Jess and I ran into a roadblock with IRB, so we have been trying to work on the other aspects of our project in the meantime. Since we aren’t meeting for class on Tuesday, we plan to use that time to type up different pages of the website and finalize the layout of the website. Unfortunately, we keep looking into different areas that we hope to find information from, but we seem to always hit a brick wall. Both our town library and campus do not have any archives, and there aren’t any even remotely close to us; the local newspapers require you to pay for access to their old editions; and we cannot find any records of town meetings thus far. Luckily, there is a presentation on Thursday on our campus that is about fracking, so I am going to try to switch my work hours so that I can attend it. We are hoping to find more sources of information, but at this point in time the only thing we have been able to rely on are the books from our library- which have honestly been helpful. For the time being, we are trying to keep our heads on straight and work through this process day by day; especially when dealing with the frustrations of IRB and running in circles to find our information.
Hey Claire!
I’m sorry that you are hitting a roadblock in regards to the IRB process. It can be difficult and time consuming, but it is worth it in the end and you gain valuable insights from interviews. We have hit a couple of roadblocks when it comes to research and finding archives around us as well, but i’m glad you guys are making lemons into lemonade and finding things to work on while these roadblocks are in the way. That talk on fracking may be extremely beneficial to your website and you can get a feel for how your campus is reacting to fracking just by observing and taking notes about what you experience while there. Take it one day at a time and I know you’ll eventually get over the hump and find great things for your project. Good luck!