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Proposal for Archival Website Research

Introduction

This study looks towards the future of interactions between users and archives through

the internet. The digitization of records has opened a new frontier of accessibility, which are no

longer restricted by its physical location. Individual files can be scanned and uploaded to a

digital database, with interactive finding aids that allow for entirely virtual research to be

conducted by users around the world and for information to be indexed by search engines, such

as Google. Digital archives also preemptively prepare archives for the influx of born digital

documents that will become the norm for records in the near future.

These new technological advances mean that the biggest inhibitor to progress and access

is archives themselves, with their limited time, funds, and staff. Currently archives must

reconcile resources spent on physical archives with digital archival efforts. This study seeks to

determine whether or not enhancements to the search system and increased digital collections on

a university archive’s website will garner more usage by students, both digitally and physically.

Students today have a wealth of information options to utilize and so an archive is no longer

guaranteed solicitation based solely on proximity. This study also seeks to determine how

improved digital archives will impact the academic pursuits of college students. While a

university archive exists for the benefit of the public, it makes sense that you would wish to

directly benefit the students enrolled at the institution. If this study finds that both an increase in

student traffic and positive reviews from students, then it could be used as justification for an

increase in resources and a shifting in priorities to focus on digital aspect of archives.

Hypothesis
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I hypothesize that an increased accessibility to an archive’s collections on the university

archive’s website will lead to student users having a better understanding of relevant materials in

the archive’s holdings and correlate to an increase of in-person visits to the physical site. An

improved digital archive will help the university archive maintain relevancy in competition with

other information resources by providing the ease of access and navigability that young

generations are accustomed to because of the internet of things. Amateur and student researchers

might be less acquainted with finding aids, so supplemental information, such as an interactive

search feature for multiple facets of metadata, will help increase their comfort working with

archives. Ideally, this increased access to the collections in the archive will be mutually

beneficial as students gain skills in utilizing primary sources and integrating these records into

their own papers. The efforts put into the digital archive will pay off and help the university

archive compete with alternative information services.

Literature Review

The first pieces of literature reviewed revolved around the realities of accessibility of

digital archives because there are limitations that present themselves. Cooper (2013) determined

that a majority of archives from the study had a negligible amount of their collection digitized,

which limited access for both creators and the public. Digitation can be hampered by its own

unique set of challenges. Engström and Rivano Eckerdal (2017) determined that if an account is

necessary for access to records then this inhibits many of the gains in accessibility that

digitization provides because not all people will be willing or able to create an account,

especially if the potential users are unaware of the details of a collection. Lee’s (2015) research

team discovered that access is limited by contractual agreements and policies, meaning that there

will be some limitations to what can be digitized and publicly accessible, also that staff must be
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aware of such restrictions. Maristella and Nicola (2012) noted that clear navigation tools were

necessary for users to understand how to properly utilize digitized collections.

As seen in the previous study, digital information technology systems often work in

tandem with access to archives, but these require additional technology expertise for the staff.

Peake’s (2012) study revealed that while unqualified Dublin Core was sometimes retrievable

from search engines, it could lead to repeated or omitted results, so usage is unadvisable. Elragal

and Päivärinta (2017) posited that having an automated digital archiving system will streamline

and expedite the process of digitizing records, particularly with the trend leaning towards born

digital documents. Of course, this would require extensive set up in the beginning as well as

routine maintenance, so a digital archive cannot exist without human oversight.

The final literature reviewed for this study involved analyses of user behavior to

determine how the subjects, and by extension all students, will interact with the new system, as

well as traditional archives. Borgman’s (2015) team encountered difficulty in identifying

individual internet users, which shaped how our study would be conducted to focus on a specific

group rather than online users as a whole. Robinson (2007) found that a certain percentage of

people still felt more comfortable visiting an information organization in person despite the

presence of online resources. Both Tally and Goldenberg (2005) and Daniels and Yakel (2013)

determined that students benefit from interacting with archives in the classroom because archives

provide a concrete grasp on history and help students learn how to navigate this space.

Research Design

For this research, I plan on collecting both qualitative and quantitative data about how

users interact with the archive website. For my method, I plan to have a college instructor

introduce an assignment where the archive would be a relevant resource and therefore the
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website will be specifically listed as a reference as long with other sources. This will most likely

be an undergraduate class focusing on research skills or local history to fit the collection of the

materials. Ideally, several classes will participate in this study to maximize participants. Only

relevant materials in the university archive will go through the preliminary digitization process.

The research assignment will be worked out through the department, but any additional surveys

will be incentivized with an opportunity to win a one-hundred-dollar gift card from Amazon or

similar retailer.

Students behavior will be observed to see how they interact with the website, including

how far in depth into the digital collections did they go, how much time was spent on the

website, and how did they use the search features. This will occur during a three-week long

process of once a week class time devoted to research in the library, which will be observed by

the researchers. Afterwards, the number of visitors to the physical archive from the sample group

will be recorded and all participants will be provided a survey in which they explain how they

felt about using the archive’s website. Interview questions will include queries about what

websites the students chose to use and why, what they liked about each website they chose, what

they did not like about each individual website, and if they plan to use any of these websites in

the future.

Students will have to be aware they are being observed, but the purpose of the research

will not be blatantly stated, to avoid biasing behavior, and survey responses. Instead, the study

will be presented as one about research behavior in general.

The surveys will be conducted through emails and the quantitative recorded data will be

stored in a shared spreadsheet that all researchers have access to. The data will be analyzed to see

if there was an increase of traffic to the archive and whether most the interactions with the
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website were positive or negative. To measure the change, a control group utilizing the older

website should be used as well, to measure visits to the archive. Quantitative data will best be

displayed as a bar graph for visitors and a pie chart for time spend on the website. Qualitative

data will be expressed through a table of repeated instances.

Potential Limitations & Research Quality

The study will be conducted by observing and interviewing a college class that has been

provided the archive as an optional resource for a project related to the course. One of the

limitations is the inherent limitation of accuracy in self-reported data for a qualitative study as

noted by USC Libraries (2017). Qualitative responses are vulnerable to exaggeration or modified

answers from participants, who might feel that they are responding the way the researcher would

like them to respond or in hopes of being quoted in the final report (USC Libraries, 2017). Even

the most well-meaning participant might be prone to leave out information due to selective

memory or include information that is not inherently useful because it is the result of an external

factor. Other potential risks are limitations of English understanding or biased questions shaping

results. The overall implication of these limitations would be that students inaccurately report

how they feel about the website and that leads to a conclusion that is correct for the study, but is

inaccurate.

Fortunately, limitations do not completely discredit a study, so long as you acknowledge

where there may be potential limitations to the research, as well as take and explicitly mention

the steps taken to ensure that qualitative data is accurate and reliable. Guba (1981) recommended

working with subjects to create an atmosphere of respect, where they understand how accurate

results rather than conclusions will benefit the study, and maintaining a presence in the

observational area to double check that behaviors appear normal and match the results provided
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by the survey. If students claim that the love the website, but it is observed that these same

students never accessed the website or utilized the data, then it might be best to omit this data

from the dataset so as to limit bias in the findings. I also feel that the survey should rely on

questions that are more than scales of feelings and yes or no questions because these are formats

that are easy to fill out mindlessly to be finished. Qualitative data does have limitations, but it is

the best method of capturing opinions and with the right amount of oversight, potential

limitations can be reduced or managed.

Another limitation of qualitative data is whether a researcher’s personal biases are

impacting the recording and collection of data. To ward against biases, researchers will work

together to identify instances of a trend as a team. Ideally, the research sessions will be recorded

so that details can be reevaluated and minor details will be less likely to be overlooked.

The final recognized limitation is the sample size of the study, which will be limited to

several classrooms of a college in the university. The study will state that the small sample size

might affect the results because perhaps the demographic makeup, teaching style, or campus

culture will impact the results. It is suggested that other schools attempt their own replications of

this study to determine if they get comparable results if doubt is cast upon our findings.
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References

Borgman, C., Van de Sompel, H., Scharnhorst, A., van den Berg, H., & Treloar, A. (2015).

Who uses the digital data archive? An exploratory study of DANS. Proceedings of The

Association For Information Science And Technology, 52(1), 1-4.

doi:10.1002/pra2.2015.145052010096.

Cooper, J. w. (2013). Accessibility of field recordings in united states ethnomusicology and

folk archives. Music Reference Services Quarterly, 16(1), 18-35.

Daniels, M., & Yakel, E. (2013). Uncovering impact: The influence of archives on student

learning. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 39(5), 414-422.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2013.03.017.

Elragal, A. & Päivärinta, T. (2017). Openinig digital archives and collections with emerging data

analytics technology: a research agenda. Tidsskriftet Arkiv, (1).

Engström, L. l., & Rivano Eckerdal, J. j. (2017). In-between strengthened accessibility and

economic demands. Journal of Documentation, 73(1), 145-159.

Guba, E. G. (1981). Criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic

inquiries. Educational Communication and Technology Journal, 29(2), 75-91.

Lee, J., Burnett, G., Vandegrift, M., Jung Hoon, B., & Morris, R. (2015). Availability and

accessibility in an open access institutional repository: a case study. Information

Research, 20(1), 334-349.

Maristella, A., & Nicola, O. (2012). User requirements for effective access to digital archives of

manuscripts. Journal of Multimedia, Vol 7, Iss 2, Pp 217-222 (2012), (2), 217.

doi:10.4304/jmm.7.2.217-222.

Peake, M. (2012). Open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting, Dublin Core and
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accessibility in the OAISTER repository. Library Philosophy & Practice, 1-23.

Robinson, L. (2007). Abdication or empowerment? User involvement in library, archives and

records services. The Australian Library Journal, (1), 30.

Tally, B., & Goldenberg, L. B. (2005). Fostering historical thinking with digitized primary

sources. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 38(1), 1-21.