Putting it all together

Now that I've come up with the parts and pieces of my research proposal, it's time to start putting it together into a cohesive document that tells a complete story. In reading chapter 15 of Robson's text, I am feeling reinforced in the idea that the proposal should be straightforward and communicate well. If the proposer is clear in what they want to do, it will be apparent to the reviewer. That makes me think of considering your audience. If you know the people reviewing your proposal are experts in the field you are writing about, then the language can be more subject specific and detailed. But, if this proposal is going to be used for a grant application for a foundation that does not know anything about what it is you are doing, that's where more explanation and clear language would be beneficial. Something I have learned from assisting with several grant proposals, is that it is important to not only understand the subject matter you are writing about, but it is important to ensure that the reader understands what it is you are requesting funding for.

Archives Questionnaires

When thinking about how I would gather information for my study on digitization in archives, I've determined a questionnaire would be useful for gaining an understanding of the thinking that archivists have about digitization as well as the people who use digital archives. I think the survey should include a combination of multiple choice, yes/know questions and more qualitative narrative questions, because my participants will generally be educated and at least somewhat knowledgeable about archives. I will probably design two separate questionnaires, one that is geared toward archivists and uses more archival terminology, and another that is geared toward researchers and other digital archives users, using terminology that is more general and basic. My focus is on what the archivist and digital archives users gain from digital material versus the physical. For the user questionnaire, it might be helpful to ask if the respondent has researched actual materials in an archive previously, because that would give some validity to the comparison of researching actual versus digital. Also, for the archivist questionnaire, I might want to ask what percentage of their time is devoted to digitization versus physical archiving and also the time difference between accessing material physically versus digitally. I will probably need to pre-test the questionnaires to make sure they make sense, hopefully I'll find some willing guinea pigs!

Evaluation and Research

Now that I have my research question a little better defined, I have been thinking about How I would gather information to investigate this question. Since evaluation research has been discussed in class and the readings, I have been trying to figure out my approach to designing my study. I envision the study to survey around 5 - 7 archives, investigating their digital collections and comparing that to their entire physical collection. Some of that information can be initially obtained through web resources, but then I will need to contact relevant staff to gain further information that is not available online. I am not as interested in action research, which involves making recommendations for changes. This a study would be more involved with gathering evidence to support a conclusion to my research question. I think some of the literature I surveyed will be useful in building a foundation for my study, giving me prior information to refer to for when I look at investigating my question.

Focusing Research Question

Now that I have reviewed some of the literature and gathered more information about research through the class lectures and readings, I'm becoming more focused on my research question idea. The question I am looking more closely at is,

"How are digital preservation efforts positively and/or negatively impacting the use of physical archives by the public, researchers, and archivists?"

This question interests me because we are currently in an age where most people communicate and gather information online. I wonder if archives have tracked the changes in the number of in-person or telephone requests for information when they provide it digitally. This study would likely look at archives that have fairly developed digital collections, because the traditional archives with minimal online presence wouldn't see these particular results. Right now, this is looking qualitative and quantitative to me, with numbers and quality of archival use both being looked at. I am planning to use a flexible design, which makes room for changes as the study proceeds. We'll see how this goes as I start developing the proposal further...

Good Research Ideas Already Used

As I review literature on digital archives, I'm finding some interesting research that has already been done - which leads me to think these are great ideas I can use to inform my research, but not follow the same focus, since it already exists.

Here are some interesting studies I'm finding:

• A review of the benefits of digital archives for research by looking at the citations in historical research that include digital archives. Source: Sinn, D. (2012). Impact of digital archival collections on historical research.
• An examination of how libraries, museums, and archives can collaborate to combine forces to better serve their users with digital information. Source: Marty, P.F. (2010). An introduction to digital convergence: Libraries, archives, and museums in the information age.
• Looking at the processes involved in converting original material to digital archives. (also listed on my 9/6 post) Source: Latham, K. F. (2011). Medium rare: Exploring archives and their conversion from original to digital part two.
• Berklee College of Music, investigation of the importance of digitizing material for preservation purposes. Source: Etsy, A. (2012). Berklee college of music archives: Preserving the past and learning for the future

Fixed Designs

There is so much to think about with fixed designs in a research project. After reading chapter 5 in Robson's book, my mind is abuzz with the various options, not only for my research proposal in the class, but also for the assessments we conduct at work. A concept that really interested me were the differences between pre-tests and post-tests depending on the kind of research that is being conducted. I've used some pre- and post-test measures with the work I do as a program evaluator, but it was great to read about the theories behind why one type would work better than another. I also never considered post-only tests, yet I realized I have looked at those types of tests before. I was also interested in the idea that there are different kinds of groups to use in different types of evaluations. Some are the same, some are different, and some are multiple groups who are the same or different. It's almost like a menu of options and you need to pick the right ingredients to have the best results for your study. Having said that, it still boggles me whether any of the fixed designs will apply to my research question. I don't have the answer yet, but I feel like after I've gotten a more solidified question in mind, the rest will fall into place.

Literature Review & Research Questions

Surveying literature on digital archives has gotten my brain working on some research questions that might be interesting, and using this research journal to link ideas to sources could be very helpful for future reference. I'm going to keep the ideas milling around while I continue to do research, but this can be my first go at sources and questions that I come up with related to them.

1-Resource: Gervits, M. & O'Donnell, J. (2011). Digital archive of Newark architecture.
Related research question: How are specific themes, ideas, etc represented to the public in digital archives? Looking at the software, layout, content, etc across multiple institutions. **I would want to pick one or two thematic elements such as artworks on paper, photography, or something else that is represented in multiple digital archives that are web accessible.

2-Resource: Higgins, S. (2012). Cataloging images using CONTENTdm.
Related research question: What is the most useful / least useful software (open source and proprietary) available for digital archives or specifically for cataloging images? Survey resources related to digital archives software, investigate software, possibly survey archivists.

3-Resource: Latham, K.F. (2011). Medium rare: Exploring archives and their conversion from original to digital part two.
Related research question: How to effectively manage the conversion of original archival material to digital?