showcasing esds collections louise corti, esds whats in it for librarians? rss 13 february 2009

Showcasing ESDS Collections

Louise Corti, ESDSWhat’s in it for Librarians?

RSS 13 February 2009

Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)

• national data archiving and dissemination service, running from 1 Jan. 2003 -2011www.esds.ac.uk

• jointly supported by: – Economic and Social Research Council – Joint Information Systems Committee

• partners:– UK Data Archive (UKDA), Essex – Manchester Information and Associated – Services (MIMAS), Manchester– Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and– Survey Research (CCSR), Manchester – Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER),

Essex

ESDS overview

• provides access and support for key economic and social data

• distributed service, bringing together centres of expertise in data creation, dissemination, preservation and use

• provides seamless and easier access to a range of disparate resources for UK Higher and Further Education sectors

• core archiving services plus four specialist data services

• Built on a foundation of the UK Data Archive, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary

ESDS holdings

Data for research and teaching purposes and used in all sectors and for many different disciplines

• official agencies - mainly central government

• individual academics - research grants

• market research agencies

• public records/historical sources

• links to UK census data

• qualitative and quantitative

• international statistical time series

• access to international data via

• links with other data archives worldwide

• history data service in-house (HDS)

• 5,000+ datasets in the

collection

• 280+ new datasets are

added each year

• 46,000 registered users

• 3,000+ user support

queries

• 50,000 datasets

distributed worldwide

p.a.

Research Council data sharing policies

• many funders of research are increasingly following guidance from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development:

publicly funded research data should be openly available to the scientific community to the maximum extent possible

• many UK research councils have data sharing policies in place, and other research funders and publishers are increasingly encouraging the sharing of both data and outputs

• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) data policy that all data must be offered to ESDS within 3 months of the end of research grant

Supporting data creators

• we support researchers and organisations who creating research data

• we have Best Practice Guidance on Managing and Sharing Data: www.data-archive.ac.uk/sharing

• We provide guidance and training on:

– How and why share data– Consent, confidentiality and ethics– Copyright– Data documentation and metadata– Data formats and software– Data security, back-up and security

Kinds of data ESDS deal with• quantitative

– micro data are the coded numerical responses to surveys with a separate record for each individual respondent

– macro data are aggregate figures, for example country-level economic indicators

– data formats include SPSS, Stata and tab delimited formats

• qualitative – data include in-depth interviews, diaries, anthropological

field notes and the complete answers to survey questions – data formats include Excel, Word and RTF

• multimedia – a small number of datasets may include image files, such

as photographs, and audio files

• non-digital material – paper media could include photographs, reports,

questionnaires and transcriptions – analogue audio or audio-visual recordings

How we store ESDS data

• mostly in the permanent collection, based at Essex, which preserves data for the longer-term

• research data in UKDA-store, the self archiving repository – current only for ESRC award holders

• Some international data not preserved by ESDS

ESDS structure• ESDS Management

– central help desk service; coherent and flexible collections development policy; central registration service; links to other ESRC resources

• ESDS Access and Preservation

– collections development strategy; ingest activities - including data and documentation processing; metadata creation; data dissemination services; long-term preservation

• Specialist data services

– ESDS Government– ESDS International– ESDS Longitudinal – ESDS Qualidata

• dedicated web sites• data and

documentation enhancements

• tailored user support• outreach and training

ESDS Government data• General Household Survey• Continuous Household Survey (NI)• Labour Force Survey/NI LFS• Health Survey for

England/Wales/Scotland • Family Expenditure Survey/NI FES• British/Scottish Crime Survey• Family Resources Survey • Expenditure and Food Survey • ONS Omnibus Survey

• Survey of English Housing • British Social Attitudes/Scottish Social Attitudes/Young

People’s Social Attitudes/NI Life & Times• National Travel Survey• Time Use Survey• Vital Statistics for England and Wales

Benefits of the large-scale government datasets

• good quality data– produced by experienced research organisations– UK/GB - usually nationally representative with large

samples. Interviewers all over country– good response rates– well documented

• continuous data– e.g. Continuous Household Survey 1983

allows comparison over time– data is largely cross-sectional

• hierarchical data– individual and household– intra-household differences– household effects on individuals

Percentage of women aged 18-49 cohabiting

General Household Survey

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1979 1985 1989 1991 1993 1995 1998 2000

ESDS Longitudinal Data

• main studies that are primarily UK Research Council:

– British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)

– British Birth Cohort studies:• National Child Development Survey (NCDS)• British Cohort Study 1970 (BCS70)• Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)

– English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

– Families and Children Study (FACS)

– Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)

– possible forthcoming Medical Research Council population study datasets – 1946 Birth Cohort

Longitudinal data

• longitudinal surveys involve repeated surveys of the same individuals at different points in time

• allow researchers to analyse change at the individual level

• more complex to analyse

British Household Panel Survey

• collected and deposited by the ULSC at Essex

• follows the members of 5500 households first sampled in 1991

• interviews conducted annually

• become a major resource for understanding the dynamics of British households

• coverage includes:– income, labour market behaviour, social and political

values, health, education, housing and household organisation

• large new samples were introduced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

• new larger-scale panel study started

British Birth Cohort Studies

• impact of childhood conditions on later life and understanding children and families in the UK

• national Child Development Study follows a cohort born in a single week in 1958 - data collected at birth & ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42 (7 Up TV series)

• 1970 British Cohort Study follows a cohort born in a single week in 1970 - data collected around birth & ages 5, 10, 16, 26, 29 and most recently at age 34

• Millennium Cohort Study focuses on children born in 2000/ 2001 - first sweep at 9 months, second sweep at 3 years

• wide range of social, economic, health, medical and psychological issues

ESDS International data portfolio

• regularly updated macro-economic time series datasets from selected major international statistical databanks that collectively chart over 50 years of global economic, industrial and political change:

– International Monetary Fund (IMF)– Organisation for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD)– United Nations (UN)– World Bank – Eurostat– International Labour Organisation (ILO)– UK Office for National Statistics– International Energy Agency

• access to micro data surveys:

– Eurobarometers, Latinobarometers– International Social Survey Programme– other social data via other national data archives

Access for UK HE/FE only!

Institutional subscriptions to many of the databases from these organisations can now be safely cancelled

International data themes and access

- economic performance and development- trade, industry and markets- employment- demography, migration and health- governance- human development - social expenditure- education- science and technology - land use and the environment

databanks cover:

• freely available to UK FE and HE• access via Athens or Federated access (Shibboleth)

authentication and ESDS online registration• delivered over the web via Beyond 20/20 Web Data

Server• download formats include *.xls, *.csv and *.ivt

International survey data

•ESDS International at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) can help users to locate and acquire data from other archives within Europe and worldwide, using a series of reciprocal agreements with the individual institutions.

•Datasets include:

– Eurobarometer– Latinobaraometers– International Social Survey Programme – World Values Survey

ESDS Qualidata

• diverse data types: in-depth interviews ; semi-structured interviews; focus groups; oral histories; mixed methods data; open-ended survey questions; case notes/records of meetings; diaries/ research diaries

• data from National Research Council (ESRC) individual and programme research grant awards

• data from ‘classic’ social science studies

• other funders/sources

Classic sociology datasets

• Peter Townsend – Poverty, old ageand Katherine Buildings

• Paul Thompson – oral history and Edwardians

• Mildred Blaxter’s ‘Mothers and Daughters’

• Ray Pahl –Hertfordshire Villages studies

• National Social Policy and Social Change Archive

Finding data• UKDA Catalogue of holdings

– Describes study, methods and data collection

– Records all study related publications

– Lists variables for SPSS datasets

– Thesaurus aided search, HASSET

– Can download user guide free

– Link to web download

– Themes pages…only health so far!

Accessing data

DOWNLOAD TO LOCAL MACHINE

• You first need to register using Athens or UK Federation.

• You agree to an End User Licence

• You specify a project for which you’d like to use data

• You download data selecting your desired format (SPSS, STATA, ASCII, RTF etc)

• You get an idea of file size

Using ESDS data for teaching

• tutor registers with ESDS and downloads data

• registers a usage (for micro data)

• tutor makes data available to students (if online only via secure network)

• tutor asks students to register or sign access agreement for teaching (not always necessary, but to be encouraged)

Accessing data online

• online data analysis, including

– Simple data analysis, visualisation, downloading and sub-setting via Nesstar

– ESDS Qualidata Online – interview transcripts

– ESDS Government Vital Statistics online

– International macro data via Beyond 20/20 and visualisation interface

Cross-tab

Instantly chart it

ESDS Qualidata Online

Creation of digital multimedia resources that integrate existing primary and secondary materials. The Edwardians collection used as demonstrator to view:

• catalogues of interview summaries • full electronic interview transcripts • thematic browsing of interview transcripts • collections of digital audio clips • contextual photos• background information and press reviews on the

original studies • details of publications based upon secondary

studies of the collections

What do users do with data?

• descriptive material

• comparative research, restudy or follow-up

study

• re-analysis/secondary analysis

• research design and methodological

advancement

• replication of published statistics

• teaching and learning

ESDS contact

help@esds.ac.uk