Along with the need for heightened skills in managing huge amounts of information, the use of new electronic resources requires its own caution: researchers should not allow the ease of information gathering to tempt them to rely exclusively on these electronic sources. The rapidly growing online data and information are at best incomplete and at worst inaccurate. Despite potential problems, researchers can minimize the ill effects of on-line sources and ultimately benefit tremendously from their use. The speed and easy access of these sources enable researchers to gather enormous amounts of information quickly and to conduct far more comprehensive searches for particular types of materials than is feasible or even possible by more traditional means.
Drawing on our experience gathering White House communications regarding health care during the 103rd Congress, we offer some advice and warnings about electronic document gathering. Because of the variations in software and changes in communications technology, however, we do not provide here a step-by-step on-line user's manual. Rather, we offer some technical pointers in accessing the on-line archives.
