Regional Report 1996-1997: United States

Report of the U.S. Regional Secretary

by

Laura Guy

Data and Program Library Service

University of Wisconsin, Madison

May 1997

Please note: this page contains responses received directly from the IASSIST 1997 U.S. Members Activity Form! Aren’t we an interesting group of people?!!??

Contact_FullName:

Robin Rice

Contact_Title:

Special Librarian

Contact_Organization:

Data and Program Library Service, UW

Contact_WorkPhone:

608-262-7962

Contact_FAX:

608-262-9711

Contact_Email:

rice@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu

Contact_URL:

http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu

Activities

I am the local contact for the Madison chapter of Computer Professionals for Responsibility. Last November, I attended the Library Research Seminar I at Florida State University and presented a paper entitled “Data Sources for Library and Information Science Research”.

Contact_FullName:

Laura Guy

Contact_Title:

Senior Librarian

Contact_Organization:

Data and Program Library Service

Contact_WorkPhone:

608.262.0750

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

guy@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu

Contact_URL:

http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu

Activities

I was appointed to the campus-wide Windows/NT Architecture Group where policy is currently being developed to facilitate the administration of M.S. Windows domains on the Madison campus. Issues have included naming standards and resource provision. I am also a member of the campus-wide Tech-Partners Steering Commitee which is responsible for setting policy for a very large group of campus technology experts. I recently put together a series of talks on copyright-related issues where experts from the legal and library fields focused on web publishing, and have been working on a virtual presentation of web/database connectivity systems. I’ve spent much of the last year working on migrating the data library from UNIX to WinNT, and have taken a number of courses on WinNT administration. At DPLS one of our main projects is conversion of our archival data to on-line access via our web site. We’ve pretty much been setting our own standards in the how we provide access, and its been going well enough that we are receiving unsolicited archival donations –the first time in years. We are certainly very proud of our work. In addition, I continue to write reviews for the Journal of Government Information, most recently on the OECD Statistical Compendium and the U.C. Davis Import Data on CD-ROM. All this at 80%! In March, 1997 the DPLS requested and received an addtional 20% FTE, which considering these days of constant fiscal crisis is a miracle. I will thus go back to 100% in July and Staff Librarian Robin Rice will permanently increase from 50% to 70%.

Contact_FullName:

Patrick Yott

Contact_Title:

Social Sciences Data Services Coordinator

Contact_Organization:

University of Virginia

Contact_WorkPhone:

804 982-2630

Contact_FAX:

804924-1431

Contact_Email:

pmy2n@virginia.edu

Contact_URL:

www.lib.virginia.edu/socsci

Activities

1. Taught (with Paul Bergen - Harvard) 3 day ARL workshop “Electronic Publishing of Datasets on the WWW. October 1996 - Charlottesville (UVA) March, 1997 - Cambridge (Harvard)

2. Presented paper “Interactive Data Service in Academic Libraries” to the CNI Task Force meeting (March, 1996)

3. Will present a workshop “User Needs: Service Models for Data Libraries” at the ACRL annual Conference (April, 1997)

4. Began work on building WWW interface for the ICPSR Consolidated County and City Data Book files. Will yield merged interface for all CCDB data from the 1940’s through the 1992 edition.

Laura,

Can you change any reference to the Social Sciences Data Center and Geographic Information Systems Lab to just the Social Sciences Data Center. We are two separate beasties.

Thanks,

Patrick Yott SSDC UVA

Contact_FullName:

Jean Stratford

Contact_Title:

Director of Research Services

Contact_Organization:

Inst. of Govt. Affairs, UC Davis

Contact_WorkPhone:

916-752-5141

Contact_FAX:

916-752-2835

Contact_Email:

jsstratford@ucdavis.edu

Contact_URL:

polar.ucdavis.edu/igahome.html

Activities

This past year I have been involved in a number of social science data related projects. I served on an internal planning committee for computing issues within our College of Letters and Science. Our long term project on U.S. foreign trade data reached a milestone with the release of 22 years of import data as a CD-ROM product. I have also worked in an advisory capacity to a group of scholars producing an electronic version of the standard reference work Historical Statistics of the United States. The electronic version of the 1976 edition is now complete and about to be released by Cambridge University Press. The group has begun work on an updated “millenial” edition. I also consulted with the Stanford University Libraries on an historical project that they have under consideration.

Contact_FullName:

APDU 1996 Conference

Activities

APDU 96 Conference:

The APDU session on “International Data Availability and Access: Today and Tomorrow” was an all IASSIST event with moderator Ann S. Gray and panelist Ernie W. Boyko, Karsten B. Rasmussen, William J. Bradley, Bridget Winstantley, and Margaret O. Adams.

Ann G. Green joined with Pat Doyle for the session on The Data Documentation Initiative: Building an International Standard moderated by Karsten B. Rasmussen.

Wendy Treadwell, also the chair of the conference planning committee, chaired the session on DADS: Envisiong Future Data Access and Judith Rowe was a panelist discussing What the Future Holds for the Dissemination of Federal Statistics.

Wendy Treadwell was elected Vice-President of APDU.

Contact_FullName:

Ann S. Gray

Contact_Title:

Contact_Organization:

CISER, Cornell University

Contact_WorkPhone:

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

ann@perseus.ciser.cornell.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.ciser.cornell.edu/archive/Welcome.html

Activities

Ann Gray was the APDU representative to the COPAFS sponsored Seminar on Statistical Methodology in the Public Service, A Conference Dedicated to the Memory of Maria Gonzalez. Ann was a discussant on the proposed web site: One-Stop Shopping for Federal Statistics.

Contact_FullName:

Sue A. Dodd

Activities

Sue A. Dodd retired from UNC on Feb. 1, 1997. Her contributions to standards for information about numeric data (aka metadata) have proved to be of great value in many applications and developments. This work was begun almost twenty years ago at the 1978 Conference on Cataloging and Information Services for Machine-Readable Data Files held at Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia – a conference attended by many of the original founders of IASSIST.

Contact_FullName:

Annette Watters

Contact_Title:

Assistant Director

Contact_Organization:

Center for Business and Economic Research, University of Alabama

Contact_WorkPhone:

205.348.6191

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

awwaters@ua1vm.ua.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.cba.ua.edu/~cba/xfaw.html

Activities

I am this year’s Vice-Chair of the State Data Center Steering Committee. Our major concerns throughout the year have been census data access and dissemination (particularly the Census Bureau’s proposed DADS system, an Internet-based system that will replace most printed products), and planning for the 2000 census. As data users we are concerned for an accurate census, but also that the resulting data will be robust and timely. It’s a challenge. Sometimes the Census Bureau does not seem as concerned about data users as we would prefer, and sometimes Congress seems not to care at all. Other times I am convinced that if we all work together, everything will work out for the best.

Contact_FullName:

Wendy Brand

Contact_Title:

Special Librarian

Contact_Organization:

Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconin - Madison

Contact_WorkPhone:

608.263.6372

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

Brand@ssc.wisc.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/library/home.htm

Activities

I was elected to the Board of Directors for APLIC-I (The Association for Population/Family Planning Libraries and Information Centers - International) at their March 1997 meeting in Washington, DC.

Contact_FullName:

Pat Hildebrand

Contact_Title:

Database Administrator

Contact_Organization:

Social Science Computing, Uinv of PA

Contact_WorkPhone:

215 898-3419

Contact_FAX:

215 898-7769

Contact_Email:

pat@ssc.upenn.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~pat/

Activities

Professionally, what I have been doing can be described as more of the same thing as last year. Yes, I have upgraded the version of Oracle that we are using and the development version of the database has migrated from Windows for Workgroups to NT 4.0 but I haven’t had to deal with moving the lab from Novell to NT so I really am still learning about NT. I have even gone from oraperl to DBI/DBD::Oracle but so far I have only used the Oraperl emulation.

The task force that I am on for a web-warehouse interface officially has some of my time. We are now live with our queries and Engineering is using this as well as Arts and Sciences. Given the contents of the warehouse I can’t say take a look if you want to see what I am doing - sorry.

Contact_FullName:

Ann Green

Contact_Title:

Acting Director

Contact_Organization:

Yale Social Science Statistical Laboratory

Contact_WorkPhone:

203-432-3277

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

ann.green@yale.edu

Contact_URL:

http://statlab.stat.yale.edu

Activities

Ann Gerken and JoAnn Dionne at Yale University received a grant from the Commission on Preservation and Access to develop a preservation strategy for migrating data files and digitizing related paper records. Using representative sample data files and printed documents from the Yale Roper Collection, the project is evaluating a variety of data formats and the related costs, storage sizes, and archival implications of proprietary and generic options. The second track of the project is investigating the scanning and storage options for preserving, accessing, searching, and archiving the printed documents accompanying the data files. An interim report is available at: http://www-cpa.stanford.edu/cpa/misc/preswhol.html A report will also be presented at the IASSIST Conference in Odense.

The ICPSR-sponsored Data Documentation Initiative to develop a codebook DTD in SGML has continued to meet over the past year. A number of IASSIST members have been active in the committee, chaired by Merrill Shanks of the University of CA, Berkeley. The DTD alpha version is now in test mode at ICPSR. Further alpha testing and distribution of the DTD will be determined in the near future.

Contact_FullName:

John Blodgett

Contact_Title:

Manager, Urban Information Center

Contact_Organization:

U. of Missouri St. Louis

Contact_WorkPhone:

314.516.6014

Contact_FAX:

314.516.6274

Contact_Email:

c1921@umslvma.umsl.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.oseda.missouri.edu/uic

Activities

Busy with writing applications (in SAS and Perl) to permit access to data on the WWW. 1. Under a contract with CIESIN/SEDAC wrote the MABLE/Geocorr application: http://www.oseda.missouri.edu/plue/geocorr/. This lets users generate “correlation lists” showing the relationships between a growing list of geographic coverages (such as 1980 & 1990 census tracts, 1991 (stf3b) ZIP codes, PUMA codes, watersheds, etc.) Currently working on possible extension to merge in land cover data.

2. We developed a little system for letting us create “Contents” files in our UNIX directories where we could store brief descriptions of all our files. Then we figured out how to write a Perl program and an HTML front-end so that we could use these files and a browser to view a lot of those files via the WWW. All but the SAS datasets, which is where we kept all the actual data. So then we developed a cgi-bin application called “uexplore” that let us access a couple of new SAS applications for doing “proc contents”-like HTML pages for SAS data sets and data libraries, and another for actually extracting data from those sets (in .csv, .dbf, proc-print-listing, sas export, or html table formats.) The whole thing runs against the Missouri State Census Data Center (MSCDC) census-data-oriented public data archive. There are at least a half dozen URL’s (front ends) to this application, but the best is probably from the MSCDC Social & Economic Data Library page at: http://www.oseda.missouri.edu/infolib/uexplore.html. The ultimate idea of this application is that we can have custom applications associated with specific “filetypes” (subdirectories of our data base) which can be triggered from dynamically-generated choose-your-application menus.

Contact_FullName:

Kay Worrell

Contact_Title:

Research Associate

Contact_Organization:

The Conference Board

Contact_WorkPhone:

212-339-0480

Contact_FAX:

212-980-7014

Contact_Email:

worrell@conference-board.org

Contact_URL:

http://conference-board.org

Activities

Current responsibilities in compensation research: coordinating a large annual survey on payment for outside members of corporate boards of directors; also overseeing data transer from Edgar/SEC database on compensation of five highest paid executives of 1,000 US corporations.

These data collections result in annual reports with long histories at The Conference Board, first published in 1939 and 1945, respectively.

Very little on-going professional (personal) activities, except small presentations to requesting groups (e.g. Women on Board) or companies.

Also co-authored a report on Directors’ Retirement Benefits; current project on diversity on boards of directors (women and minority board members).

Correction: oversee transfer of data (on top executive compensation) from Edgar/SEC database to our own data subset! [Didn’t mean to imply that my work is in conjunction with production of the Edgar/Disclosure database.]

Contact_FullName:

Cindy Severt

Contact_Title:

Data Library Director

Contact_Organization:

Center for Demography

Contact_WorkPhone:

608-262-9827

Contact_FAX:

608-262-8400

Contact_Email:

severt@ssc.wisc.edu

Contact_URL:

www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/datalib/

Activities

I have assumed the duties and title of CDE Data Library Director since Anne Cooper’s retirement in the fall of 1995.

In November 1996 CDE hired Charlie Fiss as an Information Manager who is working on, among other things, merging the collections of the CDE print and data libraries using the CUADRA/STAR software with a web interface. This is a major step in the direction of merging the collections and operations of both libraries under the umbrella of CDE Information Services.

I have also been named Special Events Chair of the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies Alumni Association. In this capacity I have been involved in activities which provide continuity for students making the transition into the job market, and networking opportunities for alumni.

Contact_FullName:

Libbie Stephenson

Contact_Title:

Data Archivist

Contact_Organization:

UCLA, Institute for Social Science Research

Contact_WorkPhone:

310-825-0716

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

libbie@ucla.edu

Contact_URL:

Activities

The Archive spent most of the year refining techniques for using data and file management in a UNIX environment. The entire campus now uses the UNIX operating system and this makes directing users a bit easier.

Martin Pawlocki has developed a FAQ file which we sill soon load into our web page.

Libbie Stephenson attended a conference on preserving the digital age, hosted by MCI, Microsoft and the National Science Foundation. The main focus of the discussion was on the need to preserve materials loaded onto the Internet. Some interesting statistics emerged. The web itself is only about 2 terabytes in size, and the average web page dies after 90 days.

The use of the Internet is predicted to change dramatically from a library/archive of information, to a much more interactive facility, using what is now called push-pull technology. The other interesting discussion revolvedaround the need to differentiate between the idea of saving a file to disk, and actually ‘archiving’ it. We said that there needed to be technology available on an owner’s machine to enable one to set up version control, bibliographic elements, and migration-ability of files. The Microsoft people wrote (well, typed on their laptops) furiously.

The Archive is also working on a joint project with the Survey Research Center to scan and store all print versions of questionnaires conducted by the SRC over the past 20 years. We are reading the files into Adobe Acrobat and have found that this process is remarkably easy to do and requires very little editing. We are also indexing each of the questionnaires so there will be subject oriented as well as key word searching available.

Contact_FullName:

jim jacobs

Contact_Title:

data services librarian

Contact_Organization:

university of california san diego

Contact_WorkPhone:

619 534 1262

Contact_FAX:

619 534 7548

Contact_Email:

jajacobs@ucsd.edu

Contact_URL:

http://ssdc.ucsd.edu

Activities

Continued work on “Data on the Net” – an attempt to keep track of numeric social science statistical data available on the Internet. http://odwin.ucsd.edu/jj/idata

Plans for a more automated, but still human, version of this are in the works.

Finished beta version of web access to DRI Basic Economic Data (aka, “citibase”) and International Financial Statistics.

Contact_FullName:

Lisa Neidert

Contact_Title:

Senior Research Associate

Contact_Organization:

Population Studies Center, University of Michigan

Contact_WorkPhone:

313.998.7153

Contact_FAX:

313.998.7415

Contact_Email:

lisan@umich.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.psc.lsa.umich.edu/DA/

Activities

Helped host a workshop on “Using U.S. Census Data to Study the Elderly.” A similar workshop will be held this summer (July 8-12) focusing on immigrants. Helped host a workshop on “Taming Large Data” (February 28-March 1). This involved most of the producers of large social science longitudinal surveys. I made a presentation on “Interfaces to Data: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

I was a beta tester of the Census Bureau’s DADS system. Comments were sent to the Census Bureau. I hope to continue to have input.

I was nominated to fill out an APDU board position by fellow IASSIST member, Wendy Treadwell. So far, I’m just watching Wendy.

Contact_FullName:

Sarah E. Cox

Contact_Title:

Foreign, International and Comparative Law Librarian

Contact_Organization:

University of Connecticut School of Law Library

Contact_WorkPhone:

860.570.5167

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

scox@holmes.law.uconn.edu

Contact_URL:

Activities

This past year I continued to participate in the Conference on Fair Use sponsored by Commissioner Lehman of the Patent and Trademark Office. An Interim Report from the Conference has been released with those guidelines on Fair Use which came out of the Conference. At this point endorsements for the guidelines are being sought. A final report including those guidelines which receive sufficent endorsements (however that is finally defined) will be issued after the final CONFU meeting on May 19. There are guidelines for the educational fair use of multimedia, digital visual images, and distance learning. A group of scenarios illustrating the limits of fair use with respect to software use are also included. I participated in the development of the distance learning and the multimedia guidelines.

Besides doing that, on July 1 I was happy to hand over the directorship of thelaw library to the new director, Darcy Kirk, after I had served as Acting Director since late October 1994. I spent the summer over-seeing the move of the library to its beautiful new building across the campus from the old building. Since then I have done my best to return to my pedestrian but delightful half-time job as Foreign, International and Comparative Law Librarian, in which I teachthe foreign LL.M. (Masters of Law) students how to do reasearch in U.S. law and U.S. J.D. students how to do research in foreign and international law. The rest of the time, I rest, think, give talks and write.

Contact_FullName:

Fay Booker

Contact_Title:

Data Librarian

Contact_Organization:

SSPPCC, University of Chicago

Contact_WorkPhone:

773.702.8256

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

booke@cicero.spc.uchicago.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.spc.uchicago.edu/DATALIB

Activities

Other than adding an additional data point to the 2000 Census, I don’t feel like I accomplished much this past year. But here’s a quick summary.

1. WWW Development. We went on the web (http://www.spc.uchicago.edu/DATALIB) about 15 months ago. What’s probably of most interest are our User documents–Intro to Data Handling (for SAS and SPSS). Soon to be added are “Transferring data between applications (aka how to get from Excel to SAS in a troublefree fashion)”, “Large Scale Data Management in UNIX”, and “Downloading data from the WEB”. We’ll also be testing out WWW distribution of three collections–National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS) (PI: Laumann, Michael and Michaels), Taiwan Women and Family Survey, 1988 (PI: William Parish), and “Nationality and Politics: The Dismemberment of the Soviet Union (PI: David Laitin and Jerry Hough).

2. New collections of significance at the University of Chicago: ( I can provide more details if interested) Taiwan Women and Family Survey, 1988 Nationality and Politics…… (Laitin and Hough) Chinese General Social Survey (PI: William Parish, et al)

3. Other “In Development” News

UNIX tools to facilitate the creation of SAS and/or SPSS extraction programs. Briefly, SAS and SPSS set up statements are good things, but most users rarely want all variables that are available and editting these files is often more problematic than writing the data step code from scratch. We’re spec’ing PERL program code that will make it easier for users to write data step syntax derived from existing SAS, SPSS or generic data dictionary files.

Sometime in the next few months we’ll be adding a “data programmer” to our staff who will be responsible for working with faculty to produce analytic files from complex data collections. For example, social network files from key aging collections such as AHEAD and HRS.

Contact_FullName:

Ann Green

Contact_Title:

Acting Director

Contact_Organization:

Social Science Statistical Lab, Yale University

Contact_WorkPhone:

203-432-3277

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

ann.green@yale.edu

Contact_URL:

http://statlab.stat.yale.edu

Activities

Addition to my earlier submission re. the SGML DTD:

ICPSR will receive funding from the US National Science Foundation for the beta testing of the SGML DTD (the standard for marking up codebooks being developed by the Data Documentation Initiative). Among the activities will be: documenting the DTD, intensive testing of the ease of use and the applicability of the DTD, evaluating authoring and viewing software, and working with other archives in converting OSIRIS codebooks into SGML codebooks. The funding also provides for maintaining the DTD for the period of the grant, for preparation of a manual, and preparation of a tag library. This was held to be an “extraordinarily valuable” set of activities, consistent with NSF’s mandate to push the frontier and to develop new technologies. Also included is limited funding for preparing PDF format codebooks.

Contact_FullName:

Patrica C. (Patty) Becker

Contact_Title:

President/Executive Director

Contact_Organization:

APB Associates/SE MI Census Council

Contact_WorkPhone:

313-535-2077

Contact_FAX:

313-535-3556

Contact_Email:

pbecker@umich.edu

Contact_URL:

Activities

On the national front: I’m representing the ACLU on the 2000 Census Advisory Committee as well as PAA on the Census Advisory Comm. of Professional Associations and the Southeast Michigan Census Council on the American Community Survey Product Development Group. This means a lot of trips to Washington! I have monitored all aspects of the 2000 census plan, and the issues in Congress, very carefully.

On the APB Associates front (this is how I earn my living): I’ve conducted special censuses in several fast-growing communities so they can get more money from the state of Michigan; provided general data service in response to inquiries; provided Margo Anderson of UW-Milwaukee with a large number of historic materials related to the Census Bureau; continued my work in Jewish demography, and other assorted activities. Coming up is a contract with the City of Detroit to help them prepare for the 2000 census. I am the source of last resort for information about the City of Detroit and respond to many inquiries in that regard. Part of my City contract includes going through old materials and data files to determine what should be kept and what should be converted from mainframe tapes to other storage vehicles and/or to PC readable files for active use.

On the Southeast Michigan Census Council front: I write a monthly newsletter which combines information about what’s happening in Washington with articles on new data releases (especially if they have local numbers) and pointers to access interesting data sources in print or on the Internet. The Council also sponsors several luncheons with speakers each year. We also publish census tract coding guides for the 8 county region and I’m preparing to produce updated editions this year. We also on on-line geocoding on request.

All in all, I keep busy!

Contact_FullName:

Judith S. Rowe

Contact_Title:

“Data Detective”

Contact_Organization:

Data and Statistical Services, Social Science Reference Center, Firestone Library

Contact_WorkPhone:

609 258-6052

Contact_FAX:

609 258-6104

Contact_Email:

Judith@Princeton.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.princeton.edu/~data/

Activities

We have had many inquiries about “life in the library.” As almost everyone knows we moved on July 1, 1996 from CIT to the University Library where we were welcomed by one and all. The move took place. as a result of strong protests by Princeton faculty, staff and students and by outside supporters including IASSIST members who had heard of our projected demise. Data and Statistical Services is now a unit of the Social Science Reference Center and financial support is provided by several academic departments, the Provost’s Office and the Library. CIT continues to pay for and install the statistical software which DSS supports, provide online disk space, and maintain the automated Tape Mount Service. DSS continues to provide a central service with the same number of FTEequivalents which we had when we left CIT but fewer than we had had five years ago. I provide most of the data reference and data acquisition services but all of the social science librarians are now comfortable searching our Data Catalog and locating codebooks. Access to CD’s and diskettes is provided at the SSRC reference desk and duplicate codebooks (of which we have many) are allowed to circulate All orders requiring direct payment (i.e. except Roper, ICPSR and donated titles) are handled by a very cooperative Order Department. Lisa Cziffra is officially assigned to Cataloging but spends some time each week in SSRC and at least informally is still designated as our Data Librarian. She continues to handle our “technical services” and maintain our SPIRES catalog, We were fortunate in being able to hire two experienced consultants: Linda Windeler, who formerly worked at UCLA’s Academic Data Service after completing a PhD in Sociology and Paul Bern who worked as a consultant at Syracuse while completing a PhD in Communications. Linda and Paul are assisted by several grad students and Lisa by several undergrads. DSS provides all support of statistical packages and all statistical consultation on campus. Economics has always been our greatest source of users but since moving to the Library it has provided an increased number of users of data from DataStream and other products containing financial data as well as of health data and labor data downloaded from the Internet. Linda continues to add documentation and data to our home page and to develop a range of classes in order to reduce the amount of one on one assistance we provide. Both Linda and Paul see users by appointment and Paul runs the afternoon walkin service which at times this spring had as many as eight students with individual problems simultaneously. Usage has increased for several reasons: the number of students now downloading data from sources not part of the Data Library’s holdings, the newly established quantitative requirement for undergraduates who have always been required to write both Junior Papers and Senior Theses and our proximity to reference librarians and printed sources which if need be can be manually entered. . My own personal activities have included participation in several Census 2000 activities, serving on the Curriculum Advisory Board for thenew Library School being established by the University of Torun in Poland, participation in the National Archives strategic planning and providing assistance in the planning of the Council of Industrial Relations Librarians (CIRL) 50th conference being held in April in Princeton. I represented Princeton at a meeting of the Social Science Digital Library Consortium (SSDLC) in Boston. Also present were Walter Bourne, Ann Gray, Ann Gerken Green and Jim Jacobs, Ilona Einowski is also involved in this activity and since she and Jim are the “oldtimers” they might provide a more comprehensive description of these activities. You might also add to Sarah Cox’s activities the fact that at my instigation she has been invited to speak at Princeton on May 1 and the Library is really rolling out the red carpet for her.

Contact_FullName:

Tess Trost

Contact_Title:

Social Sciences Librarian

Contact_Organization:

Texas Tech University Library

Contact_WorkPhone:

806.742.2236

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

LITKT@ttacs.ttu.edu

Contact_URL:

Activities

I haven’t done anything great data related, but I was accepted to the Texas Library Association’s Leadership Development Institute. It’s called TALL TEXANS, but I’m not sure I want you to tell everyone that, especially since I’m so short! The Institute is intended to teach leadership tools, interpersonal skills and problem-solving techniques. It is also supposed to help one learn to assess and enhance leadership styles and capabilities. There are 24 participants, chosen competitively, who meet for a week with an orginizational development consultant and mentors who are established in the Texas library field in an informal setting. I’ve heard it is a great program, and I’m looking forward to attending. My feelings will not be hurt at all if you don’t include this information. Cheers and hope to see you in Denmark, Tess

Contact_FullName:

Peter E. Schinkel

Contact_Title:

Records Management Program Manger

Contact_Organization:

GA Department of Archives and History

Contact_WorkPhone:

404 656-2373

Contact_FAX:

404 656-2949

Contact_Email:

Contact_URL:

http://www.sos.state.ga.us/Archives

Activities

I attempt to manage Georgia’s government records retention schedule application process. My 1996 professional activity was in the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA).

Served as program co-chair for the 1996 annual meeting held in Washington, D.C. July, 1996..

Became a member of NAGARA’s board of directors in 1996.

Probably will become NAGARA vice-president in 1997.

Was team leader of the 1996-97 membership survey team. Results of the survey will be published in the Winter 1997 NAGARA Clearinghouse.

For more information on NAGARA, visit «http://www.nagara.org%3E>. We welcome IAASIST members to join us in Sacramento for the 1997 annual meeting, July, 1997.

Also, spoke on Georgia’s governement records retention schedule application process at the Georgia Records Association (GRA) annual conference in Savannah, GA, April, 1996.

————- Note. My primary reason for joining IAASIST was to get a copy of an article by Margaret Hedstrom. Have not been able to attend any IAASIST functions, but have enjoyed the Journal and soem of the info on the list, so I have remained a member. Thanks for letting me lurk.

Pete Schinkel - 4/11/97

Contact_FullName:

Diane Geraci

Contact_Title:

Contact_Organization:

Contact_WorkPhone:

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

dgeraci@library.lib.binghamton.edu

Contact_URL:

Activities

Jim Jacobs and Diane Geraci, with Canadian member Chuck Humphrey, taught a one-week workshop for the seventh consecutive summer in the ICPSR Summer Program on the management of computer-readable social science information.

Contact_FullName:

ANNE LIGHTFOOT COOPER

Contact_Title:

Senior Special Librarian Emerita

Contact_Organization:

University of Wisconsin, CDE

Contact_WorkPhone:

608-238-5575

Contact_FAX:

608-231-2312

Contact_Email:

cooper@ssc.wisc.edu

Contact_URL:

Activities

In May 1995, I waw diagnosed with lung cancer; on August 2, 1995, I went on medical leave from my position of Data Library Director for the Center for Demography & Ecology at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. In Nov., 1995, I had a stroke from which I seemed to recover very well. I started driving again in April, 1996. Off and on from October 1995 through May 1996, I had chemotherapy, which led to an apparent remission in June -December 1996. In March 1997, we found that the tumor had grown and are now looking a more chemotherapy, expecting to start in April 1997. I don’t have a web site, but do send out periodic updates on how things are going with me to an email list of friends. I don’t use a listserver, just a list. I deeply appreciate the support and good vibes and thoughts I’ve received from my IASSIST friends. On May 13, 1997, the CDE is giving a retirement bash for me and for Ruth Sandor, who started the CDE print library; we are really happy that Barbara Aldrich, who created the CDE data library and went on to greater glory at the Census Bureau, will be able to come to the party from D.C. Best to all… keep in touch. Anne Lightfoot Cooper (4/13/1997) 2701B University Ave., #403, Madison WI 53705 in US, toll-free: 1-888-875-2233+2253 AnneCooper@CompuServe.com or cooper@ssc.wisc.edu

Contact_FullName:

Wendy Treadwell

Contact_Title:

Coordinator

Contact_Organization:

Machine Readable Data Center, U of MN

Contact_WorkPhone:

612-624-4389

Contact_FAX:

612-626-9353

Contact_Email:

wendy@mrdc.lib.umn.edu

Contact_URL:

Activities

(Off the record) First I took off every friday during the whole summer to recover from IASSIST96 (On the record) The majority of the past year has been spent on activities related to the Association of Public Data Users (APDU). The loss of APDU’s headquarters at Princeton University necessitated locating a new home for APDU. I served on the search committee for this activity which resulted in the movement of APDU Headquarters to the Department of Business and Economic Research at the University of New Orleans in September 1996. During this same period I served as the Conference Committee Chair and organized APDU96 which was held in Washington, D.C. October 28-30, 1996 with a one day mini-conference on Geography the following day.

On January 1, 1997 I began a two-year elected term as Vice President of APDU. I still chair the Conference Committee and am working on APDU97: The Preservation of “Public” Data to be held October 20-22, 1997 in Washington, D.C..

I have also been active locally in the State Data Center program as a coordinating member of the MN State Data Center. I attended the State Data Center National Meeting in October 1996 and have done four local presentations to update groups on national level activities which were reflected in both the State Data Center meeting and APDU. I serve a co-coordinator for the Twin Cities Research Group which will be officially incorporated later this year. This is a group of 75-100 local researchers who meet on a monthly basis to keep up on local research activities and data availability.

I attended the March meeting of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS), The Upper Midwest Conference of Demographics for Policy Makers (April, 1997), the Association of Research Libraries workshop “Electronic Publishing of Data Sets on the World Wide Web” at Harvard Univeristy in March 1997, and did beta testing on the first DADS prototype for the Census Bureau.

(off the record) And my boss wants to know why I haven’t got all my data available for subsetting on the web…..arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Contact_FullName:

Thomas M. Parris

Contact_Title:

Environmental Resources Librarian

Contact_Organization:

Harvard College Library/Harvard University

Contact_WorkPhone:

617.496.6158

Contact_FAX:

617.496.0440

Contact_Email:

tparris@fas.harvard.edu

Contact_URL:

http://environment.harvard.edu

Activities

1. Author of monthly “Bytes of Note” column for Environment magazine. This column provides thematic reviews major electronic information resources of interest to environmental scientists and policy analysts.

2. Gave invited talk to Japan-U.S. Joint Technical Workshop for the Global Observation Information Network (GOIN) titled “Data products for policy analysts.” (June 1996).

3. Launched Harvard Environmental Resources On-Line (http://environment.harvard.edu) (September 1996)

4. Invited particpant to a regional (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency workshop on environmental information policy.

5. Developed concept for an Environmental Science and Public Policy archive.

6. Developed concept for a Harvard Geospatial Data Infrastructure.

7. Watched in amazement as my son David grew to be 18 months old.

Contact_FullName:

Thomas E. Brown

Contact_Title:

Chief, Archival Services Branch, Center for Electronic Records

Contact_Organization:

National Archives and Records Administration

Contact_WorkPhone:

301-713-6630, ext 232

Contact_FAX:

301-713-6911

Contact_Email:

thomas.brown@arch2.nara.gov

Contact_URL:

http://www.nara.gov/nara/electronic

Activities

The National Archives and Records Administration reorganized its operation in January. Its Center for Electronic Records remained in tact but moved to a new organizational unit. Currently, the agency is trying to re-engineer its business processes with a look toward a second reorganization this October. Compounding this organizational uncertainty, the Center experienced a relatively high measure of staff turn over. Despite these impediments, the Center continued to acquire new holdings and provide reference services at an ever increasing rates. The Center mounted its homepage in late summer of 1996. The direct address is «http://www.nara.gov/nara/electronic%3E>.

The Society of American Archivists named Tom Brown a Fellow of the Society, which is the organization’s highest individual honor.

Fynnette Eaton completed in April a fourteen-week the Advanced Management Program within the Information Resources Management College at the National Defense University in the Department of Defense.

Fynnette Eaton completed in May her two-year term as the chair of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. She also was just elected to a three-year term on the Society of American Archivists’ Council, which is the governing body of the organization.

Mark Conrad published an article, “To Have and to Hold?: Archival Responsibility in the Electronic Age,” Irish Archives, vol.3, no 1 n.s. (Spring 1996): 36-39.

Mark Conrad also co-edited a volume with the proceedings from a conference, For the Record: Data Archives, Electronic Records, Access to Research Information and the Needs of the Research Community (Dublin, Ireland: Institute of Public Administration, 1996). It included an article by Mark, “Electronic Records in the U.S. Federal Government: One Archivist’s Experience,” pp. 64-72.

Fynnette Eaton with a co-author had a presentation, “Preservation and Archival Issues for Electronic Records: The Center for Electronic Records of the National Archives and Records Administration” published in the Proceedings of the 5th Annual Federal Depository Library Conference, April 15-18, 1996 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1996), 18-21.

Fynnette Eaton was guest editor of a special issue of the American Archivist (Spring 1995), Vol. 58, no. 2, focusing on case studies concerned with electronic records. The special included a an article by Peggy Adams, “Punch Card Records: Precursors of Electronic Records,” pp. 182-201. It also included an article by Tom Brown, “The Freedom of Information Act in the Information Age: The Electronic Challenge to the People’s Right to Know,” pp. 202-211.

Peggy Adams co-authored an article, “The Government Information Locator Service: Origins and Potential,” Journal of Government Information, Vol. 23, no. 4 (July/August 1996), pp. 453-462 and Vol. 23, no 5/6, pp. 747-748.

Tom Brown published an article based on his IASSIST presentation in Quebec, “Myth or Reality: Is There A Generational Gap Among Electronic Records Archivists?” Archivaria (Spring 1996), pp. 234-243.

Mark Conrad returned in June from teaching in the archival studies program at University College Dublin (Ireland) as a Fulbright Scholar. Before returning, he was invited by the Finland-U.S. Educational Exchange Commission to visit Finland. While there, he lectured on electronic records issues at the University of Tampere, Abo Akademi, and the Finnish National Archives. He also participated in a seminar with the faculty of the Department of Information Studies at the University of Tampere.

Fynnette Eaton and Tom Brown made presentations at the Society of American Archivists meeting in San Diego. Peggy Adams organized a session that provided an opportunity for Libbie Stephenson to describe the partnering between the data archives and the traditional archives at UCLA. For the session, Peggy compiled a bibliography on social science data archives that is now accessible on the IASSIST homepage.

Peggy Adams presented a paper on the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, discussed CD-ROM technology at the annual conference of the Special Interest Group on CD-ROM Applications and Technology (SIGCAT ‘96) and chaired a panel at the Association of Public Data Users’ annual conference. Fynnette Eaton discussed preserving electronic records at a seminar sponsored by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee and chaired a session at a mass storage conference sponsored by NASA Goddard Space Science Center. Tom Brown discussed functional requirements for electronic record keeping systems at the annual Records Administration Conference (RACO) and made a presentation on the United States’ fair use doctrine in its copyright law to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. .

Contact_FullName:

Thomas E. Brown

Contact_Title:

Chief, Archival Services Branch, Center for Electronic Records

Contact_Organization:

National Archives and Records Administration

Contact_WorkPhone:

301-713-6630, ext 232

Contact_FAX:

301-713-6911

Contact_Email:

thomas.brown@arch2.nara.gov

Contact_URL:

http://www.nara.gov/nara/electronic

Activities

The National Archives and Records Administration reorganized its operation in January. Its Center for Electronic Records remained in tact but moved to a new organizational unit. Currently, the agency is trying to re-engineer its business processes with a look toward a second reorganization this October. Compounding this organizational uncertainty, the Center experienced a relatively high measure of staff turn over. Despite these impediments, the Center continued to acquire new holdings and provide reference services at an ever increasing rates. The Center mounted its homepage in late summer of 1996. The direct address is «http://www.nara.gov/nara/electronic%3E>.

The Society of American Archivists named Tom Brown a Fellow of the Society, which is the organization’s highest individual honor.

Fynnette Eaton completed in April a fourteen-week the Advanced Management Program within the Information Resources Management College at the National Defense University in the Department of Defense.

Fynnette Eaton completed in May her two-year term as the chair of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. She also was just elected to a three-year term on the Society of American Archivists’ Council, which is the governing body of the organization.

Mark Conrad published an article, “To Have and to Hold?: Archival Responsibility in the Electronic Age,” Irish Archives, vol.3, no 1 n.s. (Spring 1996): 36-39.

Mark Conrad also co-edited a volume with the proceedings from a conference, For the Record: Data Archives, Electronic Records, Access to Research Information and the Needs of the Research Community (Dublin, Ireland: Institute of Public Administration, 1996). It included an article by Mark, “Electronic Records in the U.S. Federal Government: One Archivist’s Experience,” pp. 64-72.

Fynnette Eaton with a co-author had a presentation, “Preservation and Archival Issues for Electronic Records: The Center for Electronic Records of the National Archives and Records Administration” published in the Proceedings of the 5th Annual Federal Depository Library Conference, April 15-18, 1996 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1996), 18-21.

Fynnette Eaton was guest editor of a special issue of the American Archivist (Spring 1995), Vol. 58, no. 2, focusing on case studies concerned with electronic records. The special included a an article by Peggy Adams, “Punch Card Records: Precursors of Electronic Records,” pp. 182-201. It also included an article by Tom Brown, “The Freedom of Information Act in the Information Age: The Electronic Challenge to the People’s Right to Know,” pp. 202-211.

Peggy Adams co-authored an article, “The Government Information Locator Service: Origins and Potential,” Journal of Government Information, Vol. 23, no. 4 (July/August 1996), pp. 453-462 and Vol. 23, no 5/6, pp. 747-748.

Tom Brown published an article based on his IASSIST presentation in Quebec, “Myth or Reality: Is There A Generational Gap Among Electronic Records Archivists?” Archivaria (Spring 1996), pp. 234-243.

Mark Conrad returned in June from teaching in the archival studies program at University College Dublin (Ireland) as a Fulbright Scholar. Before returning, he was invited by the Finland-U.S. Educational Exchange Commission to visit Finland. While there, he lectured on electronic records issues at the University of Tampere, Abo Akademi, and the Finnish National Archives. He also participated in a seminar with the faculty of the Department of Information Studies at the University of Tampere.

Fynnette Eaton and Tom Brown made presentations at the Society of American Archivists meeting in San Diego. Peggy Adams organized a session that provided an opportunity for Libbie Stephenson to describe the partnering between the data archives and the traditional archives at UCLA. For the session, Peggy compiled a bibliography on social science data archives that is now accessible on the IASSIST homepage.

Peggy Adams presented a paper on the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, discussed CD-ROM technology at the annual conference of the Special Interest Group on CD-ROM Applications and Technology (SIGCAT ‘96) and chaired a panel at the Association of Public Data Users’ annual conference. Fynnette Eaton discussed preserving electronic records at a seminar sponsored by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee and chaired a session at a mass storage conference sponsored by NASA Goddard Space Science Center. Tom Brown discussed functional requirements for electronic record keeping systems at the annual Records Administration Conference (RACO) and made a presentation on the United States’ fair use doctrine in its copyright law to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. .

Contact_FullName:

Kent Treichel

Contact_Title:

Research Associate

Contact_Organization:

Wilder Research Center

Contact_WorkPhone:

612-647-4636

Contact_FAX:

612-647-4623

Contact_Email:

mapman@visi.com

Contact_URL:

Activities

My projects have more of a geographic bent to them than strictly data archiving and providing. The research center relased it’s second annual Social Indicators publication which included a variety of data that attempted to update some Census data. I have spent the last year serving on a local data sharing task force called Metro GIS. This organization is attempting to combine data from a variety of sources and provide this data to it’s members. It has been a long process of visioning, focus groups, needs surveys and committee work. In the words of Dilbert, “Next year we plan to add content”. As a member of the State Data Center, I continue to answer inquiries from the community. Boy, is the Census data getting old. Can’t wait until the 2000 Census. In an effort to get our data to the public, I have been tasked to set up a web server running Linux. Not a difficult task perhaps, except that I am UNIX illiterate. Hopefully, I can pick it up as I go along.

Contact_FullName:

Ann Janda

Contact_Title:

Data consultant

Contact_Organization:

Northwestern University Library

Contact_WorkPhone:

847-491-4090

Contact_FAX:

847-491-8306

Contact_Email:

a-janda@nwu.edu

Contact_URL:

http://www.library.nwu.edu/data

Activities

We have had a very busy and challenging year at NU with only one FTE (yours truly) and 2 marvelous grad assistants (about 1/2 FTE).

This past year we had a 24% increase in user contacts over last year! Much of the increased traffic was in undergraduate use – mainly due to more quantitative requirements for the undergraduate program in Mathematical Methods in Social Science and the Economics Senior Honors Program. Other patterns showed (1) an increased demand for data outside of ICPSR and Roper (our usual suppliers), (2) more frequent use of the internet to identify sources of data, (3) heavier and more time-consuming tehcnical support provided to undergrads because of their inexperience, (4) increased expectations in moving data across platforms and translating files to “fit” the user’s desktop, and (5) an increase in fielding and referring of general statistical questions as one is identified as responsible for “data” in the library.

While we focused our energies on reference, accessing data and data extraction – the operational side has weakened. With the convenience of ftp transfers, the pace of data acquisition has speeded up while internal recordkeeping is struggling to keep up. I worry about cutting corners.

We have changed our name from Data Services to Social Science Data Services (SSDS). It’s simply a nicer acronym for the web. And I’ve learned, it doesn’t discourage our outlier users from the medical school, school of management, transportation department, and others from seeking out our services.

And we finally managed to put up a modest website! (http://www.library.nwu.edu/data I love showing off the “links to other sites” where users can go to more powerful and comprehensive sites created by fellow IASSISTers and other data archives. I’m grateful to you all.

Time for professional activity and development projects is more lacking than ever before – but nonetheless viewed as important! I hope next year shows some improvement.

As past editor, I contributed to article : “The SIGCHI Bulletin: Interview with the Editors” by Steven Pemberton in SIGCHI Bulletin, 28, 1 (January 1996), a special issue celebrating 50 Years of ACM. Electronic version: http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigchi/bulletin/1996.1/bulletin.html

Contact_FullName:

Sue A. Dodd

Contact_Title:

Contact_Organization:

Contact_WorkPhone:

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

usdodd@ibm.net

Contact_URL:

Activities

Laura asked me to report, so I am happy to say that retirement is great and although I have come to closure with the Institute for Research in Social Science, at the University of North Carolina, I remain interested in the activities of IASSIST and my friends and colleagues within. I have just renewed my membership and want to wish IASSIST every continued success. I am proud of my association with IASSIST, now and in the past, and it has been especially pleasing to see IASSIST grow from a fledgling organization to an impressive and important voice for all data professionals. Keep up the good work! and remember

SHOW ME THE CITATION!

Sue A. Dodd Chapel Hill, NC

Contact_FullName:

Jonathan E. Robbin

Contact_Title:

President

Contact_Organization:

Ricercar, Inc.

Contact_WorkPhone:

301-229-3539

Contact_FAX:

301-229-5186

Contact_Email:

ricercar@access.digex.net

Contact_URL:

Activities

Eight years ago, I sold my interest in Claritas Corporation, the company that I had founded in 1971. My principle activity from that time to the present has been the development and application of new models and systems for enhancing, editing, transforming, processing and adapting social, economic and environmental secondary data for use in direct, retail and mass marketing, epidemiology, conservation, journalism, political communications and strategic business planning.

I am currently engaged in building methods and models for geographic interpolation of PUMS tabulations from the PUMA down to the ZIP Code and Block Group levels. For example, the subpopulation of farm households is not crosstabulated by any other items in the STF3 small area summary data and omits “urban” farms (by the census definition of urban which includes small towns). In a recent effort, I have estimated many items such as age, race, income, ancestry, education, occupation, family relationships and configurations, tenure, water and sewer, age and type of dwelling unit, and so forth exclusively for farm households in five-digit ZIP Code delivery zones.

Other work in progress involves intercensal estimates of a number of population and housing census variables and development of factorial ecologies for small areas. One such typology includes an integration of social and economic data at small area levels with data derived from the Census of Agriculture, land use attributes, and physical characteristics of the soil and landscape.

I have recently finished the development of a new and seemingly quite efficient multivariate “gravity” model for evaluating retail store locations of various sizes, kinds of merchandise and commercial ambiances considering potential sales volume as a function of both the socioeconomic characteristics and distances to the store site of the various consumer populations in a trading area.

I filled a vacant seat of the Board of Directors of APDU in October, 1996 and was elected a Director for a full term in 1997. I am currently serving as Chairman of APDU’s Membership Committee and am working not only to promote a broadened constituency for the organization, but also to identify and implement new services and products that APDU can offer to enhance and expand the many important benefits it currently offers to its members. I would welcome any comments or suggestions regarding this undertaking as well as, of course, any inquiries regarding APDU itself.

Contact_FullName:

Robert Johnston

Contact_Title:

Contact_Organization:

United Nations

Contact_WorkPhone:

Contact_FAX:

Contact_Email:

johnstonr@un.org

Contact_URL:

http://www.un.org

Activities

In a speech to a United Nations governmental working group on informatics in New York on 24 April (http://www.un.org, under “General Information, Press Releases”), the new Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, cited recent developments in the fields of communications and information technology as key to the future work of the Organization and to the Organization’s support of development worldwide. Access through Internet to the UN Statistics Division’s Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, was specifically cited by the Secretary-General as a model for future work. Robert Johnston, who credits IASSIST with introducing him to the Internet and encouraging him to explore all the possibilities it offers, directs the work of the Bulletin and managed its movement onto Internet, where the first postings were made in May of 1996. Johnston, along with a dozen colleagues in other fields, had earlier been given an “efficiency award” by the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management for the innovation and success of the UN’s first home page. It is now heartening and exciting to see a full-scale Internet strategy established by the Secretary-General himself.