What are archival data?
___Archival data is data that already exists as a result of administrative procedures or past studies or evaluations
___Be aware of sources of archival data:
- Public records
- Research organizations
- Health and human service organizations
- Schools and education departments
- Academic and similar institutions
- Business and industry
___Be aware of the possible types of data available:
- Demographics
- Behavior
- Health and development outcomes
- Attitudes – racial, political, social, etc.
- Knowledge and awareness of issues
- Environmental conditions or factors affecting the population and/or your work
Why collect and use archival data?
___It’s easier and less time-consuming than collecting all the data yourself
___Archival data may have already been processed by people with more statistical expertise than you, making it easier to use in analysis
___Even with raw data, the basic organization and preparation (transcription of interviews, entry of numbers into a spreadsheet or specific software, etc.) may have already been done, again saving time and resources
___It’s quite possible that you can find more information than you’d be able to gather if you did it yourself
___Archival data could touch on important areas you might not have thought of, or identify patterns or relationships you wouldn’t have looked for
___It may eliminate the need to correct for such problems as lack of inter-rater reliability or observer bias
___Archival data allows the possibility of looking at the effects of your work over time
___Archival data can make it possible for small organizations with limited resources to nonetheless conduct thorough evaluation studies
When should you collect and use archival data?
___When it’s available
___When it’s relevant
___When you don’t have the time and/or resources to collect the data yourself
___When it can truly inform your evaluation
How do you collect and use archival data?
___Determine what information you’re looking for and why
Possible categories of information you’d be interested in:
___Data on past participants
___General information on the population and/or the community you’re working with
___Specific information on appropriate characteristics of the population you’re working with
___Cultural information
___Data on a similar group that can be used as a control or comparison
___Results of previous studies
___Determine who is likely to have collected that information:
- Government departments and agencies, the census, and other entities whose data are likely to be available in public records
- Research organizations
- Academia
- News media
- Foundations and other private funders
- Hospitals and other health care providers
- Mental health providers
- Human service and other community-based organizations
- Advocates and watchdog organizations
- Community activists
- Community economic development organizations
- Businesses and corporations
___Decide where you should look for archival data
- Your own archives
- The Internet
- The original source
- Libraries
___Decide what you plan to do with the data once you have it
Use archival data:
___To better understand the context of your evaluation
___To identify areas to address
___To establish a baseline against which to measure your results
___To identify already-existing trends that may affect the results of your evaluation study
___To establish a standard of comparison against which to measure your efforts
___To act as a control or comparison group
___To provide data for a longitudinal study