Thoughts on Data Collection

There are so many ways to collect information, some better than others, depending on the situation and the type of data to be collected. I am leaning my research project toward digital archives, which means I will have to use sources outside my place of work, such as the internet, publications, journals, and possibly interviews with staff, or by visiting archives in person or remotely. The benefit of researching a topic at my place of work, is I have direct access to raw data that I can use (de-identified) to my hearts content, if ok'd by my employer. Being an outsider requires more effort to get data, but can provide information for my career interest that I may not have gathered without this project driving me to dig deeper into different aspects of archives.

Some methods to collect data that I am considering include:

• surveys/questionnaires (patrons & staff)
• compare/contrast across multiple institutions
• literature reviews
• publications that include data (charts, graphs, diagrams, etc)
• analyzing specific aspects of digital archives
• and so on...

All things I will think more about as I develop my research idea and start looking at the literature.

Introduction to my Research Journal

This is my first post to start the process of developing research ideas for the SLIS 705 Research Project.  My initial thoughts on a research area is to investigate digital archives, which is my area of career interest. I have surveyed several digital archive projects in the past, but will now develop a research plan to focus on the aspects of digital archives that I don't know much about and/or what interests me the most. Some things I have considered are the manners in which institutions promote, market and disseminate their digital archives to the public. Another aspect of digital archives that interests me is to what degree material is available digitally in relation to the entire collection. As I begin researching this topic more, I anticipate other ideas may crop up and possibly change the course of my research focus.

Happy researching to the rest of my classmates!