Case
Abstract
This case study is an account of the 2014-2016 effort to expand a Swedish research database called the Uppsala Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study. The research project collected and photographed available data on school quality from local, regional, and national Swedish archives. The discovery of a widespread data quality issue in the existing database ultimately prevented the completion of the data collection and the execution of the planned research. A narrative is given about the challenges of conducting a complex, multistage archival data collection. Some of the problems that were encountered are mentioned. Practical methods and strategies that were used to collect the relevant data from the archival material are discussed. The methods used in the conversion and entry of some of this material into an electronic, numerical database format are also reviewed.