Introduction to the University Data Library and national data services

1
Introduction to theUniversity Data Libraryand
national data services

• Stuart Macdonald
• Graduate School of Social Political Science
  Induction
• 15 16 September, 2011

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EDINA and Data Library within Information Services

• Divisions
• User Services
• Library and Collections
• IT Infrastructure
• Applications
• EDINA and Data Library
• Digital Curation Centre

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What is a data library?

• A data library refers to both the content and
  the services that foster use of collections of
  numeric and/or geospatial data sets for secondary
  use in research. A data library is normally part
  of a larger institution (academic, corporate,
  scientific, medical, governmental, etc.)
  established to serve the data users of that
  organisation.
• The data library tends to house local data
  collections and provides access to them through
  various means (CD-/DVD-ROMs or central server for
  download). A data library may also maintain
  subscriptions to licensed data resources for its
  users to access.

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Data Library History

• Established out of the Program Library Unit in
  early 1980s to provide access to data on
  mainframes, e.g. 1981 population census data. Was
  part of EUCS, now Information Services
• Part of long tradition of sharing
  machine-readable data for secondary analysis in
  the social sciences
• Became a national data centre as EDINA in 1993 -
  data library continues University remit
• celebrated 25th anniversary in 2008

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Data Library - http//www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library
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Data Library Services

• Finding
• I need to analyse some data for a project, but
  all I can find are published papers with tables
  and graphs, not the original data source.
• Accessing
• Ive found the data I need, but Im not sure how
  to gain access to it.
• Using
• Ive got the data I need, but Im not sure how
  to analyse it in my chosen software.
• Managing
• I have collected my own data and Id like to
  document and preserve it and make it available to
  others.
• Reference Interviews

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Data Library Resources

• Large-scale social science survey data
• Country and regional level time series data
• Population and Agricultural Census data
• Data for mapping
• Resources for teaching
• Opening hours 9.30am 5.30pm (Tues Thurs)
• 5 Buccleuch Place, 2nd floor
• Tel. [phone] or 0131 651 1744
• Email datalib_at_ed.ac.uk

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Research Data Management Services

• Guidance via suite of web pages
• Research data management training
• JISC-Funded Research Data MANTRA project -
  http//www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library-projects/mantr
  a
• Open Educational Resources aimed at PhD students
  and early career researchers
• Online RDM tutorials, data handling exercises,
  video interviews
• Content licensed using CC-attribution to allow
  re-use and re-purposing
• Institutional data repository provision
• Assistance with deposit in national archives

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Edinburgh DataShare - http//datashare.is.ed.ac.uk
/
10
Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN) -
http//aqmen.ac.uk/

• The Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN)
  is led by a team of academics from eight
  Universities in Scotland. It is a three year
  project funded jointly by the ESRC and the
  Scottish Funding Council (SFC) as part of the
  ESRC Quantitative Methods Initiative.
• The main objective is to build capacity in the
  use of quantitative methods amongst the social
  science community in Scotland and beyond.
• Data Library host and manage the AQMeN website
• AQMeN provide access to data analysis tools
  software teaching resources data resources,
  research skills, communication and dissemination
  resources
• Plus links to training events and an online
  discussion forum

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Introduction to National Data Services
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UK Data Archive

• Founded in 1967 and based at the University of
  Essex
• ESRC / JISC-funded
• Houses several thousand social science and
  humanities datasets
• Provides resource discovery and support for
  secondary use of quantitative and qualitative
  data in learning, teaching and research.
• More recently it has worked with environmental
  and medical data sources.
• Services provided include
• Economic and Social Data Service
• History Data Service
• UK Census portal
• Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Data
  Support Service
• Secure Data Service
• Survey Question Bank
• UKDA StatServe

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UKDA - http//www.data-archive.ac.uk/
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Economic and Social Data Service

• The ESDS is a distributed service, based on a
  collaboration between four key centres of
  expertise
• UK Data Archive (UKDA), University of Essex
• Institute for Social and Economic Research
  (ISER) , University of Essex
• Manchester Information and Associated Services
  (MIMAS), University of
• Manchester
• Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey
  Research (CCSR), University of
• Manchester
• It provides an integrated service offering
  enhanced support for the secondary use of
  qualitative and quantitative data across the
  research, learning and teaching communities

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ESDS - http//www.esds.ac.uk/
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ESDS features include Data full/partial
catalogue search, browse by subject, also links
to major studies, new
releases Support finding data, online guides,
learning and teaching resources, online data
analysis tools (NESSTAR), external statistical
sources, FAQ Resources Online data browsing
tools, DDI tools, qualitative tools Advice for
creating and depositing research data - best
practice for ESRC researchers and beyond,
preservation guidelines News Events
workshops, new data, publications (incl. good
practice guides)
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Interaction data involve flows of individuals in
the UK between origins and destinations. These
flows are either the residential migrations of
individuals from one place of usual residence to
another or of commuters making journeys from home
to workplace via CIDER
The Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs) are a
sample of individual person-level records drawn
from the 1991 and 2001 Census databases that have
been anonymised. Each file contains a broad range
of socio-demographic characteristics for
respondents.
Longitudinal studies are data sources that
contain observations of the same research units
over a period of time e.g. ONS Longitudinal
Study of England and Wales, Scottish Longitudinal
Study linking census data to vital statistics
via CELSIUS
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(No Transcript)
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Casweb - http//casweb.mimas.ac.uk
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EDINA National Data Centre http//edina.ac.uk

• Mission statement ..to enhance the
  productivity of research, learning and teaching
  in UK higher and further education..
• Networked access to a range of online resources
  for UK FE and HE
• Services free at the point of use for use by
  staff and students in learning, teaching and
  research through institutional subscription
• Focus is on service but also undertake RD
  (projects ? services)
• delivers about 20 online services
• has about 10 major projects (including services
  in development)
• employs about 80 staff (Edinburgh St Helens)

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UKBORDERS http//edina.ac.uk/ukborders/
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EDINA Digimap - http//digimap.edina.ac.uk/
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Other non-academic UK data sources

• National Records of Scotland (NRS)
• http//www.nrscotland.gov.uk/
• Scottish Census Records On-line
• http//www.scrol.gov.uk/scrol/common/home.jsp
• Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• http//www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/
• ONS Neighbourhood Statistics
• http//www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/
• Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics (SNS)
• http//www.sns.gov.uk/
• NISRA - http//www.nisra.gov.uk/
• Welsh Government Statistics - http//wales.gov.uk/
  topics/statistics/?langen

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• Pics from Flickr (creative commons attribution)
  credits
• include D Sharon Pruitt
• Thank You
• stuart.macdonald_at_ed.ac.uk
• r.rice_at_ed.ac.uk
• datalib_at_ed.ac.uk