Historical archaeologists' utilization of archives

Abstract

Until now, archival user studies focused primarily on historians and genealogists. However, other user groups use archival materials as part of their research. This thesis seeks to provide introductory research specifically examining historical archaeologists as an archival user group. To this end, a survey was conducted online to ascertain how historical archaeologists locate and use archival materials. An interview with one historical archaeologist was also conducted to corroborate the findings of the survey. The responses from these sources indicate that historical archaeologists in general have similar research concerns as historians and genealogists regarding the use and access of archival materials. These results combined with the previous user group studies suggest that archives need to increase their online presence, especially through finding aids and catalog searches. Meniketti for giving much needed advice on historical archaeologists. I also owe Supriya Wronkiewicz many thanks for being my second pair of eyes during the writing process. My husband, Josh, deserves much love and many thanks for being so supportive through the whole graduate school and thesis process. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter

Grey literature – grey sources? Nuancing the view on professional documentation

“…Archaeological information source use has previously been studied qualitatively in order to develop an understanding of the implicit information-related issues of practical work (Huvila, 2006(Huvila, , 2014a. Furthermore a number of studies focus on archaeologists' and cultural heritage management professionals' uses of specific information sources or information use within specific institutional environments (Borchardt, 2009;Sufian, 2009). Recently attention has been directed to archaeologists' use of images.…”