LINGUIST List 3.975

Thu 10 Dec 1992

Sum: report on Ethnographic Software

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1. , Report on Ethnographic software

A follow-up to my request for info on ethnographic software....
 The program I was looking for is called "The Ethnograph," available
from Qualis Research Associates, P.O.Box 2240, Corvallis, OR 97339.
Phone: 503/754-1559 or e-mail: jseidelmcimail.com (I think J. Seidel
is the first author of the software). It costs $150 ($100 if you order
3 at a time) and comes with a very readable manual. It is, unfortunately
for many of us, available only in DOS.
 "The Ethnograph" helps manage qualitative research data. It enables
a user to number lines of text (interviews, field notes, etc.), code
segments into meaningful categories, and then give search commands for
various coded segments (e.g., count and print out all examples of an
"X contained within a Y" etc.). It wouldn't be useful for many linguists,
as it won't look for things smaller than a line.
 Some other programs that people mentioned having heard about are:
ANTHROPAC, a software and shareware program for managing fieldwork
data, reviewed in American Anthropologist 1989 pp 1055-1056, developed
by Stephen P. Borgatti at Univ. of South Carolina, costs only $25;
QUALPRO (I don't know anything about this one)
TEXT ANALYSIS PACKAGE (ditto).
 There is a brief mention of all these programs in "Writing Up
Qualitative Research" by Harry F. Wolcott, 1990, Sage Publications.
A better place to read about this stuff is probably "Using Computers
in Qualitative Research" by N. Fielding & R. Lee, 1991, Sage.
 Thanks to Stuart Sigman, Narahiko Inoue, Ray Lee, and Gene Valentine
for all the helpful information and advice. -- Margaret Luebs