Health insurance stats now in the American Community Survey's 2008 data

Want to know how many people don't have health insurance in Guilford County? Check it out...


The Census Bureau released 2008 American Community Survey data on September 22. You can access the data through American FactFinder or from the American Community Survey page. This release includes health insurance coverage data for areas with populations over 65,000. Of course the margins of error are a bit high (the constant problem with ACS), but it is still useful information!

If you have questions about using these sources, please feel free to contact Lynda.

Presentation for Specialized Education Studies grad students, 9/21/09

SES grad student presentation

View more presentations from Lynda Kellam.

Great Things Happening at ICPSR

Hello again dataheads! The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research just held a webinar on their new site. Here is the quick and dirty.

• New search engine: They have rebuilt the search engine completely. The best addition is faceted searching, which allows you to filter your search with additional terms like subject terms, geography, time period, and even study author. You also have easy and quick access to the ICPSR Thesaurus for more terms.
• Study homepage changes: They have also changed the study homepages. If you enter into a study homepage you will see an option for Quick Download, which allows you to download all study files at one time. You will still need to log in to your personal account and to agree to the terms of use, but it is a lot quicker! In addition, they have condensed the info displayed, but provide links for more detail.
• NO MORE DATA CARTS! The data cart is a thing of the past (Shame really. I loved the idea of a grocery bag full of data). Instead you will see all the various options for download displayed immediately. One note on this option: if the various options are grayed out, then just log in as a member and the arrows will be available for downloading data.
• RSS Feeds: You can now create RSS feeds based on your search query. This is my fave feature by far! So, if I'm interested in data about crime in the US, then I can save my search query to my RSS reader. Super cool! Let me know if you have any questions about doing this!
• Other stuff: They have expanded the Variable Database to cover about 20% of holdings minus Census data, so you can search for particular variables across a large number of studies. In addition they have started using Blogger and integrating Blogger posts into the ICPSR via RSS feeds. The ultimate goal for this integration is to (eventually) allow users to comment on parts of the website and maybe individually studies. I look forward to the possibility of the community sharing its vast knowledge about particular studies and more.

If you want to see all of this great stuff for yourself, check out the slides or recorded presentation. There are many more tutorials on a variety of topics available through the Data User Help Center, so check it out!

News from the Minnesota Population Center and IPUMS

Job posting and data announcement from Minn Pop Center and IPUMS:

POSITION OPENINGS
The Minnesota Population Center is recruiting a post-doctoral researcher to work on IPUMS-CPS; the start date is flexible. We also have immediate openings for Research Associates/Research Scientists to work on IPUMS-USA and two other projects. To obtain more information and download position announcements, please visit our website at http://www.pop.umn.edu/about-mpc/employment-opportunities/research-positions/

UPCOMING DATA RELEASES
The Census Bureau plans to release microdata from the 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) on September 22nd, 2009. We will produce an IPUMS version of this dataset within a week of its public release. The IPUMS version of the data will be available via the IPUMS-USA site. Finally, earlier today we released the IPUMS version of the 2009 March Current Population Survey, available on the IPUMS-CPS site at http://cps.ipums.org .

Check this website, if you are interested in the IPUMS mailing list.

If you use census data and haven't checked out the awesome efforts at the Minn Pop Center, then you really need to do so now. Like today. It will change your life. Promise.

Ch-ch-changes (Turn and face the new ICPSR)

That's right dataheads! The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research has officially entered the 21st century and changed its look. You can even "attend" a webinar to learn all that the new site has to offer. I'm very excited about the new search engine. Plus there seems to be tons of new video tutorials (my fave thing, ever). I'll be back soon after the webinar to blog more about the changes, but in the meantime you should check it out!

2009 ICPSR Web Site - Navigating & Using the New Site!

Join us for a Webinar on September 16. Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now.

This presentation will focus on changes to the ICPSR Web site, with special attention given to the search engine, the study home page, and the new download page. We'll also briefly discuss RSS notifications and additional changes that will be made by the end of the calendar year.

Title: The 2009 ICPSR Web Site - Navigating & Using the New Site!

Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Are you a Power User?

Featured Database: Statistical Warehouse

Statistical Warehouse is UNCG's general resource for finding statistics on a wide variety of topics. From demographics to social indicators, from economic stats to voting stats, Statistical Warehouse lives up to its name by being a warehouse bursting with stats. Stats Warehouse also now has ACCRA Cost of Living data for all you Power Users out there! This quick start tutorial shows you how to use the Power User mode to find the population of specific counties.

Access to Statistical Warehouse is restricted to UNCG faculty, staff, and students.



Click on the bottom right of the video for full screen.