Reading Response 2: Geoffrey Yeo on Market Segmentation and Understanding Archives Users

Geoffrey Yeo’s 2005 article, "Understanding Users and Use: A Market Segmentation Approach," should be consider required reading for all working archivists and archival students.  In this article, Yeo uses a market segmentation approach, dividing up one’s customer base into separate groups based on similar characters and needs, and paints a picture of the diverse nature of archival patrons.  As Yeo writes, this approach "can help records managers and archivists to ensure that the records kept, or the systems by which access is provided, are appropriate to the users’ needs."

In this article, Yeo identifies values of records, common uses of records, and common types of patrons in archival repositories.  Yeo uses Schellenberg’s informational and evidential value and also adds a third type of value, the value of a record as an object or an artifact.  With regards to types of uses, Yeo defines categories of business use, cultural use, and accountability.  In regards to user types, Yeo categorizes prominent archives users as falling into one of the following groups: record creators, organizational employees, family members, occupational users, educational users, and self-driven users. 

Without using the space to describe the importance of each type of use and value to each type of patron, Yeo's scholarship demonstrates, generally speaking, that all identified values and uses are of notable interest to a significant portion of archival patrons.  These results are significant for archivists for many reasons.  Firstly, with regards to outreach, Yeo’s study can help the archivist understand what groups to best target when promoting archival use.  When looking to expand the user base of a repository, it is not wise to solely focus on external users and cultural uses.  Secondly, with regards to appraisal, archivists cannot afford to place emphasis on evidential value and de-emphasize informational value during the appraisal process.  Doing so will render an archival repository as being of diminished usefulness for many patrons.

Yeo, Geoffrey. "Understanding Users and Use: A Market Segmentation Approach." Journal of the Society of Archivists 26, no. 1 (April 2005): 25-53