Research Paper: Electronic Finding Aids: The Power of Presentation

Course Details

LIS 4800: Introduction to Archives (elective)

About

The goal of this paper was to select an aspect of the archives field (i.e. archival principles, core functions, or archival history) to research and analyze using scholarly literature.

Key Takeaways

Considering my interest in all things technical relating to LIS, I focused my research on the history and future of electronic finding aids. It was a previously unfamiliar genre to me so this paper allowed me to broaden my knowledge of the paper-to-digital history of finding aids, learn how archivists relate to them compared to researchers/users, and explore what research had been done on finding aid usability. My favorite part of this paper is the discussion of data visualizations in finding aids as a way to improve archival collection usability and help researchers make new connections. Electronic finding aids open so many possibilities when it comes to the presentation of information and I would love to further explore this subject in the future.