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Election Reflections: Collecting Project, 2016

Overview of the Collection

Title
Election Reflections: Collecting Project
Dates
2016 (inclusive)
Quantity
273 submitted items, (63.59 mb)
Collection Number
UUS_Folk Coll 61
Summary
Two hundred thirty-three reflections to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and twenty-two 2018 midterm reflections.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.

Languages
Material in English
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Historical Note

The 2016 U.S. presidential election included the first major party female presidential nominee, former U.S. First Lady, democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, and billionaire U.S. businessman and self-proclaimed Washington outsider, republican Donald J. Trump. The election cycle was especially divisive. The election exposed the depths of a political divide for much of the country and the world.

The election was held on Tuesday, 8 November 2016, and Donald J. Trump was the victor. As the election results began to come in across news and social media outlets, social media "blew up" with personal reflections on the election results. Randy Williams, Fife Folklore Archives Curator in USU Special Collections, thought it important to collect these reflections. Colleagues Jennifer Duncan, department head of Special Collection & Archives, and Liz Woolcott, department head of Cataloging and Metadata Services, agreed. The three worked speedily with many colleagues throughout the USU Library to produce the project and gather reflections.

The social media collecting project was a first for the USU Library. And, the collection organization happened in five hours! From noon until 5pm, 9 November, the key team worked to create a Qualtrics survey to solicit responses, submit and received Utah State University Institutional Review Board approval, create an information website, write a press release, and launch the social media collecting project through social media.

The project launched at approximately 5:15pm and ran from 9 November until 9 December 2016. Contributors to the project were able to do so in under 20 minutes and all online. The first respondent was at 5:46 pm that same day: 31 minutes after the launch. Survey respondents were asked to share their thoughts on the election and had the option to provide additional information about themselves. The information provided in the survey helped the team organize the collection. This information will allow users to see how reactions varied in different locations, between men and women, political parties, etc.

The collection produced 233 reflections. The respondents are from 27 U.S. states and two foreign countries. Although the project received responses from around the world, the Library collected the reflections as a part of its mission to gather the voices and perspectives of members of Northern Utah communities. SCA hopes to do this for coming presidential elections, and possibly state elections. Future researchers seeking to understand the diversity of the political culture of Utah will require more than vote counts. Like tiles in a mosaic, each voice adds shape and dimension to our local, state, and national identity.

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Content Description

The collection includes 233 reflections about the 2016 presidential election results. The respondents are from 27 U.S. states and two foreign countries. The collections were gathered through a Qualtrics survey and harvested and imported into a robust spreadsheet that was rendered into a finding aid and a robust digital collection. Each reflection is presented as a pdf and includes metadata, supplied by the respondent.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Election Reflections: Collecting Project must be obtained from the Curator of the Fife Folklore Archives and/or the Special Collections Department Head.

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: UUS_Folk Coll 61; Election Reflections: Collecting Project; Fife Folklore Archives, Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations:UUS_Folk Coll 61, USUSCA.

Alternative Forms Available

The digital collection Election Reflections: Collecting Project can be found here.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The Election Reflections: Collecting Project includes 233 reflections about the 2016 presidential election results. The social media collecting project began the day after the 2016 election as Special Collection curators watched social media "blow up" with personal reflections on the election results. It seemed important to collect and preserve these reflections, and fast. The reflections were gathered through a Qualtrics survey. The reflections are presented as PDFs in this finding aid and in a robust digital collection. The respondents are from 27 U.S. states and two foreign countries.

Processing Note

Processed in January of 2017 and March 2019.

Acquisition Information

Social media campaign by Utah State Univesity Special Collections & Archives.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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Subject Terms

  • Elections--United States--Statistics--Personal narratives
  • Political campaigns--United States--Personal narratives
  • Political ethics
  • Political participation--United States
  • Presidents|zUnited States--Election--2016--Personal narratives
  • Social choice--United States
  • Voting--United States

Form or Genre Terms

  • User-generated content

Finding aid/Register created by Randy Williams
2017

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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