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Introduction

Important goals of anthropology include formulating valid theories about human behavior across different cultures. In order to achieve this generalization, anthropologists need to test their hypotheses among many societies in the world. The Human Relations Area Files Collection of Ethnography (HRAF) was created for this type of cross-cultural research. The collection covers books, articles, and other documents that describe various cultures and societies in every region of the world.

Contemporary HRAF is composed of four different formats: paper, microfiche, CD-ROM, and a web version. Although HRAF originally consisted of only the paper files, new formats have been added in the above order since its incorporation in 1949. These four versions do not cover the same documents, so users often need to look at more than one format in order to find particular texts.

Sandra Roe, an anthropology student at Minnesota State University, Mankato, researched the availability of HRAF source documents in different formats. The goal of her research was to determine what documents were still missing from the web version and how difficult it was to find paper files missing from the web version in library collections. This research could potentially help librarians decide whether to retain HRAF subscriptions and which formats would be most useful. She conducted interviews to determine the effectiveness of the HRAF files in different formats from the user's perspective.

Sources:

Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember.
   2001  Cross-Cultural Research Methods. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.

Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF).
   2004  The Human Relations Area Files: Cultural Materials for Education and Research. Electronic document,

         http://www.yale.edu/hraf/, accessed December 28, 2007.

Roe, Sandra K.
   2002  The Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) Collection of Ethnography: Format Variations and Their

         Implications for Users. M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, Minnesota State University, Mankato.

This page was created by Minnesota State University, Mankato student. Updated by Melissa Lorentz 1/26/08.