Primarily History: Historians and the Search for Primary Sources

Aims and Objectives

This research project is being conducted to support archival work and historical research. To date, we have little evidence regarding use and efficacy of electronic access tools such as online catalogues and electronic finding aids employed by archivists. We also do not know how archivists are informing researchers in the use of these access aids or how historians are training their students in their use.

The basic premise behind this study is that information systems should be built around user information needs and behaviors. Working within this framework, the specific goals of this survey and the larger research project are to discover how historians are searching for and locating primary source materials; how they are teaching/advising their students to do so; and how archivists and other cultural heritage curators can best facilitate such information discovery.

To help answer some of these questions this project is surveying a sample of historians and archivists from UK. Dr. Helen R. Tibbo at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, is conducting an analogous study with historians and archivists in the USA

The disciplinary and professional perspectives from historians and archivists is an essential part of this comparative international study – the first ever to look at the information-seeking practices of historians.

Sample Methods

In order to create the historians sample population for the survey all higher education institutions that teach history were numbered. Random numbers were then generated and 80 institutions selected according to these numbers. From each institution 10 historians were then selected by stratified sample. Where we could not select 10 historians from a single institution, an additional institution was selected from our set of random numbers. This process resulted in 800 historians being selected. The sample was then checked to ensure it broadly matched the UK profile of historians according to gender. The sample was split into two groups of 400. Each group of 400 was further split into two cohorts. One cohort of 200 to be contacted via e-mail and requested to complete an online survey from, the second cohort of 200 was sent a printed survey form by post. The first group of 400 historians was contacted in autumn 2001 and the second group in winter 2001/2002. Each group were sent thank you and reminder notices. The historians that were originally contacted by e-mail are sent a mail reminder and those contacted by mail an e-mail reminder.

Along with this survey, a further sample of 25 historians have been interviewed face to face and over the telephone.

150 archives were randomly sampled from the National Register of Archives and profiled against UK archives as a whole and those used by academic historians. These comprise national, regional and local archives and record offices, university archives and miscellaneous corporate and special repositories. Archivists at these institutions are all sent a paper copy of the archivists survey with the alternative of completing an online version if they wish.

Archivists Survey

We hope you will provide your professional perspective on the way your archival services, particularly online and electronic finding aids, have been developed. By completing the survey you will provide an invaluable insight into current practice in the UK. This information will enable us to place historians retrieval strategies into context and enable comparison with our US data.

To download an electronic copy of the archvists survey from, right click on one of the links below and select Save Target As...

Historians Survey

We hope that you will be willing to share some of your time and experience by filling out our survey that explores how you go about finding primary resource materials for your research. This survey should not take more than 20 minutes of your time.  Please be assured that I will keep your responses totally confidential.

Historians requested to complete the survey on line can do so here: 

Historians sent a mail survey can download a replacement from here:

Returning this survey in any format indicates your willingness to participate in this study. 

Initial Results

A PowerPoint presentation of the initial results from the historians survey is available below. you are welcome to use this for your own information but please do not publish, quote or cite this presentation in any form. We hope to place articles in a variety of journals in the comming months. Notification of these will appear here.

Information Seeking Behaviours in the Digital Age (PowerPoint)

Funding
Generous research funding was provided by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Additional financial assistance and assistance in kind has been gratefully received from the Faculty of Arts and HATII, University of Glasgow.

Staff
Principal Investigator
Dr. Ian G. Anderson

Research Assistance
Monica Greenan Oct-Dec 2001
Rebecca Sharp March - Sept 2002

Contact

If you have any questions at any time about this survey, your participation, or the study and its findings please contact me at:

Dr. Ian G. Anderson
HATII
George Service House
11 University Gardens
University of Glasgow

Phone: +44 (0)141 330 3843
Fax: +44 (0)141 330 3788
E-mail: I.Anderson@hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk