ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors look at how data are processed, and how they may need to be organized, in preparation for the task of analysis. They explain what may be involved in processing documentary and physical data, examine the methods available for recording and processing observational and interview material, including transcription. The rapid development of mobile computing, especially smartphones, has made aural and visual recordings easier to produce and online materials easier to access. Similarly, in relation to organizing data, the availability of cheap but very powerful personal computers, and of word-processing programs and specialized software for handling textual and visual data, has been very significant. Elicited documents can often be generated on the basis of guidelines designed to produce data of a character, and in a format, that is amenable to analysis. Occasionally, there may be no alternative to note-taking in recording the data from documents, or that pertaining to material objects.
