Research Methods 2 Archival Project (P03049)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : LLC-P-P03049

The Archival Project is an independent piece of research, undertaken by all candidates in the Spring Semester, relating to an archive or database (printed, manuscript, or electronic). Subject to the course tutor’s approval, students are free to choose their own material for analysis. The AHRC-funded Scottish Book Trade Archive Inventory, to be launched on the web in June 2006, will provide an index to available archival sources.
Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the relevance of the archive in question, to provide a detailed description of its contents and material condition, to provide a discursive summary of research issues arising from their encounter with the material involved, and where necessary to show an understanding of the problems involved in detailed statistical analysis. Assessment will be by portfolio. The research involved may be preparatory to the dissertation but the latter must not repeat material arising from the Archival Project.
Examples of suitable topics include:

A statistical analysis of titles published by Thomas Nelson 1890-1920
Editing a series of unpublished 17th century letters
Who paid for modernism?: the real history of Penguin Books
Invisible Subjects: the presence of women in the old and new DNBs
Byron and his Publishers: a descriptive list of correspondence
Who advertised in the Publishers’ Circular: 1837-1847?
An 18th Century Library Catalogue: description and analysis
The Bibliometric Value of COPAC
Fees for Authors: when did writing become 'professional'?