Community Archives Customer Service: Principles and Practical Models

Core service principles and mission alignment

Community archives customer service must be mission-driven: prioritize access, authenticity, and community stewardship. For many community archives created since the 1990s, mission statements explicitly connect customer support to community trust—service policies should reflect that. Adopt concrete commitments such as: respond to initial inquiries within 48 hours, provide free on-site reference for basic requests, and offer low-cost digitization for community members.

Translate principles into measurable policies. For example, a community archive that holds 25,000 items might commit to a 5-business-day turnaround for basic reference queries and a 10–30 business-day turnaround for reproduction orders depending on complexity. Publish these commitments on your website (e.g., “Response: 48 hours; Reproduction: 5–30 business days”) so users know what to expect and staff can be held to consistent standards.

Service models, staffing, and budgets

Community archives often operate on mixed staffing: paid staff plus volunteers. A sustainable baseline is 0.5–1.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) professional archivist per 10,000–20,000 cataloged items, supplemented by 5–15 trained volunteers for outreach and digitization. Typical annual operating budgets for small community archives range from $30,000 to $150,000 depending on storage, digitization, and program costs.

Allocate budget lines for customer service explicitly: designate at least 10–15% of annual operating funds for user support (reference services, phone/email support, outreach). If charging for reprographics, set prices transparently—for example, basic 300 dpi JPEG scans $0.50–$2.00 per page, high-resolution TIFF $5–10 per image, and research assistance at $25–$50 per hour for in-depth searches.

Access, channels, and user experience

Provide multiple access channels: phone, email, in-person appointments, and an online intake form. A best practice is a single published point of contact (e.g., [email protected] and phone +1-415-555-0199). Offer scheduled 30–60 minute research appointments (in-person or virtual via Zoom) and a searchable catalog available 24/7. Accessibility matters: ensure online forms meet WCAG 2.1 AA and that on-site spaces can accommodate mobility devices.

Design the customer journey with clear steps: intake → triage → response → delivery. Use a ticketing system (e.g., cloud-based support desk costing $10–$40/month) to log requests, track SLA compliance, and generate monthly reports. For patrons unable to visit, provide scanned materials by secure link (expiring URLs, encryption) within the stated turnaround—this protects both privacy and physical collections.

Digitization, reproduction, and pricing structure

Agree on transparent pricing tiers tied to production complexity. Typical charge models in 2025: $0.25–$2.00 per page for standard document scans (300 dpi JPEG), $5–$15 per high-resolution TIFF for photographic items, $1.00–$3.00 per minute for audio digitization, and $15–$40 per hour for professional audio/video editing or transcription. Offer a community discount (e.g., 50% off for local residents or nonprofit partners) and clearly state rights and licensing: reproduction fees do not equal rights transfer.

Specify delivery methods and fees: expedited digitization (5–7 business days) may carry a premium of 20–50%; standard delivery via secure download link is often included in price for digital orders, while physical reproductions (prints, USB drives) incur material costs—example: USB drive $12 each; standard 8×10 print $6. Maintain a published price list and sample invoice templates so patrons understand charges up front.

Service-level metrics, KPIs, and evaluation

Measure customer service with quantitative KPIs. Track at minimum: average first-response time, case resolution time, percentage of SLA compliance, number of repeat contacts per inquiry, and user satisfaction score. Aim for benchmarks such as 90% of initial responses within 48 hours, median resolution time under 7 business days for reference requests, and a user satisfaction (CSAT) score of 4.2/5 or higher.

• Essential KPIs: First response ≤48 hrs; Reproduction fulfillment 80% within published turnaround; CSAT ≥4.0; Annual repeat-user growth 5–10%.
• Operational metrics: Items digitized per month (e.g., 500–2,000 pages), backlog age distribution, volunteer hours logged, and per-item cost (target $0.10–$1.50/page for basic scanning in-house).
• Reporting cadence: monthly operational dashboard, quarterly board reports with financials, and an annual public service summary distributed to stakeholders and funders.

Legal, privacy, and disaster preparedness

Customer service policies must address privacy and rights management. Adopt a minimal data-collection policy: collect only name, contact details, research purpose, and payment info when necessary; retain contact records no more than 5 years unless legally required. Ensure clear takedown and privacy statements on the website; if serving EU residents, comply with GDPR requirements such as lawful basis for processing and data subject request procedures.

Prepare customer-facing disaster plans. Maintain offsite backups (two geographically separated copies) and critical service continuity measures: priority access to off-site research copies, emergency phone line, and a public notice template. Consider cloud storage options for digital surrogates—S3 Glacier Deep Archive costs approximately $0.00099/GB-month in 2025 for long-term storage—or local tape rotation for physical preservation. Clearly communicate temporary service limitations (expected outage duration and alternate contact) when disasters occur.

Outreach, partnerships, and sustainability

Customer service extends into outreach: run regular “open reference” hours, quarterly digitization clinics, and partner with local libraries, schools, and historical societies to reduce duplication. Leverage partnerships to share costs—example: a county historical society might contribute $10,000/year to underwrite digitization in exchange for permanent online hosting of a subset of materials.

Seek diversified funding tied to measurable service outcomes. Grant proposals that promise specific customer service improvements (e.g., “digitize 10,000 pages and reduce response time to 48 hours”) are more competitive. Maintain transparent public reporting (annual service metrics and financials on the website) to build trust and justify requests for municipal support, which frequently ranges from $5,000–$50,000 annually for small community archives.

What is the main purpose of an archive?

An archives is a place where people can go to gather firsthand facts, data, and evidence from letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs, and other primary sources.

Why are community archives a radical approach to archiving?

By sharing their experiences and narratives communities get to represent themselves in history. This radical approach to archiving contributes to our representational belonging, allowing communities to discover themselves in the archive and see themselves as existing in the past, present, and future.

What is a community archive?

Community archives are archives that document and communicate the history and activities of a community of people, and that are created and managed by members of that community.

What are the disadvantages of archives?

Limitations Of Archival Research

• The researcher may not be able to find the exact information they are looking for.
• The researcher may also come across a biased or opinionated source.
• The researcher may not understand the language used in the archived documents.

What happens when someone is archived?

Once someone has been archived, you do not see their chats or get a notification when they text you.

What are the two types of archiving?

There are two general ways of archiving documents: analogue or digital. Analogue refers to the physical storage of files and documents in paper form. Digital document archiving involves storing information and data on a digital storage medium.