My raw data from
my research will come in the form of video. I’m planning on taking that video
and turning it into maps that show the paths that people take when visiting the
library. I think ultimately it might be best to delete the videos after turning
them into maps in order to protect the identities of the participants. With
permission from the participants I’d like to make the maps available on the
library shared drive in order for future librarians to be able to access it.
It would be nice
to be able to document the thought processes of the library users, and their
goals when visiting the library. My research does not focus as much on this
because the main concern is for the physical use of the library.
I think your post highlights the struggle between maintaining authenticity of data, and maintaining the privacy of participants. Deleting video footage after converting it into maps makes total sense. However, part of my hesitation in these situations is what if the maps are inaccurate and someone wants to check at a future date? Or, what if someone wants to approach the data from a different research perspective? In this case, the initial stages of the study would have to be run again, which seems rather wasteful to me.
ReplyDeleteRealistically if the maps are inaccurate I've made huge mistakes in my research in general. I would hope that I'd spend the time checking and double checking to deal with that kind of thing. I'd be concerned about other researchers trying to use the videos for other things mostly because it might create problems for informed consent if I'm saying that the videos will only be used to create maps.
DeleteKind of off topic, but I'd love to see the videos/maps turn into a virtual tour of the library and its surrounding area! :)
ReplyDelete