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Analyzing archives and finding facts: use and users of digital data records

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Abstract

This article focuses on use and users of data from the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), U.S. Who is using archival electronic records, and why are they using them? It describes the changes in use and consequently user groups over the last 30 years. The changes in use are related to the evolution of reference services for electronic records at NARA, as well as to growth in the types of electronic records accessioned by NARA. The first user group consisted mainly of researchers with a social science background, who usually expected to handle the data themselves. The user community expanded when electronic records with personal value, like casualty records, were transferred to NARA, and broadened yet again when a selection of NARA’s electronic records became available online. Archivists trying to develop user services for electronic records will find that the needs and expectations of fact or information seeking data users are different from those of researchers using and analyzing data files.

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Notes

  1. Since February 2003, NARA offers online search and retrieval access to a selection of its archival electronic records, including the Records about Japanese Americans relocated during World War II, through the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) resource (NARA 2006a). AAD was developed under the auspices of NARA’s Electronic Records Archives (ERA) Program (NARA 2006c). Information on the volume of queries run in specific AAD series, and other statistics from the administration of NARA’s Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division are available upon request.

  2. The author’s first-hand experience in March 1990. The veteran subsequently told his story to a syndicated newspaper reporter and it was widely published in the media in the U.S.

  3. For example, unpublished AAD customer survey self-reporting of role from ForeSee Results, Inc., May 2004 to July 2004 (N = 930) indicated that 82% of the respondents identified themselves as either genealogist/family historian or veteran/veteran’s representative. The comparable self-identification of these groups in a later sample of 793 respondents (November, 2004 to March 2005) was 75%.

  4. One AAD file was copied eight times, one seven times, two six times, one five times, 21 four times, 15 three times, 121 twice, and 106 AAD files, once. Unpublished reports prepared by Lee A. Gladwin.

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Correspondence to Margaret O’Neill Adams.

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The opinions and analysis in this essay are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the [U.S.] National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Identification of specific users of NARA’s electronic records comes from published sources, which are cited, or with the permission of the named individual, for which the author is grateful.

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Adams, M.O. Analyzing archives and finding facts: use and users of digital data records. Arch Sci 7, 21–36 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-007-9056-4

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