n.a set of records within a records series that are identified to represent the wholeHindus, Hammett, and Hobson 1980, 41But the preliminary analysis was deliberately based on files of abnormal thickness, and in order to test further the assessment of the value of the case files, we needed to analyze a larger and more representative sample.Hull 1981, 11It is possible to retain a number of examples—a ‘representative sample’—in which case there is a similarity to some methods of systematic sampling, or it may be that examples are chosen to illustrate moments of change in the methods of document keeping.Guptill 1985, 8Today’s preoccupation with quantitative history and computer applications have created new research techniques, causing archivists to grapple with “data archives'' and statistical sampling in order to preserve representative samples from vast quantities of these machine-readable records.
Notes
Representative sample refers in a general way to any form of sampling designed to represent the whole of a set of records via a much smaller section from it. Both statistical sampling and systematic sampling can produce a representative sample.
