Food Research and Digital Scholarship 2020; Archive Survey Results Summary

Food has become an increasingly popular subject of study due to its inherently multidisciplinary nature. However due to this wide appeal, there is not one specific group of users who use one specific set of texts. Many cultural institutions have large collections relating to food, some of which, now fully or partially digitised, are accessible to the global research community. Prior to our 2019 community survey (10.15131/shef.data.13948154), we did not know if researchers are currently using digitised collections, let alone which collections should be given digitization priority. This project is a start to filling in these knowledge gaps by asking what (and how) scholars are currently using analogue and digital material, and how libraries and archives can better support food researchers through digitisation and activities

2019 the AHRC US-UK Food Digital Scholarship Network ran a "Community Survey" that asked what (and how) food scholars are currently using analogue and digital material, and how US and UK libraries and archives can better support food researchers through digitisation and activities (to improve accessibility). (See 10.15131/shef.data.13948154)

This ‘Archive” survey was a follow up to the 2019 community survey and was directed at curators and digitisation teams in 122+ cultural institutions. Cultural organisations are those that store and collect information for research use for example museums, libraries, and archives. We received responses from 40 archives.

The study was Funded AHRC US-UK Food Digital Scholarship network AH/S012591/1

The project was ethically approved via the University of Sheffield’s Ethics Review Procedure, as administered by the Geography department (Application number 030674)