Research in Information Studies: A Cultural and Social Approach

By W. Bernard Lukenbill

Research is integrated into the whole fabric of modern-day society and culture. It affects our lives in so many waysfrom finding a job to knowing how to manage our health. Information studies designed to understand this array of information encompasses a wide expanse of disciplines. Many of these areas draw their philosophical and research bases from a mixture of disciplines within the social sciences and the humanities. This book takes a holistic view of these diverse areas and shows how they are united through the common thread of enhancing our knowledge of and understanding the world in which we all live.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469179612

W. Bernard Lukenbill

W. Bernard Lukenbill (Bill) is a professor emeritus in the School of Information at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. He began his career as a high school librarian in Texas. He graduated with a BS in Education degree from the University of North Texas. His MLS degree is from the University of Oklahama, and his PhD. is from Indiana University. In addition to serving as a high school librarian he was a reference librarian at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. His teaching career in higher education began in the College of Education at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. He also served on the faculty of the University of Maryland , College Park. Since 1976 he has been on the faculty of the University of Texas. He retired in 2010 as an emeritus professor. He has published widely in the professional and academic press. His research has involves cultural and social issues as they impact information studies. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and other biographical resources. He has presented his research widely including both the United States and internationally.

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Copyright © 2012 by W. Bernard Lukenbill.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction And Guide To Use

Guide To The Contents And Organization

Notes On Illustrations

Chapter 1 What Is Research?

Chapter 2 Comparative Research Traditions

Chapter 3 Research And Theory Building: Its Role In Modern-Day Information Studies

Chapter 4 Better Practice And Sound Theories

Chapter 5 Models For Research And Practice

Chapter 6 Major Research Processes And The Reporting Of Research

Chapter 7 Tools Of The Trade: Techniques For Social And Cultural Research

Chapter 8 Quantitative And Qualitative Methods: An Introduction And Guide To Terms

Chapter 9 Ethical And Legal Behavior In Research

Chapter 10 Research Literature, Critical Thinking, And Reporting Of Research

Addendum A Preparing The Research Report And Grant Writing

Addendum B Multidisciplinary Background Readings, Research Studies And Online Resources

Notes

To all in my cohort of fellow doctoral students in the School of Library Science at Indiana University, Bloomington (now School of Library and Information Science), who studied with me. All of these folks inspired me and helped me develop as a researcher and teacher. This book is also dedicated to the late Sarah Hand who, during her career, worked tirelessly to support library education and scholarship support for students entering the profession.

Acknowledgments

I am very fortunate to have been guided by several mentors, friends, and research cultures in my career. As a doctoral student in the then School Library Science at Indiana University, Bloomington (now School of Library and Information Science), I was helped and challenged to do my best by Professors Margaret Rusvold and Haines McMullen. They, along with their colleagues and my fellow doctoral students, helped reinforce in me the importance of research and its many nuances. As an assistant professor in the College of Library and Information Studies, University of Maryland, I had the privilege working with a talented faculty that allowed me to further my understanding of research theory and its applications. Professors James Liesener and Margaret Chisholm were my friends and mentors there. During my many years on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Information, I was able to appreciate the integration of practice, service, and research under the guidance of several deans and faculty members.

I cannot fail to mention my son, James F. Lukenbill, and his wise decision to earn a PhD in measurement and evaluation with a concentration in statistical methods. With this background, he has become my mentor and collaborator in several research projects. Thanks, James!

Of course, my family, my wife, Shirley, and my grandchildren, Aaron and Mia, and their delightful mother, Julie, must be thanked for their interests and patience with me as I undertook this project.

Introduction and Guide to Use

Scope, Audience, Uses, Resources, Organization

Research is integrated into the whole fabric of modern-day society and culture. It affects our lives in so many ways—from finding a job to knowing how to manage our health. Information studies designed to understand this array of information encompasses a wide expanse of disciplines. Many of these areas draw their philosophical and research bases from a mixture of disciplines within the social sciences and the humanities. This book takes a holistic view of these diverse areas and shows how they are united through the common thread of enhancing our knowledge of and understanding the world in which we all live.

Scope. Although this book cannot consider all information study areas, it does give considerable attention to the social sciences and addresses the relationships between social science and other types of information studies found in the humanities and sciences. Many of the research examples are taken from areas such as librarianship, literary analyses, museum studies, archival investigations, history, education, communication, and medicine.

Theory is necessary for good research, and the book pays attention to theoretical concepts found in various areas of research that are important to information studies. The attention to theory highlights the struggles that disciplines often have in integrating theory with practice.

Lest we forget our past, throughout this book, biographies of researchers, theorists, and social and cultural events are discussed so that the research and theory that grew from these persons, time and events can be remembered, appreciated, and used when appropriate by today’s researchers.

Audience. This book can be used in many ways: for individual study, help in understanding research as cultural and social elements of a progressive society, application of research to practical problems; assistance in becoming better consumers of research information, and as a textbook for beginning students in research as well as a refresher or reference sources for more advanced researchers and students

Uses and Resources. Important sources for information such as indexing, abstracting services, and electronic data sources are discussed throughout this book. Colleague-based communications such as networking, conferences, publications, and personal relationships are discussed. Legal and ethical considerations are important in today’s research environments, and these are presented with specific examples of research fraud and research deceptions.

Investigations in information studies, like all fields of research, must pay close attention to data collection procedures and analysis. This book gives attention to basic statistical and data collecting procedures both qualitative and quantitative in a straightforward and practical manner.

Organization. The book is organized into ten chapters with two addenda: addendum A, Preparing the Research Report and Grant Writing and addendum B, Multidisciplinary Background Readings, Research Studies, and Reference Sources. The chapters are arranged in ways that guide the reader in organized steps through the research process.

Guide to the Contents and Organization

Chapters 1-3. Introductory Chapters. These first three chapters provide basic information on research processes and terms that the reader will encounter in reading research literature:

Chapter 1. What Is Research?

Chapter 2. Comparative Research Traditions

Chapter 3. Research and Theory: Its Role in Modern-Day Information Studies

Chapter 4. Better Practice and Sound Theories. Discusses the important place that theory plays in research with examples and commentaries on how theory is used and applied in the professional and research literature.

Chapter 5. Models for Research and Practice. Presents models that have been used and cited widely in information research and that have influenced information studies.

Chapter 6. Major Research Processes and the Reporting of Research. Chapter 6 reviews general research applications and discusses how research is disseminated and reported.

Chapter 7. Tools for Research: Techniques for Social and Cultural Research. Chapter 7 continues the discussion introduced in chapter 6 by providing more details and with more specifics as to types of research designs and methods available to the researcher.

Chapter 8 Introduction to Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Information: An Introduction. Chapter 8 considers both quantitative and qualitative research designs, including mix-methods approaches. This chapter provides information on major statistical applications and definitions generally found in the research literature with exercises based on information study situations.

Chapter 9. Ethical and Legal Behavior in Research. Chapter 9 reviews legal and moral obligations that the researcher faces in maintaining high ethical standards in conducting both personal and institutional research. Copyright issues are also considered.

Chapter 10. The Literature, Critical Thinking, and Reporting of Research. Chapter 10 provides an overview of how to access research literature, how to report it, and how to be a critical consumer of research literature.

Addendum

A. Preparing the Research Report and Grant Writing

    This section offers practical advice on how to prepare a research manuscript for presentation as well as how to write grant proposals for funding.

B. Multidisciplinary Background Reading and Resources

Background is necessary for good research. This listing provides a multidisciplinary bibliography of research. The listings include theories and concepts, reference materials, and citations to research studies and projects.

Notes on Illustrations

The illustrations in this book have been selected to represent the cultural and social aspects of research in society. The line drawings of well-known scientists and theorists by Richard H. Hendler are based on historical records found in archival repositories. The abstract cover image is also by Handler illustrates the many factors of research development and discover. Other illustrations are those from historical collections and sources and some are taken from current life. Many of these are unique to this book. Illustrations related to statistical concepts are also included. Together, they all depict the many relationships of research and society.

Illustrations

Figure 1.1. Medical staff performing a practice-based procedure.

Figure 1.2. Theory and its relationship to research and practice.

Figure 2.1. Medical practice and hygiene.

Figure 2.2. Claude Bernard introduced the scientific method to medicine.

Figure 2.3. Children and the idealism of Eugencis.

Figure 2.4. Public art in Austin, Texas.

Figure 2.5. Class and social conflicts in melodramas,

Figure 2.6. Public WPA art, Madill, Oklahoma.

Figure 3.1a. Theory building cycle.

Figure 3.1b. Theory building cycle.

Figure 3.2. Émile Durkheim, (1858-1917), Karl Marx, (1818-1883), and Max Weber, (1864-1920).

Figure 3.3. Bibliographic Humor. A caricature of Antony Panizzi (1797-1879).

Figure 3.4. Charles Cutter (1837-1903) and Melvin Dewey, (1851-1931).

Figure 3.5. Printed Cards Division, Library of Congress, 1920s.

Figure 4.1. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Social System simplified.

Figure 5.1. A systems model.

Figure 5.2. A berry-picking scenrio of an information search.

Figure 6.1. Young Charles Darwin in his late 20s.

Figure 7.1. L. Woodcut, Albertus Magnus Teaching Four Pupils."

Figure 7.2. Conservator Karen Pavelka demonstrating the care of

fire-damaged paper.

Figure 7.3. Music as information and dialogue within a church community.

Figure 8.1. Richard Wright, (1908-1960).

Figure 8.2. Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938.

Figure 8.3. Aged manuscript and two Edison recording rolls.

Figure 8.4. Dependent and independent variables.

Figure 8. 5. A.The Bell-Shaped Curve statistically represents the normal distributions of values.B. The Bell-Shaped Curve with Height Values Added.

Figure 8.6. Carl Friedrich Gauss, (1777-1855).

Figure 8.7. Visual means of displaying data: Bar graphs and pie graphs.

Figure 8.8. Regressions lines showing data patterns.

Figure 10.1. The National Library of Agriculture, home of the Food and Nutrition Information Center.

Chapter 1

What Is Research?

Objectives of the Chapter

The major objectives of this first chapter are to introduce the basic concepts of research, its multidisciplinary nature, its practical applications, and most importantly, how research influences society, culture, and professional life. It will also provide specific examples of research traditions and approaches drawn from various disciplines in holistic and multidisciplinary ways to illustrate research in personal and professional relationships.

Research is a human activity directed at investigations that have the objectives of discovering, interpreting, and revising human knowledge found in many and varied contexts in the world. Research involves most, if not all, human endeavors.

Research is found in everyday life. It is not limited to what occurs in laboratories, institutions, and academic settings, but involves such activities as home arrangements and situations, financial behaviors, religious understandings and support, friendships and associations, political, and social and cultural life. Anyone who has comparison-shopped for a car, an appliance, or even a winter coat has engaged in research.

Basic and Applied Research

The Fundamentals

Basic and applied research procedures are two types of research that are often confusing when first encountered. Basic research seeks to either confirm or disprove existing empirical or theoretical assumptions. In doing this, its primary interest is to understand and explain observed phenomena with only a secondary interest in applying findings to current needs.

Applied research is based on solving real-world problems.¹ It relies on basic science principles, for example, engineering applies basic science knowledge and insights into designing and building cars, constructing buildings, developing color television, and building bridges. Other examples of applied science include improving agricultural crop production, treat or cure a specific disease such as smallpox; and improve the energy efficiency of homes, offices, or modes of transportation.²

Of course, there are overlaps between basic and applied research. We see this in the field of brain research and its implications of research in information studies. Researchers at this point generally must rely on basic theories and limited observations of how the brain processes information. Such theories help information researchers and practitioners understand how to develop information products that best adhere to basic theoretical assumptions. Alongside theories, promising new technologies such as the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow us to see inside the brain and help us test and shed new light on how people process information.³

Biomedicine is an example where theories and experiments precede practicality, but often lead to practical applications. Figure 1.1 depicts medical technicians performing a practice-based procedure in a community-based organization serving the poor. Here, we see the long line from theory (understanding a medical concept) to baseline practice of transforming and applying this concept to medical practice within a social context.

ch%201%20figure%201.1.jpg

Figure 1.1. Medical staff performing a practice-based procedure.

Published by permission.

Theoretical physics likewise offers examples of attempts to understand the world by making models of reality used for rationalizing, explaining, and predicting physical phenomena.⁴ To repeat, theoretical research provides ways of solving current problems by laying the foundations for present and future research and application agendas.

Theory in Research: An Introduction

Research conducted in most areas relies on theories or theoretical constructs to explain phenomena. Because theory is so important to research, it is discussed throughout this book in its various constructs.

Theory has several meanings, and this in itself presents problems. It takes on different meanings in different cultural and social areas. A dictionary definition often begins by saying theory is abstract thought or speculation. This definition is sometimes applied by the general public to scientific theory. This definition is often reflected in arguments presented by those who do not accept biological evolutionary theory.

In science, research may begin with ideas or speculations. Nevertheless, these ideas and speculations must be proven or disproven based on observed facts and systematic analysis.

Theory can also be considered ideal or hypothetical sets of facts and principles. Acceptable theory in all research areas reflect analysis based on facts and relationships and principles or abstractions reflecting reliable bodies of facts. Scientific theory demands facts and well-developed principles that offer the most exacting explanations of observed phenomena.⁵ Figure 1.2 illustrates the role that theory plays in research and practice.

ch%201%20figure%201.2-blank.jpg

Theories

Practice

Research

Theoretical & Applied

Science

Social Science

Humanities

Technology

Information Studies

Ideas

Figure 1.2. Theory and its relationship to research and practice.

Basic Characteristics of

Scientific Research

Deductive and Inductive Reasoning

Deductive and inductive reasoning are two important approaches used in all research. Deductive reasoning is to look at a situation from a broad perspective, drawing conclusions from a general premise (from the outside into the inside of a situation). Inductive reasoning is to start with the specific data from a situation and build conclusions from the inside outwards.⁶

Along with sound reasoning, explanations offered by scientific research must meet several characteristics. They must be empirically based. That is, based on symmetric observations meeting rigorous standards of control. These explanations must be rational in terms of following logical assumptions based on known facts. Scientific explanations are testable. Testable means that the outcomes can be tested through direct observation or proven false often by not finding what is predicted. Scientific explanations are often very specific as they generally reside only in small areas being investigated. Evaluation of scientific research is always judged for consistency based on known principles and evidence.⁷ They are tentative because scientific findings are always subject to revisions and/or rejections as new information emerges.

Some of the basic rules of scientific research are the following:⁸

• A reliance on and reorganization of established scientific methods and existing paradigms.

• Goals that seek to provide information and theories that explain or attempt to explain human nature and natural qualities that are beneficial to humankind.

• Attempts to provide practical as well as theoretical approaches to solving problems.

The methodical approaches used in scientific inquiry center around the following:

• Defining and formulating of topic for research.

• Developing research questions or hypotheses.

• Conceptualizing definitions to be based on theories or models.

• Constructing operational procedures.

• Gathering and analysis of data.

• Testing data against the research questions or hypotheses.

• Drawing and justifying conclusions based on the data.

• Making suggestions as how the research can lead to more research or how it strengthens or even challenges previous research.

Encompassed in all this is the expectation that the design is so solid and understandable that it can be reproduced by other investigators.

Harvard Professor Lisa Randall says that science is understanding uncertainty. When understanding occurs, it is based on degrees of certainty based over a wide range of scales. The matter of scientific theory is never really settled as theories have limitations and scientists continually try to define and extend the range of applicability. When the correct methods are used, over time, the right results emerge.⁹

Scientific Research and Belief Systems

Randall in her book Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World (2011) clearly states her belief in logical science and inclusive scientific approaches to solving modern-day problems. Like Randall, most of us, both as researchers and as practitioners, have belief systems. Belief systems came from various cultural and social sources including nationalism, religion, politics, professions, work situations, and family life. Belief systems, like all systems, are subject to scientific study that leads to testable predictions.¹⁰

Religious beliefs about biological evolution and the age of the earth offer good examples of the conflicts between science and some religious belief systems. These conflicts are so strong that many science departments in universities that have close ties to religious institutions have had to define their positions. For example, Baylor University identifies itself as a private, Christian, and Baptist university.¹¹ The biology and geology departments at Baylor University post these statements regarding their curricula. The biology department says this:

Evolution, a foundational principle of modern biology, is supported by overwhelming scientific evidence and is accepted by the vast majority of scientists. Because it is fundamental to the understanding of modern biology, the faculty in the Biology Department at Baylor University, Waco, TX, teaches evolution throughout the biology curriculum. We are in accordance with the American Association for Advancement of Science’s statement on evolution. We are a science department, so we do not teach alternative hypotheses or philosophically deduced theories that cannot be tested rigorously.¹²

The geology department at Baylor likewise offers a similar rationale in describing their structural geology curriculum including the age of the earth:

In terms of [the time span of Earth], we work with the very rapid propagation of fractures to processes that extend over the 4.6 billion year history of Earth.¹³

The biology department at Oral Roberts University, also a Christian-identified institution, describes its curriculum this way:

One aim in our program is to integrate our Biblical faith with our study of the biological sciences. The faculty strongly espouse that their faith in Christ does not impede their scientific endeavors; rather, it encourages them to elucidate the majesty and glory of God as revealed through the workings of His biological Creation. Thus, we consider a vocation in biology as a God-ordained calling into the study of the wonders of His Creation. Another goal is to train students to use scientific and critical thinking skills to accurately discriminate between use and misuse of scientific facts.¹⁴

What is Science in the Professions?

A Look at Library and Information Science

Library science as a profession offers an example for how scientific logic and methods have influenced professional life. One of the first academically based schools for librarianship in the United State was the School of Library Economy at Columbia University. The school was established by Melvin Dewey in 1886. Library economy was the preferred name for library work at the time.¹⁵

It was also the time when scientific management was introduced to the public by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915). Taylor’s scientific management ideas were influenced by scientific methods and were based on precision of work flow, time factors, performance tasks, personnel alignments, and logical decision making. ¹⁶ His ideas had a tremendous influence on technical productions in many fields, including librarianship. The library movement, and by extension, information science, soon changed its culture and name to library science. The science aspect of the new name indicated that library management was scientific in that it was precise, standardized, and regulated to be efficient. Hannah Logasa in her 1928 textbook on school librarianship reflected this managerial approach.¹⁷ These principles were expressed earlier in the 1920¹⁸ and 1925¹⁹ schools library standards published by the National Education Association.

Bad Science (Pseudoscience)—Good Science

Researchers and scientists in all fields have an ethical responsibility to conduct good, reliable research. How can we identify bad research and good research? Good science reflects designs that lead to careful observations, often aided by powerful technologies that allow the scientist to proceed beyond human abilities. A good example of this is the invention of the microscope and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Good science is always objective and scientists must report their findings in unbiased and honest narratives and reports. Inferior research often begins with poor methodologies and is often built around false assumptions or trivial questions. Good science must present studies that can be reproduced by researchers independent of the original research. This reproduction must lead to the same or closely approximated conclusions as the original research. If the original research cannot be reproduced, the study and its results are not acceptable.

For example, a much published account in 2005 concerning the cloning of dogs was reported in the journal Science by well-known scientist Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University. Nevertheless, after many attempts by independent researchers, the study could not be replicated. A review panel of the university declared the study intentionally fabricated. ²⁰

Several other characteristics of bad science are its lacks of objectivity and its misapplying of scientific methods to prove an existing belief system. Some argue that creationism and intelligent design are attempts to disprove biological evolution theory by misusing science.²¹

Bad science often does not disclose precognitions by the investigators or their personal affiliations and agendas. Bad science does not use reductionism correctly. In good science, reductionism is used to explain complicated processes as simply as possible. Bad science often claims that a simple set of procedures can explain very complex phenomena. Good science is based on skepticism, meaning that it does not have a preconceived agenda or mission to justify the idea or concept being investigated.

In medical research, the scientist may hope that the testing of a new drug will lead to a cure of a disease, but he or she must be skeptical that the drug will actually work no matter how promising it might be in theory. Another aspect of bad science is that it parades under the cloth of the science, but can produce deleterious consequences and scientific fraud. ²²

The results of science findings can also be misused politically in government policy decisions. Climate change or global warming is an example of how scientific evidence or lack of evidence can bolster arguments in either direction. In 2010, the state of Arizona rescinded a policy of paying for organ transplants for low-income citizens. Some claim that this policy was based on flawed information that indicated poor cure or improvement rates of transplants provided by or to Arizona’s Medicaid agency.²³

Another example of dire consequences of bad and fraudulent science was a medical report by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues that reported that standard childhood vaccines could contribute to autism in children. This information was spread by the mass media, causing many parents to refuse to have their children inoculated. This then led to a resurge of common childhood diseases. After investigation, the editor of the British Medical Journal, Fiona Godlee, called the Wakefield study an elaborated fraud. ²⁴

Research Traditions

Social Sciences and the Scientific

Approach to Knowledge

Approaches to social science research use both mathematical approaches through quantitative studies and qualitative, narrative, and descriptive investigations. Nevertheless, both quantitative and qualitative approaches require theories that are reflected in the interaction among theories, observations, and data. The scientific method both in the sciences and social sciences demands careful construction of the study, clear observations, and correct interpretation of the data and unbiased reporting of the findings.²⁵

Social Sciences and Information Studies

Information studies encompass a wide array of study areas and for that reason it is sometimes hard to find a definitive definition of information studies. The School of Library and Information Studies at Florida State University defines information studies as areas that are concerned with:

The social, political, legal, economic and management aspects of information; information seeking, cognitive processing, knowledge representation, and their relationships to physical and intellectual access to information. ²⁶

Although information studies, especially library science, had its beginnings in the humanities, in recent centuries, all areas of information studies have presented themselves as a part of the social sciences community and adherents to the scientific approach acquiring of information and building knowledge. The development of academia as represented by the growth of colleges and universities has furthered this development. In the United States, we can trace back to 1863 and the establishment of the land grant colleges. These colleges established with federal governmental support were designed to improve agricultural production and management based on reliable science.²⁷ The war years of both world wars also produced a need for research and development as did the growth of higher education following World War II and a demand for faculty research along with governmental funding.

Disciplines in the broad area of the social sciences that inform and are closely related to information studies often include among others: sociology; social policy, human geography, and demographics; social and cultural anthropology; education; and social psychology. In fact, information studies draw on and are informed by investigative problems found in almost all areas of social research.

Science and technology areas such as biology and engineering also contribute to information studies. The arts and humanities also make contribution and their contributions will be discussed later in this chapter.

Social science inquiry uses a wide array of diverse data and information resources including census data, biographical information, observations of contemporary life, and historical sociology. Information studies likewise use a variety of ways to gather and interpret data. The quantitative approach uses numbers and statistics to explain findings, while qualitative research places emphasis on a smaller number of subjects or participants, but investigates a larger number of variables often relying on personal experiences and reflections.

Research in the Humanities

Research in the humanities has similar goals and objectives as social science research, although it often approaches research problems in different ways. Students beginning to prepare for careers in the broad areas of information studies often find it difficult to understand the differences between the traditions based on the scientific methods and those arising from the humanities. First of all, humanistic research is a very loose association of disciplines. These disciplines range from philosophy, certain schools of sociology and anthropology, music and the arts, some aspects of technology and environmental studies, and library, archives, and museum studies. At its most extremes, it is often opposed to mathematical precision and explanations as found in the scientific method.

Humanities research replies on a body of procedures that are not based on the experimental and empirical, but on earlier scholarship and traditions of inquiry. It is narrative and descriptive, textual and rhetorical based on the evidence being studied (e.g., the comedies of Shakespeare). Besides being descriptive, arguments are logical, rigorous, and exacting. Some maintain that researchers in the humanities do not concentrate on well-defined questions, but elaborate, [develops, and encourages ongoing] threads of discourse.²⁸

History and the Historical Method

Generally, historical research follows the humanities tradition. Nevertheless, it has its own methods and guidelines. Resources are at the core of historical research. Resources can include a variety of sources, both primary and secondary. Among others, these data include newspapers, letters, manuscript, diaries, memoirs, books, interviews, data sources such as census records, and other government documents. Libraries, archives, and museums traditionally have played important roles in making such items available to historians. Libraries and archives continue such traditions by making as much of their collections available through newer forms of document accessibility based on digitalization.

Like all research, the historian begins with identifying a problem that enhances knowledge; from that come data collected from appropriate sources. A research question or hypothesis is usually developed to help explain relationships. James L. Haley in his biography of Sam Houston says this:

What compelled [me] to write about Sam Houston even as sixty others have been compelled to write about Houston—is that he has survived scholarly scrutiny with his mysteries intact.²⁹

This biographer in his research was driven to learn more about these mysteries.

Rigorous collection of data requires that the information be correct (verifiable) and that it be authentic to time, place, persons. The collected data must be carefully organized, synthesized, and analyzed so that justifiable conclusions can be made. Generally, conclusions are stated as documented narratives.³⁰ In doing