About IASSIST
IASSIST is an international organization of professionals working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences. Its 300 members work in a variety of settings, including data archives, statistical agencies, research centers, libraries, academic departments, government departments, and non-profit organizations.
As an organization, IASSIST has the following goals:
- to foster and promote a network of excellence for data service delivery
- to advance infrastructure in the social sciences
- to provide opportunities for collegial exchange of sound professional practices
In May 2004, a year-long effort to produce an updated five-year Strategic Plan for IASSIST was completed by the organization's Strategic Plan Action Group. At the 2004 Annual Conference of IASSIST, the Administrative Committee approved the strategic plan and set its implementation into motion. The three main strategic directions outlined in this plan are Education, Outreach, and Advocacy. Building on IASSIST's 30 years of advocacy and member suppport, the plan launched new initiatives and outreach efforts based upon IASSIST's key goals. In May 2008, a new Strategic Plan Action Group was convened to help IASSIST meet new challenges and examine its future directions.
Network of Excellence
IASSIST helps bridge the interests and concerns of three communities:
- Social science researchers and scientists who are producers and users of micro and macro-level social data;
- Information specialists who preserve social data, manage facilities and provide services that promote the secondary use of social data
- Methodologists and computing specialists who advance technical methods to manipulate and analyze social data
Advance Infrastructure in the Social Sciences
IASSIST seeks to advance infrastructure in support of research and teaching in the social sciences.
Data Centers and Staff
- Provide training and workshops for IASSIST members
- Advance and promote the development of local and national social data information centers
- Promote global linkages among information centers and IASSIST members
- Support the development of centralized data collections, policies for data sharing and cooperative acquisitions and technological linkages for data and information exchange
- Build and encourage linkages among social data centers, users, and producers of data including the academic, public, and private sectors
Preserve and access social science information resources
- Take an active role in the development and implementation of standards
- Encourage and disseminate best practice in the creation, production, support, and dissemination of social science resources
- Stimulate access and use; ensure that user communities can gain access to and effectively use quantitative and qualitative resources
- Foster international dissemination and exchange of information on significant developments in information centers for statistical, spatial, and textual data bases
- Assess and plan for the impact of new technology
Role of IASSIST
- Evaluate the role and contribution of IASSIST and the recruitment of new members
- Produce and develop communications among the components of social science information infrastructure
Transfer of knowledge: Media/means
Members of IASSIST benefit from a range of communication devices and opportunities
for collegial exchange:
- IQ, IASSIST's quarterly journal (paper and digital)
- Annual Conferences: rich opportunities to exchange and promote ideas and
solutions through presentations, workshops, seminars, and quality professional
development programs - Ongoing communications through the IASSIST web site, IASSIST Communiqué blog, and email listservs
- Action Groups articulate and develop solutions to specific problems and
outreach activities.
