ICPSR presents ...

Info on an upcoming ICPSR webinar!

An Introduction to the Gates Millennium Scholars and Washington State Achievement Scholars Data Join us for a Webinar on May 8   Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/389799554 This webinar will introduce and alert users to the newly released Gates Millennium Scholars and Washington State Achievement Scholars data.  We will review the efforts the RCMD took to prepare these data for public access, the unique characteristics and enhancements of these data, and the procedures and policies to access these data as well as the restricted use versions of these data. This webinar is free and open to the public.  We encourage you to share this invitation. Title: An Introduction to the Gates Millennium Scholars and Washington State Achievement Scholars Data Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2013 Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Webinars on Census Products!

These webinars look great! Be sure to check them out!

 

CLMSO's Education, Training & Dissemination Branch would like to alert you to the below webinars that we've scheduled over the next three months. We encourage any data user to sign up, including SDCs, CICs, partners, stakeholders and anyone from the public. Registration information and webinar descriptions are available in the upper left corner of the Training Events page www.census.gov/mso/www/training/training_events.html

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These webinars do have a finite number of slots available, so you may want to register early to make sure you are able to participate.

Please share this with your networks!

• The Economic Census and Other Economic Programs   (April 17, 1:00 - 3:30 EDT)
• Understanding Census Geography   (April 18, 1:00 - 3:00 EDT)
• Introduction to the American Community Survey   (April 24, 1:00 - 2:30 EDT)
• The Current Population Survey & Survey of Income and Program Participation   (May 8, 1:00 - 3:00 EDT)
• Population Estimates and Projections   (May 22, 1:00 - 2:30 EDT)
• Customized Searching Through DataFerrett   (May 29, 1:00 - 3:30 EDT)
• How to Navigate American FactFinder   (June 19, 1:00 - 3:00 EDT)
• Government Statistics    (June 26, 1:00 - 2:30 EDT)

American FactFinder gets a facelift

From the Census Bureau:

The U.S. Census Bureau today released new features for American FactFinder, an online data tool that allows users to access a variety of Census Bureau statistics, including decennial, American Community Survey and economic census statistics. The new features include a simplified main page design, the option for a guided search and an enhanced community facts tool, providing options for both novice and advanced data users.

Guided Search walks users through each step of the inquiry, from selecting a topic, such as "people" or "business and industry," to selecting a geography. It also provides step-by-step options to search for information on specific race or ethnic groups, or industry codes. New enhancements to the Community Facts feature give users easy access to popular statistics about a state, city, town or ZIP code, such as total population, median income and educational attainment.

Visit American FactFinder to use these new features. An online virtual tour is also available. A few browser issues have been reported. Click here for help if you have issues.

Day in the life of a dataset (from ICPSR)

Cool webinar series from ICPSR in January!

Join ICPSR for a webinar series titled, “Life of a Dataset.”  This 3-part series will describe ICPSR’s data management approach starting with the identification and deposit of data, to processing and cleaning, and finally to building metadata and tools to ready the data for discovery and dissemination. 

Whether you are collecting data, planning on sharing (depositing) data to meet funding agency requirements, or interested in repository and archive management, you will find lots of informative content and guidance.  Q&A will be available during each session.

Interested in all three sessions?  Please note you must register for each session individually.

Life of a Dataset Part I: The Deposit - Wednesday, January 16, 2013, at 1 pm EST

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/962668858

This stage in a dataset’s life will discuss and describe the opening steps it takes on the path to dissemination through the Web site at www.icpsr.umich.edu. We’ll cover the method of identifying data for acquisition, depositing of study materials (ingest), and the technical support that the Acquisitions unit provides to researchers. Tools for the researcher will be reviewed and the tools that are used by this unit will also be shown.

Life of a Dataset Part II: The Process of Processing - Wednesday, January 23, 2013, at 1 pm EST

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/776530618

This stage in a dataset’s life will describe the process of how the data are reviewed, cleaned, archived, and prepared for dissemination. The working relationship between the processor and the processing supervisor to ensure the confidentiality of respondents will be examined. The tools used by the processor to insure data security and accuracy in processing will be discussed.

Life of a Dataset Part III: Discovery & Dissemination - Wednesday, January 30, 2013, at 1 pm EST

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/804318458

This stage in a dataset’s life will relate how the study’s description is built and the metadata are enriched to aid discovery. We’ll consider how the codebook and other materials are created, and what final steps are taken to preserve the digital data in advance of their release. Finally, we will talk about how the study is released, announced, and disseminated through the ICPSR Web site. 

Registration information regarding this webinar series is also summarized on ICPSR's Announcements page: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/support/announcements/2012/12/webinar-series-coming-up-life-of-dataset

2007-2011 American Community Survey

A big present from the Census Bureau!

The Census Bureau has released the five-year 2007-2011 American Community Survey. You can access the data using American FactFinder or find out more on the American Community Survey homepage.

Election polling for the political nerd in you!

Through our Roper Center membership we now have access to fourteen USA Today/Gallup Organization studies from July-September 2012. The polls cover the presidential elections and the republic and democratic conventions! Take a look at the list of studies to see the topics. You can also use iPOLL to search for individual questions about the 2012 elections. Check out Roper Center for Public Opinion Research for more polling goodness.

You may need to use main access link if you are off-campus. Let us know if you have questions!

ICPSR webinar on weighting and variance estimation

New ICPSR webinar on October 4:

Weighting and Variance Estimation in Early Care and Education Data: A Training and Q&A

On October 4th, 2012, Research Connections will hold a Webinar training on using weights and estimating variances when analyzing data from national surveys with complex sampling designs. This Webinar will provide participants with a foundation for determining which weights to use for a particular analysis and how to apply them. It will also review the different options that are available for calculating standard errors for complex sample designs. The training will begin to answer the following common questions about weighting and variance estimation, as they relate to prominent data collections in the field of Early Care and Education:

-What are sampling weights and why are they important?
-Why should I use weights in my analyses?
-Why are there so many different weights in the datasets?
-Can I use weights with my statistical software package? How?
-Why are variances and standard errors important?
-What are design-based variance estimation methods and why should I use them?
There will be ample time after the presentation for live Q&A with the presenter. The conversation will continue through the end of the week via a question and answer blog, at which Webinar registrants and the data experts can continue the Q&A. Jerry West, Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, will be presenting.

Date: Thursday, October 4, 2012
Time: 1:00 - 2:15 pm EDT
Registration link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/607755418?utm_source=News-%26-Resources+ListServ&utm_campaign=107d0678fa-News_Resources_9_20_2012&utm_medium=email
Please direct questions about the webinar to: bleckman@umich.edu