LATEST NEWS FROM THE ESRC QUALITATIVE DATA ARCHIVAL RESOURCE CENTER (QUALIDATA)

The QUALIDATA Resource Centre at Essex has now been in existence for a lmost two years. Its aims are: locating, assessing and documenting qua litative data and arranging for their deposit in suitable public archi ve repositories; disseminating information about such data; and raisin g archival consciousness among the social science research community. Ultimately, the Centre aims to implement a policy ensuring that qualit ative data produced by future ESRC and other funded projects are offer ed for archiving. Those applying to the ESRC for research grants over the past few months will have noticed the inclusion of questions relat ing to plans for archiving any qualitative data they produce. Principa l investigators must therefore now be extra thoughtful in their plans for 'processing' materials they generate in the course of their resear ch, for example, ensuring that interviews are fully transcribed and, t hat tape recordings are of good sound quality. A major function of the Centre is to maintain an information database about the extent and av ailability of qualitative research material in general, whether deposi ted In public repositories or remaining with the researcher. The Centr e has surveyed almost 1500 identifiable ESRC funded qualitative social research projects dating back to 1970, by contacting principal invest igators, is tracing the data arising from classic post-war sociologica l studies and monitors current ESRC projects. The QUALIDATA database w ill be available via the Internet from October, from which researchers will be able to search and obtain descriptions of qualitative researc h material, its location and accessibility. The WWW Home Page for the Centre containing detailed guidelines for depositing qualitative data, data deposited, issues relating to confidentiality and copyright, inf ormation about the Centre, and links and references to other qualitati ve resources and repositories, has the following URL address: http://w ww.essex.ac.uk/qualidata. This information is also available in hard c opy.