My research grant, part 3: survey participants

Ten faculty members and ten students were selected to participate in the survey.  Of them, four faculty members and over ten students were invited with the proviso that their participation was voluntary and would not involve any degree of risk.  All participants were given the option to complete a written survey or to be interviewed; everyone opted for the interview.  The interview questions were reviewed in advance by a few of the participants.

Four faculty members and twenty students from the Department of History, the Department of Psychology, and the School of Education were interviewed.  Both groups were asked ten questions that were pre-approved by the Acadia University Senate Research Ethics Board.  The interviews were done either in groups or individually, as appropriate and mutually agreeable.  All participants had attended an archives session within the past two years.

An additional six faculty members were selected for participation, but were not invited to participate.  This group had never requested an archives session and so pre-approved questions were devised to determine why.  These six faculty members were not interviewed because of the survey results (below) and because, during the research, four faculty requested sessions which had never been requested before and two faculty indicated that they plan to request a session in the Fall of 2012.  Although this group may still be surveyed for their comments, it was decided that an outreach strategy may be the best way to engage additional faculty as the need is clear.  An outreach strategy will likely draw even more faculty to request an archives session.