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In this analysis of my project I will assess in four sections: The topic, the new media, the technology, and finally, the outcome and future direction of the project itself.

The topic: I believe that digitizing the Brotherhood Beacon has been a good project (and will continue to be). The best components of this project were that it forced me to learn the process of grant proposal writing and that it will eventually develop a terrific resource for those researching the Conservative Mennonite Conference (at least from the 1970s on). The unfortunate part of this project is that it is not the most innovative/malleable kind of project. Since I built the site primarily with researchers in mind, to some extent I had to follow the expected norms of researchers. While this was helpful in designing the project, I think it also limited the creativity and historical argument. It was helpful in that I am a researcher of sorts and so I could shape the database in ways that I thought would be helpful if I was researching - thus, a search function is absolutely necessary. However, you also want to be able to place each article within its historical context so it’s important to note the date and be able to browse the rest of that particular issue (some of these concerns will continue to shape the project as it progresses). On the other hand, orienting the database toward researchers also limited the space for overt historical argument. The project presents more subtle and fundamental arguments about the importance of a small religious sect, as well as emphasizing the importance of primary documents printed by the subjects of research in the historical endeavor. But researchers also want to see what they expect to see, so that also limits the shape of a research-oriented database. (more…)

Polling the Nations Database information through AU Library website

Covers polls from 1986 to Present

Library website - Databases by Title

They have a section “All About Polling” - this gives some of the history of polling from 1936 on and also talks about many of the factors in polling (how data is collected, random sampling, margin of error, etc) - These polls are all people who are scientifically selected to take the poll.

Most of the polls are from the U.S., but there a few from other countries as well.

You can search with dropdown lists or entering your own search criteria and full text search, try a variety of options to cover everything.

You can do a search function and also define geographic region of the poll (under the Universe category) and then you can export the ones that interest you most then have them emailed to yourself or download them in a nice printout format.avaona voan

I went to this workshop on 11/30/05 and found it very informative.  It seems like a great database that could be very useful intrying to ascertain/understand public opinion during important historical eras.  I asked a few questions regarding how Americans perceived the Sandinistas as well as the Iran-Contra Affair.  The site held a bit of information regarding public opinion oriented towards these subjects.

The primary shortfall of this database is that it only extends back to 1986.  But if your research area falls within the last twenty years, this is a great database to use.

Here’s a link: Brotherhood Beacon.