Archives as Teaching Tools: Using the American Religion Data Archive for
Undergraduate Instruction

Roger Finke 
Department of Sociology and Anthropology 

Paper Session:This session will give an introduction to the American Religion
Data Archive (ARDA) and offer examples of how the site is being used by students and 
their instructors. The ARDA is an Internet-based data archive that stores 
and distributes quantitative data sets from the leading studies on American 
religion. Supported by the Lilly Endowment, ARDA strives to preserve 
data files for future use, prepare the data files for immediate public use and 
make the data files easily accessible to all. Because of the ease in using the 
site, ARDA has been used extensively by undergraduate students. The 
online auto-analyzer and complete documentation allow students to explore 
the data files online, and the courtesy software and download features allow 
students and instructors to download the data files to their own machines 
and networks.