Abstract
The growth of archival studies programs has prompted archival scholars to establish an international network for supporting collaborative research, curriculum development, and pedagogy. Doctoral education is key to the sustainability of such programs and the continuation of the network over time. We carried out longitudinal research to survey the population of doctoral students attending one or more Archival Education and Research Institutes (AERI), an annual meeting first held in 2009. Building on prior research on graduate archival education, we gathered demographic and qualitative data about doctoral students specializing in archival studies who are based in several countries including the USA. We sought to assess attendee motivations, guide conference planning, and help advance overall AERI objectives. Our study provides a baseline understanding of the disciplinary backgrounds, research directions, and specific professional development activities that doctoral students in archival studies pursued around the globe from 2013 to 2015. This paper argues that doctoral education should continue to be a particular subject of archival research and indicates how archival students’ range of academic interests is diversifying and strengthening the scholarly community.
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Notes
Full information on past and future AERI is available at http://aeri.website/.
The Wordle of AERI 2009 & 2010 Participant Research Interests is available at http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/5072201445_447e8cf617_b.jpg.
iSchools are academic programs that share a fundamental interest in the relationships between information, people, and technology, as defined by the charter of the iSchools Organization available from https://ischools.org/about/charter/. There were 39 iSchools, in 12 countries on four continents, during the February 2013 iConference—also held in Texas.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to our participant community and to Patricia Galloway for serving as our faculty sponsor and advising our work. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the ALISE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 22 January 2014, and the 2013 AERI in Austin, Texas, on 19 June. We thank the attendees there for constructive feedback, and we dedicate this article to the memory of Mary E. Choquette. This research was generously supported by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Grant Numbers RE-02-08-0008-08 and RE-02-11-0032-11. The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Appendix 1: Complete Survey Instrument
Appendix 1: Complete Survey Instrument
1A. Email message first distributed on May 20, 2013; May 27, 2014; and May 14, 2015 (with two reminders sent prior to closing):
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Dear current and past AERI Doctoral Student Attendees,
You are invited to participate in a research study, entitled “Understanding Diversity in the Archival Studies Doctoral Student Body.” The study is being conducted by Sarah Buchanan (PI) and Katie Pierce Meyer (Co-PI) of The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information, 1616 Guadalupe St. Suite 5.202, Austin, TX 78701-1213, sarahab@utexas.edu and katie.a.pierce@gmail.com; as well as Jonathan Dorey (Co-PI) of McGill University, School of Information Studies, 3661 Peel St., Montréal QC H3A 1X1, jonathan.dorey@mail.mcgill.ca. Patricia Galloway serves as Faculty Sponsor.
The purpose of this research study is to examine disciplinary backgrounds and research directions that current archival doctoral students are pursuing globally. Your participation in the study will contribute to a better understanding of the disciplinary expertise and demographics of archival doctoral students and future faculty leaders. You are free to contact the investigators at the above addresses and emails to discuss the study. You must be at least 18 years old to participate, and you must be a current or past Doctoral Student Attendee (2009 to present) of AERI.
[2014 and 2015 only]: This is the second/third year of the study; if you participated last year, thank you and we hope we can count on your participation again this year.
If you agree to participate:
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The online survey will take approximately 20 min of your time and will include approximately 135 [in 2014: 135] [in 2015: 175] study participants.
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You will complete 21 questions about your educational background, research interests, preferred research communities (conferences and memberships), future career interests, international interests, and perspectives on AERI related to your doctoral work in archival studies.
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You will not be compensated.
There are no known risks. The potential risk to the participants is no greater than everyday life. There will be no costs for participating, nor will you benefit extrinsically from participating. Participants may expect intrinsic benefits from participating in this study, by contributing their experiences and energies into a study that will provide a more well-rounded illustration of the expertise and professional values held by archival doctoral students and future faculty leaders. Identifying information will not be included in the data collection phase or final dataset. The above research team members will store data in the secure UT Qualtrics system and will maintain secure personal copies on password-protected personal computers.
Your participation in this study is voluntary. You may decline to answer any question and you have the right to withdraw from participation at any time. Withdrawal will not affect your relationship with The University of Texas in any way. If you do not want to participate, either simply stop participating or close the browser window.
If you have any questions about the study or need to update your email address, contact the researcher Sarah Buchanan at sarahab@utexas.edu. This study has been processed by the Office of Research Support and the study number is 2013-05-0028. If you have questions about your rights or are dissatisfied at any time with any part of this study, you can contact, anonymously if you wish, the Office of Research Support by phone at (512) 471–8871 or email at orsc@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
If you agree to participate, click on the following link: https://utexas.qualtrics.com/[unique URLs in 2013, 2014, 2015]
This survey will remain open for two weeks, so we encourage your prompt participation.
Thank you.
Please print a copy of this document for your records.
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1B. Survey instrument:
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Q1. Are you a current or past doctoral student attendee of AERI? Yes/No [a No response skips respondent to final page]
Q2. What year did you enter your current doctoral program? [free text]
Q3. What is your age? Under 25. 25–29. 30–34. 35–39. 40–44. 45–49. 50–54. 55–59. 60–64. 65 and over.
Q4. What is your gender? Male/Female/Other
Q5. What is your citizenship? [free text]
Q6. Where is the university in which you are currently completing your degree located? [free text]
Q7. What are your current research areas/interests? [free text]
Q8. What are your previous research areas/interests? [free text]
Q9. My (primary) undergraduate degree is in: Humanities. Social Sciences. History. Natural Sciences. Languages and Literature. Fine Arts. Other, please specify.
Q10. Do you have a Master’s degree in which you focused on archival studies? Yes/No
Q11. Do you have a Master’s degree (apart from archives)? If so, what did you study? Yes, in [free text]/No
Q12. Which of the following best describes your place of doctoral education? iSchool North America. iSchool Europe. iSchool Asia/Pacific. LIS North America. LIS Europe. LIS Asia/Pacific. History North America. History Europe. History Asia/Pacific. Other.
Q13. Which conferences do you attend? Include those you plan to attend in the coming year. [Likert matrix, single-answer, vertical columns: Often. Sometimes. Once. Never.] [Likert matrix, rows: Archival Education & Research Institute (AERI). A national archives conference (SAA, ACA…). A regional archives group. iConference. ALA. ASIST. Digital Humanities. ALISE. ICA. Other (multiple conferences can be separated by commas). Other 2. Other 3.]
Q14. Of which organizations are you currently a member? [free text]
Q15. Which career do you especially plan to pursue? [multiple answer] Professor. Institutional administrator. Practitioner. Government. Nonprofit. Corporate. I will work in whatever setting I get a job. Other.
Q16. Geographically, where will you pursue work? I want to stay in my current town. I want to stay in my current state/province. I want to stay in my current country. I want to move to another country. I will move to wherever I get a job.
Q17. Which Archival Education & Research Institutes have you attended?
[multiple answer]
University of California, Los Angeles, 2009/memory trigger: wildfire on the Getty field trip
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2010/memory trigger: earthquake, tornado, basement
Simmons College, Boston, 2011/memory trigger: “Spirit of Boston” and harbor
University of California, Los Angeles, 2012/memory trigger: first Emerging Scholars
The University of Texas at Austin, 2013/memory trigger: UT campus, Texas Capitol
University of Pittsburgh, 2014/memory trigger: Callery Archives Lecture by Kirk Savage
University of Maryland, July 2015
Q18. The main reason (apart from student scholarships) I have chosen to attend AERI is: AERI is conveniently located. Attendees of AERI. Reputation of AERI. Recommendation of AERI by my advisor. Activities/Program Content at AERI. Other.
Q19. What is the most valuable AERI activity to you? [multiple answer] Paper sessions. Poster session. Workshops. Plenary talks. Mentor matches. Informal networking opportunities.
Q20. In the past, the AERI community has focused on various initiatives, including: Scoping the Published Archival Research Corpus (SPARC), Emerging Archival Scholars Program (EASP), Grand Challenges, Journal Ranking, Pluralizing Archival Education, and Archivist workshops. Should we continue these initiatives? Please reflect on which of these or others would be most valuable to you. [free text]
Q21. Apart from the current funding of AERI (IMLS), do you have suggestions for other ways and means of supporting AERI? [free text]
This survey is intended to be completed by current or recent *Student* attendees of AERI.
Thank you for completing this survey!
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Buchanan, S.A., Dorey, J. & Pierce Meyer, K. Traveling through: exploring doctoral demographics in archival studies. Arch Sci 18, 143–163 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-018-9288-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-018-9288-5