«Back
Next »
Making Sense of the Material
You have found the document you are looking for. Now what? To use it, you must begin trying to understand the creators, the purpose of the document and its historical significance, ask initial questions to establish the context of the record's creation.
- Who wrote this? When? Why? (For this you should refer back to the Organizational History in the beginning of the Finding Aid.)
- Who are the people named in this document? The groups? Acronyms?
Try to understand the community that used the document or was affected by it.
- Whom is this directed to?
- What are the assumptions and values of the group of people who distributed and received this document?
We can begin to understand the role and purpose of the document creator by investigating even deeper.
- What does the language tell us about the document, its authors, and its audience? Group membership? Connections? Where does the vocabulary come from?
- What purpose is this document trying to serve or what goal is it seeking?
- What can we learn about the way this document was produced and distributed?