Thursday, December 20, 2012

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
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
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
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

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

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.