Testing the FAQs

March 2004 UNC/Duke workshop attendees:

• Liked the FAQ format

• Agreed that they would not read longer info, even preferred shorter – subdivide questions?

• Suggested that we use clear definitions and avoid the use of jargon

• Thought we needed more IT involvement

• Wanted clarification on issue of gownershiph

Once we were satisfied with the answers to our first 6 FAQs, we needed to test them. With funding from a UNC/Duke collaboration grant, we held a workshop last March with ca. 50 participants from UNC and Duke. Attendees were selected from the interviewee pool, the project's advisory board, and others who had expressed interest in the project. We broke the group down into small discussion groups, and project team members presented one of the 6 FAQs to each smaller group for discussion. Then we all got back together and reported on the discussion results. We learned that:

·       They liked the FAQ format

·       They all agreed that they would not read longer information, even preferred shorter ones, and suggested that we subdivide the questions

·       They suggested that we use clear definitions and avoid the use of jargon as much as possible

·       They thought that we needed more IT involvement, both in training IT staff to be more RM/Archives aware and in disseminating guidelines

·       They wanted more clarification on the issue of ownership of institutional records