One stop shop for Federal data needs??

Data.gov was just released today by the Federal CIO Council as an interagency Federal initiative. The goal of this new data portal and searchable catalog is to increase access to the myriad of datasets released by the Executive Branch. Although they are starting out with a very limited number of datasets in the catalog, they welcome suggestions for additions and hope to keep the collection growing. You can search for raw data or data extraction tools and widgets by keywords, categories of information, specific formats, and by specific agencies. They include geospatial datasets with KML, KMZ and ESRI Shapefile formats. Check out their tutorial for assistance using. Happy data searching!

Addition to the IPUMS International project

Just in from IPUMS: The IPUMS-International project has recently added 19 samples to the data series, bringing the total number of samples to 130. The recently added samples include data for nine new countries: Armenia, Bolivia, Guinea, India, Italy, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and Slovenia. In addition, we have extended the existing series of samples for France, Romania and South Africa. The new data release also includes GIS boundary files for mapping countries and major administrative divisions within countries.

The full content of the data series is summarized here: https://international.ipums.org/international/samples.shtml.

Multi-record and Hierarchical Set-up Files for ICPSR studies in SPSS

Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/462579450
Space is limited.

This webinar will discuss the similarities and differences between multi-record and hierarchical set-up files for ICPSR studies. Codebooks for ICPSR studies will be reviewed to illustrate the similarities and differences of the set-up files being discussed. We will create a multi-record set-up file and consider the obstacles in creating a hierarchical one. This webinar is open to the public - please forward this invitation to all who might be interested.

Title: Multi-record and Hierarchical Set-up Files for ICPSR studies in SPSS
Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Time: 1:00 AM - 2:00 PM EDT

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

Triangle Census Research Data Center Workshop, April 17, 2009

New webinar available from ICPSR

When Setup Files Go Bad. Debugging your SAS, SPSS, and STATA code so it works!

Join us for a Webinar on April 28. Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now.

You found your study...you download your data...you run the setup file ICPSR provides...and the screen fills with errors. This webinar will address common problems in the setup files provided by ICPSR for data files. Because most of ICPSR's data processing is automated and the volume of data files is large and very heterogeneous in quality, size, and characteristics, the setup files and "ready-to-go" files do not always work perfectly. This webinar will help you to anticipate and fix many of these common problems.

Title: ICPSR Webinar: When Setup Files Go Bad. Debugging your SAS, SPSS, and STATA code so it works!
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT

School of Human Environmental Sciences Presentation, March 20, 2009

American Time Use

The Maryland Population Research Center and the Minnesota Population Center are pleased to announce the release of the American Time Use Survey Data Extract Builder (ATUS-X). ATUS-X is designed to make it easy for researchers to work with data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). Interested researchers can explore the ATUS Data Extract Builder at www.atusdata.org.

The central goal of the ATUS-X project is to make it easy for researchers to prepare ATUS data files that are ready for analysis. The current version of the ATUS Data Extract Builder allows researchers to:

• Extract data from 2003-2007, including the 2006 Eating and Health Module.
• Create measures of time in user-defined activity aggregations, broken out as desired by time of the day, by location and by whether the respondent was engaged in caring for children during the activity.
• Select personal and household characteristic variables for inclusion
  on the data extract.
• ATUS-X also provides researchers with accessible and comprehensive
  documentation.