Begin with the End in Mind: A Records Management & Archives ...

excepted information, and if the patron agrees, that specific information can be redacted
or the entire document removed and the patron can access the remainder of the records.
6.5.2 Varied research purposes
Researchers access records for a variety of
reasons. They often have a personal specific
information need or are conducting academic
research on a broad range of topics. State
legislative records are a rich source of state data,
and researchers often access them in order to
uncover social and political trends because they
offer an aggregate of data that may be useful to
social scientists.
Historians are often interested in issues not even Texas Library and Archives, circa 1940s, TSLAC
directly related to the legislator per se, but in issues
the legislator's identity reveals about his/her
constituents; for example, voting patterns, particularly for specific groups of constituents that
share a common ethnic, religious or class identity. Sociologists and historians may view
constituent records not because they are interested in what one citizen believes, but to
identify trends regarding what citizens collectively believe.
Often academic researchers are interested in the work of legislators as a collective group of
participants in a process. Legislators are just one component of a three-branch system of
government that is impacted by numerous internal and external forces. Researchers are often
interested in a macro-level perspective, which often transcends what the individual member
did or said on a particular day.
Researchers—as well as other legislators—often use records to study legislative intent; to
determine what proposed or passed legislation was originally intended to accomplish, as well
as to understand the implications of legislation passed in previous sessions.
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