Final answer:
Archiving data primarily serves to lower the workload in database administration, reduce system downtime during critical operations, and improve response times for active systems. While not a method for backup, archiving is crucial in archival research, allowing researchers to efficiently analyze existing data to answer research questions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Identifying the reasons for archiving data is important in managing databases and research materials effectively. Among the reasons for archiving data are:
- Lowering the effort involved in database administration by reducing the amount of data that needs to be actively managed on a day-to-day basis.
- Reducing system downtime during software upgrades, recoveries, and offline database backups, which is critical for maintaining operational efficiency.
- Improving response times and ensuring good response times, particularly for live systems, by removing older, less frequently accessed data from the active database.
It is worth noting that using data as a backup is not typically considered archiving, as archived data is usually a subset of the data that may need to be accessed less frequently, whereas backups are made for the purpose of recovery in case of data loss.
Archival research in academia utilizes archived data to answer various research questions, often without the need for direct interaction with research participants. This can include examining historical academic records or analyzing large existing data sets to identify patterns or construct longitudinal studies. It enables researchers to explore vast amounts of information efficiently, often at a lower cost than collecting new data.