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.
The details of data collection will become clearer as we move through the semester.
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