DLI Toolkit A Crash Course in being the DLI Contact

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DLI Toolkit A Crash Course in being the DLI
Contact

• Beyond the Statistics Canada/DLI Web Site

Jean Blackburn and Daniel Beaulieu, ACCOLEDS 2004
at Kelowna
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Where am I coming from?

• Small, primarily undergraduate institution
• Research and Scholarly activity only beginning to
  be an institutional priority
• On average, I spend only about 5 of my time on
  data services, and requests for DLI data are few
  and far between (5 per year on average)
• I am neither the Gov Docs nor the Social Sciences
  librarian (nor business!)

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Shaping a small-scale data service For
inspiration, see Garth Homers Data Provision in
a Small Library presentation from the 2001
ACCOLEDS Training Sessions

• Finding data
• Getting data
• Viewing data
• Managing data
• Teaching and promoting datam -- ambition, not
  reality, at this point!

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Finding Data Reference

• Ensure your reference colleagues are comfortable
  answering questions about statistics
• Periodic refresher workshops for other reffies on
  STCs web-based statistics resources are a great
  way to build a tier one data reference service.

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Finding Data Reference

• If you or your user is unclear about his/her
  needs, you will want to determine whether the
  user wants statistics, aggregate data or
  microdata and what the user is equipped to deal
  with.
• See Chuck Humphreys A Framework for Thinking
  about Statistical Information presentation and
  associated Computing Exercise and Answer Key

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Finding Data Reference

• Important information to gather in a reference
  interview includes the variables needed, level of
  geography needed, currency needed, longitudinal
  span needed, suitable method of distribution, and
  how the material will be used (see Managing
  Data)
• See Vince Grays PowerPoint presentation
  Fielding Reference Questions from the 2004 DLI
  Training Sessions in Kingston, ON

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Finding Data Reference

• When you know the need is for microdata, know
  when to mention an RDC! Be prepared to explain
  STCs confidentiality requirements, and, if you
  like, some methods of anonymizing data.
• E.g. See SLID Research Series article
  Confidentiality of SLID Microdata General
  Approach
• Or the 2001 Census Dissemination Projects Data
  Quality and Confidentiality Standards and
  Guidelines (Public)

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Finding Data Reference

• Encourage users to find and peruse documentation
  themselves (IF it doesnt take more time to
  explain the web site to users!)
• Explain troubleshooting PDFs
• Give yourself time and ask your users to give
  you time
• Search the DLI List for expert advice (example)

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Chuck to the rescue!
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Finding Data Search Tools

• The Daily
• Online catalogue search
• DLI Collection search
• E-STAT / CANSIM
• DLI List search
• Google Site Search
• Example search string beyond 20/20
  sitestatcan.ca
• OR go to Google Advanced Search and enter
  statcan.ca in the domain field

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Finding Data Documentation

• Documentation formats are not always predictable!
• PDFs can be difficult to open
• Some .txt files are better opened in Word and
  Internet Explorer than in Wordpad or NotePad
  (example)
• Whats with the LMAS codebook?
• Check the DLI List!
• The DLI team can help!

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Getting Data and Documentation

• Survey data are available from the DLI Web
  collection and may be downloaded WITH DLI
  username and password
• Need compression tool (e.g. WinZip, WinRAR,
  PowerArchiver) to unzip zip files
• All that and MORE (Census, geography files,
  software) available from the FTP collection.
  This collection is, generally speaking, more
  complete and up-to-date than the Web collection.

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Getting Data and DocumentationFTP site

• ftp.statcan.ca in FTP client, or
  ftp//dli_at_ftp.statcan.ca in your web browser
• FTP clients include WS-FTP FileZilla is free
  CuteFTP has a French version.)
• Need to know survey acronyms!

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Getting Data and Documentation FTP contd.

• Need compression tool (e.g. WinZip, WinRAR,
  PowerArchiver) to unzip zip files
• Need Maxline (on FTP site ? util ? maxline.exe)
  to check/confirm the number of records in the
  data file (compare with what it says in the
  readme file)? Chuck and Laine say its
  essential!!
• See Chuck Humphreys Product Retrieval
  presentation from 2001 ACCOLEDS Training Sessions
  and pp. 1-5 of his associated Computing
  Exercise
• See Laine Ruuss DLI Toolkit presentation from
  the DLI training sessions in Kingston, 2004

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Getting Data and Documentation

• Extraction tools such as
• IDLS
• LANDRU
• QWIFS
• Sherlock
• Are data in these systems cleaner or is it
  the SPSS code that is responsible for dirt?
• Get hooked up if you can
• Do we need a national value-added initiative that
  all DLI member institutions contribute to?
• How do NESSTAR and/or SDA fit into this?

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Viewing Data Beyond 20/20

• For viewing aggregate data tables, e.g.
  Topic-based tabulations from Census 2001
• Beyond 20/20 is distributed by Statistics Canada
• There are great training exercises by Walter and
  Laine on the University of Toronto Data Service
  web site

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Viewing Data SPSS

• In a small data service, transforming the dat
  files you procure from the Web or FTP collections
  into SPSS formatted files is about the limit!
• Sometimes there are no SPSS syntax files (e.g.
  1990 LMAS, 1976 Census) what to do? Check the
  DLI list and/or other large university data web
  sites.
• Some faculty will need SPSS support purchase
  manuals for collection and start up an SPSS
  Support Group among faculty.
• See Chuck Humphreys Product Retrieval
  presentation from 2001 ACCOLEDS Training Sessions
  and his associated Computing Exercise

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Managing Data

• The DLI license
• How do you recognize appropriate and
  inappropriate use?
• See this great tutorial by Sage Cram and
  Elizabeth Hamilton from the 2001 ACCOLEDS
  training session in Victoria.
• Access to files
• How will clients use the files individually? In
  teams? From one location or multiple locations?
• Will a CD-R work for the user, or a shared (among
  approved users only) network directory?

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Teaching and promoting data Data or Statistical
Literacy

• A future direction
• I need to find ways to bring the DLI resources to
  our undergraduate students to support numeric
  literacy, spatial literacy, media literacy,
  political literacy, etc
• My suggestion for future ACCOLEDS training
  sessions is more undergrad-education (i.e.
  literacy) content!