Interview Findings - Arrangement

Do you use folders to organize your email?

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No Title

	Yes	No
Series1	88	12

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No Title

	Yes	No
Duke	0.88	0.12
UNC	0.88	0.12

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No Title

	Yes	No
Faculty	0.878787878787879	0.121212121212121
Staff	0.880597014925373	0.119402985074627

So now let's talk a little bit about how people organize their email and other electronic documents. 88% of the people interviewed indicated that they use folders to organize their email, and interestingly enough, these findings are the same on both campuses and there's no difference in faculty or staff. And this is that point in the interview session where we actually ask permission to look at their folder structure and get them to explain the folder structure and make a printout for us. Generally, their folders are organized by job duties, administrative functions, most people have personal folders, research folders for the different research projects on which they're working, teaching folders, student folders, etc. and then you'll see such illuminating folder names as "things to do" or "special keeps." The content of the folders is organized by subject, sender, dates, or functions. Most people had both folders and subfolders. In general, I would have to say that the folder structures I looked at with regard to faculty engaged in research were very complex but well-organized – and everyone in this group used folders. The problem is with the way that folders are named – their contents are not always immediately obvious, so they tend to only make sense to the user. It would be extremely difficult for an archivist to appraise a group of emails at the folder level!