Seek and Yee Shall Find: A closer look at the information seeking and organizational

behavior of Genealogists.

By: Aaron B. Pope

 This proposed basic research study intends to explore the behavior of genealogists as

information users and their habits of information seeking and information organization as a whole

process. Data will be collected using questionnaires.

Problems that will solved:

One of the largest groups of patrons to use archival spaces is genealogists. However, it has not

been until the most recent history that analysts have begun to study genealogists and their information

seeking behavior. Mostly this has been due to the fact that genealogists have been over looked as

amateurs who are looking up family information. However, most genealogists have their own system of

organization, their own ways for looking up information and their own reasons for doing so. These are

three of the problems that this study will investigate. Research Questions Include:

A. Are younger genealogists more likely to rely on online resources than older generations?

B. What type of information are they seeking with of their genealogy searching?

C. How do genealogists organize their information so that the data can be used again and be

read coherently?
 Topic Assignment Checklist

Because this assignment asks you to do a type of thinking and writing you may never have done

before, I have created this checklist to help you decide if you have followed the assignment

parameters. The purpose of this checklist is just to help you think through the assignment – it’s

not a quiz. This checklist is for you. You do not need to turn in your checklist with your topic

assignment.

Is it basic research or evaluation?

 Basic (general, adds to the professional knowledge base)

 Evaluation (applies to a particular setting for improvement or analysis. State the setting,

ex: Moore Public Library)

Did you look in the Library Literature database for relevant literature?

 Yes

 No

What is your proposed data collection method? ONLY CHOOSE ONE

 Questionnaire

 Interview

 Focus Group

 Content analysis

 Other, please specify ___________________________________

Research Questions

1. Have you included 3 questions that cover different aspects of the topic?

o Yes

o No

2. Can all 3 questions be answered with a single type of data collection? (the same type you

specified above)

o Yes

o No

3.  Is the purpose of the study to collect data and not teaching or marketing?

 Yes

 No

4.  Is one of your research questions an independent/dependent variable construction?

 Yes

1. Which question? # 1

2. What is the Independent variable? Which of these sources do you use when seeking

out information for genealogical purposes?

3. What is the Dependent variable? Answers could be A. Online Databases, B.

Genealogical Archival institutions, C. Government Agencies D. Other Sources E. All The

Above F. None of the above

 No