Lois A. Peterson
Wendy,
I am surely interested in the statistical study you have proposed and
would like to help if I could. I'm trying to get started with EAD, but
need more practice and exploration.
Head, Archives/Special Collections
Frederick Douglass Library
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Princess Anne, MD 21853
-----Original Message-----
From: Encoded Archival Description List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Wendy Duff
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 6:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: EAD Assessments and/or User Studies?
I think Mr. Marcus is asking about user studies that provide
feedback from researchers who use finding aids to locate material,
not about studies that gather feedback from archivists who take
workshops on how to use EAD.
To conduct effective user studies on the use of EAD finding aids,
we need to identify criteria for evaluation - what should be
measured?- and we need generic user evaluation tools to help
archivists conduct these evaluations. Some work is going on in this
area, and if people are interested they should contact me.
Wendy Duff
Date sent: Thu, 20 May 2004 13:24:13 -0700
Send reply to: Encoded Archival Description List <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mike Ferrando <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: EAD Assessments and/or User Studies?
To: [log in to unmask]
> Friends,
> What crossed my mind would be statistics of courses given,
> attendance, and EAD finding aids coded by those that took the
> classes.
>
> [Isn't there already a survey participants have to complete at the
> end of each class, etc.?]
>
> A graph could be charted demonstrating usage (growing) and
> involvement of the archivist community.
>
> The statistics would demonstrate the willingness to invest time,
> money and resources into EAD.
>
> As we all know, when an institution or university spends money, it
> usually means that they are serious about their intentions.
>
> Mike F.
> 7-4454
>
> --- "Fox, Michael" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Mr. Robyns raises an interesting question of much broader scope. I
> > personally would love to see "user studies" of all aspects of our
> > work so
> > that we might validate the efficacy of every aspect of the archival
> > enterprise. The truth is that we simply do not have quantified
> > calculations of the cost-benefit ratio or the return on investment,
> > however
> > defined, for any facet of archival activity. Or at least none of
> > which I am
> > aware. Help me out here folks with the metrics of our profession.
> >
> > Mr. Robyns is apparently comfortable with the benefits of his
> > investment in
> > learning, building systems for, and implementing MARC cataloging
> > and HTML
> > encoding of finding aids. I hope that soon he will be sharing his
> > "published assessment" documenting and justifying the amount of
> > work and
> > level of expenditure involved and the measurable benefits to
> > identified
> > clienteles.
> >
> > However, his chastisement is not entirely off-base. We certainly
> > can take
> > additional steps towards building a better case for EAD.
> > Insufficient
> > information and misinformation are often the foes of change. One
> > idea that
> > comes to mind would be the development of a series of case studies
> > documenting the implementation of EAD in a variety of institutional
> > settings. Perhaps the EAD roundtable might take on such a
> > project.
> >
> > Michael Fox
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jim Cross [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 2:04 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Fwd: EAD Assessments and/or User Studies?
> >
> >
> > All,
> >
> > The message below is being forwarded from the Archives list; some
> > of you may
> > have been following the latest discussion concerning EAD and
> > whether it is a
> > useful product for archivists or a "dead end." While the sender is
> > one of
> > the EAD skeptics, he does seem to be interested in learning more
> > about how
> > EAD helps users with their research. And I must admit, a
> > bibliography at
> > either the official LC site or the EAD Help site would be useful,
> > not only
> > for people interested in learning more about EAD but those of us
> > who are
> > implementing/have implemented it who want to be more effective in
> > assisting
> > our users by incorporating the results of such research into our
> > finding
> > aid/site design. I would suggest sending any responses to the
> > Archives list,
> > since I am sure there are others who would be interested in the
> > topic. Thank
> > you.
> >
> > Jim Cross
> > Manuscripts Archivist
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 13:58:11 -0400
> > From: "Marcus C. Robyns" <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: EAD Assessments and/or User Studies?
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >
> > Greetings:
> >
> > Would the EAD partisans out there please provide links and/or
> > citations to
> > any EAD assessment and/or user studies. Given that EAD is about
> > ten years
> > old and that several hundreds of thousands of dollars have been
> > spent in
> > its development and implementation, I believe it is reasonable to
> > expect
> > that there should be numerous published assessment and user
> > studies.
> > Perhaps I am missing something, but I see no such links or
> > citations from
> > the Library of Congress EAD web site.
> >
> > This request is not spurious, but a serious attempt on my part to
> > get a
> > handle on EAD's effectiveness to the profession and our users.
> >
> > Thank you for your help!
> >
> > Marcus C. Robyns
> > University Archivist
> > Northern Michigan University
> >
> > A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by
> > the
> > Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org
> > <http://www.archivists.org/> .
> > For the terms of participation, please refer to
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> > <http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp> .
> >
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> > <[log in to unmask]>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > James Edward Cross, CA
> > Special Collections-STI
> > Clemson University Libraries
> > Clemson, SC 29634-3001
> > (864) 656-7741 FAX (864) 656-0233
> > Visit our website at <http://www.lib.clemson.edu/SpCol/schp.html>
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> >
> >
> >
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