Developing a research methodology to explore whether the architecture and environment of reading rooms has an effect on readers' behaviour, and specifically handling.

ARCHIVES; READING rooms; READING interests; ENVIRONMENTAL psychology; PRESERVATION of archival materials; MANAGEMENT

This article begins to address the question of whether the architecture and environment of archive reading rooms has an effect on readers' behaviour (focusing on handling). Relevant literature from the archival discipline, architecture, environmental psychology and other fields is explored and the development of a methodology to investigate the question is described. The methodology involves systematic observation of architecture and readers' handling, qualitative discussions with staff and questionnaires to measure readers' perceptions of the environment. The methodology was tested in four reading rooms, but the results were inconclusive and pointed to the difficulty involved in proving links between the environment and behaviour. Nevertheless factors which may affect handling were identified and it is recommended that individual institutions review reading room design, availability of reading aids and reading room procedures if they wish to improve handling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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