2022) and the way media informs people’s understanding of our work (Vassilakaki & Moniarou-Papaconstantinou, 2014).

Consistent with answers to previous questions, 35% of respondents are not sure what is held in UCL Special Collections. Very few (15%) believe UCL does not hold collections relevant to them. Bringing in users is less about making people care about our collection and more about making them aware of what we hold in the first place. People may not know how to find collections relevant to them. A respondent commented:

[Special Collections] are fantastic! We need a central listing of them somewhere so I can see if any are interesting to me. I'd love to see SC or Archives about children’s books.

Several SCLs have books and archives about children’s books, including UCL. But if users do not know how to find that information, they will not visit. Using SEO and exhibitions to ensure the public can discover relevant resources may also help bring in new researchers who were not aware of our holdings. Pitching content at nonacademic audiences may improve our research output as well as improving access.

Recommendations

While the survey did not collect enough data to be statistically significant, it does flag areas of improvement for SCLs like UCL. More research needs to be done into public perceptions of heritage collections, but measuring the efficacy of targeted interventions can be part of that work.

Social media

Several SCLs already have a social media account on at least one platform. However, in the survey very few people indicated that they would search for historical documents on social media. The question on discovering historical documents may not have been the best place to ask about social media use. Particularly as in other areas of the survey, respondents used free text sections to leave comments such as “Promote it on Social media adverts, make them visually alluring in first 1 second otherwise no success” and “U need to philomena kunk¹ this onto the gram.”

Social media strategies for SCLs may work best if they balance the expectation that interesting items be posted to social media with the understanding that an item is unlikely to be ‘discovered’ just be going viral. Instead, social media campaigns which focus on community building (Riehman-Murphy et al., 2022) may help strengthen ties with people already interested in SCLs.

A theme throughout the survey responses is also the importance of ensuring people understand the subjects and authors represented in the collections. Rather than trying to match collection to themed months or weeks, SCLs could trial creating their own themed month which shines a light on their collection strengths.

Social media may also be a platform for tearing down misconceptions about SCLs. Discussion of handling practices on Instagram and TikTok has led to a slow increase in public awareness of appropriate handling practices (Schuessler, 2023). Misuse of white gloves is now well known enough that it was included as a joke for the comedy program “Cunk on Shakespeare” (Powles, 2016). As media and social media remain places where people form stereotypes about libraries (Datig, 2014; Vassilakaki & Moniarou-Papaconstantinou, 2014), ensuring SCLs make posts highlighting a range of types of users and researchers may help erode misconceptions over time.

Online discoverability

Ensuring collections can be discovered through Google is a must. No matter how passionate someone is about a topic, if an SCL does not come up in their searches, they may never know there is a relevant library they could visit. Utilizing SEO to ensure key collections are discoverable is a must.

Once someone has found a relevant library, websites should ensure that clear information on who can visit is front and center. UCL is exploring changing their tagline to include “publicly accessible” so, from the moment someone is on the Special Collections website they know anyone is welcome to use our collections. Replicating a study such as Tucker’s analysis of archive websites (Tucker, 2006) and measuring the number of clicks someone needs to make before finding out how to visit an SCL or key collections may lead to webpages being reorganized into user-friendly spaces.

Regularly checking in with our current stakeholders and ensuring online resources like subject guides and videos will allow SCLs to ensure their websites are fit for purpose. Even if feedback is not actionable, it may also help SCLs keep up with changing expectations on online resources. Feedback can also be used to measure the impact of marketing strategies and exhibitions.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions were consistently listed as being something users would find useful. While creating exhibitions take a significant amount of staff time, at UCL the work on exhibitions tends to wind down once exhibitions are in the case. However, UCL’s exhibitions can be difficult to find and require external users to get a pass to a UCL academic library. Ensuring that public exhibitions are truly publicly accessible and advertising them front and Center on pages such as SCL home pages or institution event pages may help bring in external users.

Support from, and engagement with, professional bodies

Previous studies by professional organizations have found a lack of consistency in how SCLs record user types (Dooley, 2013; Dooley & Luce, 2010) and measure usage of collections outside of their institutions (Kamposiori & Crossley, 2019). However, despite these large-scale studies, there is not yet publicly accessible evidence that professional organizations are supporting SCLs in standardizing user type data or discovering ways to measure external collection usage. SCLs tend to work in ways different to our academic and public library colleagues, but the nuances of our work, such as the degree to which SCL professionals are involved in delivering academic teaching, is not always addressed by professional bodes (Samuelson & Coker, 2014).

The research done in this survey is very common for academic and public libraries, but almost non-existent for SCLs. Support from professional bodies to do larger scale research of this kind would allow us to build a fuller picture of perceptions of special collections libraries and better address barriers to access. Ensuring individual libraries have the resources and skills to do their own surveys would also allow targeted interventions for specific community groups.

This also requires SCLs to seek out the experiences of library professionals outside of the heritage sector. There are resources and research already done by other sectors about library anxiety and reaching local communities. By engaging with colleagues already doing this research, we can learn from their experiences. Like academic and public librarians, we look after books, films, and music to ensure our community has access to the resources they need. Obviously, there will be differences between the collection management needs of a children’s book published in 2023 and a medieval manuscript written 700 years ago. But are they truly that different? Are they fulfilling their purpose in an organization if a potential user, passionate about its contents and meeting the criteria for access, does not believe they are the “right person” to use it?

Conclusion

Ellen R. Cordes, in her 2006 “A response to Traister,” writes “It seems to me that we do ourselves no service moaning about how we are perceived … when, instead, we should be more engaged in the basic issues of bibliographic instruction that are so central to the discussions of our “nonspecial collection” reference colleagues” (Cordes, 2006). To a certain degree, we are still repeating the same conversations around access because we are not following the model of our academic and public library colleagues. The survey in this article is, in large part, based on library anxiety surveys which study everything from student expectations of the physical space or activities to help students engage with their libraries. Public libraries often look beyond their current users to see why community members are not using their services.

Several of the recommendations made, ideally, will reduce staff burden rather than give staff more work to do. Focusing on resources potential users are interested in, such as visitor information, exhibitions, and collections, will reduce the time we spend explaining to our community who we are and what kind of work we do. Marketing that addresses misconceptions head on will shift the stereotypes students and researchers form before they show up at our door. Data from our stakeholders, rather than anecdotal evidence of barriers, will allow us to target our work rather than taking a scattergun approach to improving access.

SCLs do an enormous amount of work to ensure collections are accessible and reading rooms are welcoming. We have embraced outreach wholeheartedly and, in a relatively short period of time, have stopped asking “should collections be open?” and started asking “how do we ensure they’re as open as possible?” All we need to do is make sure our community knows there’s a welcome waiting for them, just through the library doors.

Acknowledgements

This research was undertaken by the author as part of University College London’s Master in Library and Information Studies program.

The author would like to thank the following for providing feedback, support, and distribution of the perceptions survey: UCL Special Collections (especially Sarah Aitchison, Vicky Price, Anna Fineman, Chelsie Mok and Rhea Evers), Dr. Elizabeth Lomas at UCL Department of Information Studies, and Revd Ian M Welch.

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 At the time of the survey, clips from various programmes presented by comedian Diane Morgan’s character Philomena Cunk, including “Cunk on Earth” and “Cunk on Shakespeare,” were viral on Instagram Reels and TikTok.

Appendix:

Copy of survey

Survey introduction

Hello! Thank you for filling out this survey ☺

I'm a Library and Information Studies MA student at UCL researching public perceptions of Special Collections libraries. Anyone over 18 is welcome to fill out the survey - especially if you don’t know what a Special Collections library is! There are no right or wrong answers and the survey only takes a few minutes.

Survey responses are anonymous and stored on a password protected server until October 2024. The data from the survey will be used in my assessment for a module on managing knowledge organizations. I might also use the data in a future journal article or conference presentation. It will not be used for purposes other than research.

Most of the questions allow you to select multiple options – please select all that apply to you!

If you have any concerns about your data, please contact me at [email address redacted].

Survey questions

Q1 (multiple choice: single answer)

What is your age?

▼ 18–24

25–34

35–44

45–54

55–64

65 or over

Q2 (multiple choice: single answer)

Have you ever attended university?

• Yes

• No

Q3 (multiple choice: select all that apply)

Have you ever worked for:

• Library

• Archives

• Museum

• Other university role

• None of the above

Q4 (multiple choice: select all that apply)

If you wanted to see a historical written document, such as the diary of George Orwell or an early English Bible, where would you look?

• Search Google for a photo or scan of it

• A museum

• A blog or other social media post

• An online database like the internet archive

• A library or archives

• This is not something I would do

• I don’t know

• Other _________________________________________________

Q5 (multiple choice: single answer)

Have you ever visited a Special Collections Library?

• Yes

• No

Q6 (free text response)

In your own words, what do you think a Special Collections Library is?

________________________________________________________________

The following questions are about University College London (UCL) Special Collections. No prior knowledge of UCL is required.

Q7 (free text response)

Who do you think is able to use UCL Special Collections?

________________________________________________________________

Q8 (free text response)

What kind of items do you think UCL Special Collections would have? 

________________________________________________________________

Q9 (Likert scale)

The home page for UCL Special Collections reads: “UCL Library Special Collections is one of the foremost university collections of manuscripts, archives and rare books in the UK.”

How much has this helped you understand what UCL Special Collections is?

• Not at all

• A little

• A moderate amount

• A lot

• A great deal

Q10 (multiple choice: select all that apply)

What would encourage you to learn more about UCL Special Collections?

• Definition of terms, such as “archives” or “rare books”

• Information on who can visit

• Information on important themes, time periods or authors in the collection

• Public exhibitions

• Open mornings or lunchtime talks

• Guides on how to use a Special Collections library

• Other __________________________________________________

Q11 (multiple choice: select all that apply)

What might prevent you from learning more or visiting UCL Special Collections?

• UCL is too far away

• I don’t think UCL would have anything relevant to me

• I'm not sure if I can visit UCL Special Collections if I'm not a researcher

• I don’t know what would be in Special Collections

• I'm not sure if I'm allowed to handle items in Special Collections

• I would find entering a university daunting

• Other __________________________________________________

Q12 (free text response)

Please add any further comments you might have about special collections libraries:

________________________________________________________________

Figure 1. All survey responses to “Where would you look for historical written documents?”

Graph titled “Where would you look for historical written documents?”. 78 responded “Search Google for a photo or scan of it”, 33 responded “A museum”, 6 responded “A blog of other social media posts”, 72 responded “A library or archives”, 2 responded “I don’t know”, 42 responded “An online database like the internet archive”, 5 responded “This is not something I would do”, 3 responded “Other”.

Figure 2. Responses from people who have not visited a SCL before.

A graph titled “Where would you look for historical written documents?”. 42 responded “Search Google for a photo or scan of it”, 13 responded “A museum”, 3 responded “A blog or other social media post”, 30 responded “A library or archive”, 1 responded “I don’t know”, 18 responded “An online database like the internet archive”, 4 responded “This is not something I would do”, 1 responded “other”.

Figure 3. All responses to “Helpfulness of UCL Special Collections description.”

Graph titled “Helpfulness of UCL Special Collections Description.” 1 responded “not at all”, 32 responded “A little”, 44 responded “A moderate amount”, 26 responded “A lot”, 5 responded “A great deal”.

Figure 4. All responses to “What would encourage you to learn more?”

Figure named “What would encourage you to learn more?”. 72 responded “Public exhibitions”, 37 responded “Open mornings or lunchtime talks”, 48 responded “Guides on how to use a Special Collections library”, 72 responded “Information on who can visit”, 35 responded “Definition of terms such as 'archives’ or 'rare books’“, 4 responded “Other”, 82 responded “Information on important themes, time periods or authors in the collection”.

Figure 5. Answers from respondents who have not attended university.

Graph labeled “What would encourage you to learn more?”. 6 responded “Public exhibitions”, 2 responded “Open mornings or lunchtime talks”, 3 responded “Guides on how to use a Special Collections library”, 4 responded “Information on who can visit”, 0 responded “Definition of terms such as 'archives’ or 'rare books’“, 0 responded “Other”, 5 responded “Information on important themes, time periods or authors in the collection”.

Figure 6. All responses to “Barriers to learning more.”

Graph labeled “Barriers to learning more”. 43 responded “UCL is too far away”, 16 responded “I don’t think UCL would have anything relevant to me”, 60 responded “I'm not sure if I can visit UCL Special Collections if I'm not a researcher”, 39 responded “I don’t know what would be in Special Collections”, 40 responded “I'm not sure if I'm allowed to handle items in Special Collections”, 7 responded “Other”, 12 responded “I would find entering a university daunting”.

Table 1. Thematic analysis of all “What is a Special Collections Library?” responses.

Category	Number of responses
Historic/valuable	63
Subject Specific	30
Niche/hard to find	5
Other	4
Do not know	2
Error	1

Table 2. Thematic analysis of all “Who can visit” responses.

User group	Number of responses
UCL students	27
UCL staff	10
UCL academics	2
General students	36
General academics	19
General staff	6
Researchers	12
University members and researchers with specific criteria	10
Anyone with specific criteria	13
Anyone	39
Alumni	6
Don’t know	2
Error	1

Table 3. Thematic analysis of all “What collections do you think UCL Special Collections has?” responses.

Options	Number of responses
Specific collection, held at UCL	15
Specific collection, not held at UCL	3
General Rare or Old Material	62
General circulating collections	7
Do not know	13
Other	5