ACCOLEDS/DLI Training EDMONTON, DECEMBER 5, 2001 Mike Sivyer DLI ORIENTATION PROGRAM INTRODUCTION

EDMONTON, DECEMBER 5, 2001 GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS DLI ORIENTATION PROGRAM

Chuck - POPPA BEAR

Elizabeth - MOMMA BEAR

Garth - BABY BEAR

EDMONTON, DECEMBER 5, 2001 Mike - …!!!

2001

The Need to Liberate The Data EDMONTON, DECEMBER 5, 2001

Why the heck do we need a DLI?

Historically Stats Canada made published data available to public through the DSP These were regular paper publications and did not include electronic numeric files (ie. Public use micro data files) Data files were available to researchers at marginal costs Custom tables were another, more costly, method to access unpublished data The Need to Liberate The Data

In 1980s federal budget cuts resulted in Stats Canadas increased emphasis on cost recovery In early 1990s the cost of public use microdata files underwent a dramatic increase This pushed most data files became out of reach for majority of academic researchers & students The Need to Liberate The Data

The cost of Stats Canada data in the late 80s and early 90s can be compared to the gas prices of just a few months ago. To many academic researchers and students these files cost... The Need to Liberate The Data

A consortium of universities had been created to gain access to 1986 Census data This idea was well received by STC and led to a movement within academic community to Liberate the rest of STCs electronic datafiles A paper in 1991: Liberating the Data: Proposal for a Proposal led to a working group to further investigate this idea Group made up of reps. from: universities, SSFC, CARL, CAPDU, as well as STC and DSP

The Need to Liberate The Data Champions within both the academic community and Statistics Canada came forth to push this idea Informal approval was received in 1995 This was followed by the creation of: An internal STC Steering Committee A Project Team An External Advisory Committee

The Need to Liberate The Data A Licence Agreement was drafted and approved Author divisions were asked to provide there data to the Initiative Institutions were invited to join the initiative Other Govt agencies became involved and formal approval for 5-year pilot received from Treasury Board in early 1996

The Need to Liberate The Data Funding for initiative was to be mostly from participating institutions with CARL members paying $12,000 and CASUL members paying $3,000 One time funding from: TB, IC, MRCC A 5 year funding commitment from: HC, HRDC, SSHRC, STC

The Need to Liberate The Data Use of Internet as a dissemination tool seen as a key component of initiative Established mechanisms for communications, storage, finding and ordering data Created an FTP Site at STC DLILIST - a forum for questions and sharing of information DLIORDER & WWW DLI ORDER DESK - for placing orders for products not on the FTP site Began disseminating files in 1996

The Need to Liberate The Data Before DLI about 15 institutions offered a data service Therefore co-operative training of members was seen as an extremely important aspect due to varying degrees of experience of members. Established a training committee and began to develop a curriculum, identify trainers, establish budgets Regional training workshops were begun in 1997

The Need to Liberate The Data Training workshops have been given in each region on an annual basis since then Have just had a review of training and a report was presented to EAC last fall One suggestion was to have another Orientation session for new members who missed the one in 1997 This workshop and this special Orientation session part of continuing co-operative training

The Need to Liberate The Data In 1996 there were 50 post secondary members In 1998 there were 61 Today there are 66 members There are over 13,000 files in the DLI collection including data files, documentation, CDs etc. Can now access the collection via DLI Web Site as well as FTP

The Need to Liberate The Data The DLI is now a permanent program at Stats Canada located within the Library and Information Centre Todays graduates have had the opportunity to use Canadian data throughout their studies The DLI has been described as one of the most important developments in the social sciences in Canada for the past 50 years!

EDMONTON, DECEMBER, 2001 What is The Data Liberation Initiative?

The Products The Licence The Service The Community

DLI provides access to Stats Canada data produced as standard electronic products available to the public These data are digitally encoded and stored in a file structure These include: Micro data Files Geography Files Databases Aggregate data in table format THE PRODUCTS

Main focus of DLI Collection on Socio- Economic data: Health Education, Literacy Labour Market, Income Travel Justice Census, Demographic Etc. THE PRODUCTS

Few products related to Business data in DLI Collection Not usually produced as a standard electronic product for public dissemination DLI includes some business products such as: Trade data Financial Performance Indicators CD Inter-Corporate Ownership Fleet Report Survey of Manufacturing THE PRODUCTS

Standard Electronic Product THE PRODUCTS An off the shelf electronic product available to the public Not included are standard publications available in electronic form as these are usually part of DSP Registered in STC Catalogue of Products and Services and has a Product Number

l 82F0077XIE Report on smoking prevalence in Canada 82F0077XIE Report on smoking prevalence in Canada l XPB Attitudes toward smoking XPB Attitudes toward smoking l First 2 characters = Major Subject Group l Third character = Product Class (e.g. F = Fixed, M = Microdata product, C = Custom product, etc) l Fourth - seventh character = unique product number THE PRODUCTS

l 82F0077XIE Report on smoking prevalence in Canada 82F0077XIE Report on smoking prevalence in Canada l XPB Attitudes toward smoking XPB Attitudes toward smoking l Eighth character = variable descriptor (e.g.. P = Preliminary, U = Update, X = Not Applicable, G = Guide, etc) l Ninth character = medium (e.g.. T = tape, D = diskette, I = Internet, C = CD, etc) l Tenth Character = Language THE PRODUCTS

l XPE Youth smoking in Canada This article was published in Canadian social trends, catalogue number XPE, Winter 1996 no XPE Youth smoking in CanadaCanadian social trends l 82M0011XDB Youth Smoking Survey, M0011XDB Youth Smoking Survey, 1994 l 82M0011GPE Youth Smoking Survey, Microdata user's guide 82M0011GPE Youth Smoking Survey, Microdata user's guide l 82C0014 Youth Smoking Survey, Custom tabulations 82C0014 Youth Smoking Survey, Custom tabulations THE PRODUCTS

Metadata available in both Official Languages whenever available New data products continually being added to Collection Includes: Updated data from regular on-going surveys Data from ad-hoc special surveys -one time only Data from new surveys in STC program THE PRODUCTS

Updates may be provided in different format than earlier version: For example PUMF Beyond 20/20 As new versions are received have to decide to either replace data or add to Collection Over 13,000 files in Collection including: Data files Metadata & Readme files Census & Geography CDs THE PRODUCTS

Not all products in DLI Collection are standard electronic products Have some special products just for DLI which contain non-public data: KLEMS database An experimental database of productivity data Justice Statistics Complete set of Beyond 20/20 tables normally only available to members of CCJS Initiative THE PRODUCTS

No longer included in the DLI Collection are: E-STAT Received CD once per year E-STAT now free on-line to subscribing institutions CANSIM received a CD of CANSIM once a year With introduction of CANSIM II this no longer happens CANSIM data included on E-STAT THE PRODUCTS

DLI is open to all accredited Post Secondary Institutions in Canada Data made available on a subscription basis All member institutions must sign a Licence Agreement Data made available to Educators, Students and Other Staff while they have such status at the Institution E.g.. A student who goes to USA to do Masters no longer has access to data THE LICENCE

Data is made available for: Academic Research and Publishing Teaching Planning of academic/educational services Use of data in textbooks falls under a different set of STC licences and permissions Data not to be used in any commercial or private activities (even if no $$ involved) DLI Contact responsible to ensure eligible use of data THE LICENCE

Other questions to help determine if use falls under definition of academic research If publishing - is use strictly for publishing in academic or scholarly journal? Is use under a contract with outside agency/organization? - Any $$ involved? Do $$ come thru institutions grants dept? Even if no $$ involved did contract come thru regular institutional channels? Is data expected to be shared with outside agency/organization? THE LICENCE

Other important elements of the Licence Agreement: Data & products offered as is STC remains owner of intellectual property - only access to data is provided Users must not link data or otherwise try to identify individual respondents DLI Contact to implement data security measures May have users sign before allowing access THE LICENCE

Plans to create document on Web to address more common data use elegibility questions Have gathered all questions since 1996 This to be done as soon as time and resources permit Until then if unsure send message to Team for consideration All questions reviewed by DLI Manager & Director as well as Co-Chairs of EAC THE LICENCE

In process of finalizing new Licence Agreement to reflect move from pilot to permanency This to be sent to Library Directors soon Until then will continue to operate under original Licence Agreement THE LICENCE

DLI was conceived to be a Internet based means of dissemination - internet the main mode of data transfer and communications DLI Team offers both an FTP and a Web based service for access to Collection DLILIST - forum for making enquires, sharing of information and general communication between and among members DLIORDER & WWW DLI ORDER DESK - processes to order hard copy versions of products not available electronically THE SERVICES

The DLI Team DLI activities at STC are performed by a small Team situated in the Library and Information Center - currently there are 6 members on the Team Have just lost one Team member who was responsible for Liaison/Communications and whose duties included: Responding to enquires in DLILIST Liaison with author divisions Producing DLI Update THE SERVICES

Other Team members include: André Blondin Responsible for: Quality Control of data and metadata Maintenance of FTP site directories Loading of files on FTP site Overseeing creation of SPSS THE SERVICES

André Blondin THE SERVICES

Other Team members include: Christiane Rousseau Responsible for: Assistant Liaison/Communication DLIORDER/WWW DLI ORDER DESK and hardcopy products Maintaining library of CDs and print documentation THE SERVICES

Christiane Rousseau THE SERVICES

Other Team members include: Roger Arsenault Responsible for: Creation and validation of SPSS THE SERVICES

Roger Arsenault THE SERVICES

Other Team members include: Marie Josée Bourgeois Responsible for: Web page creation and development Web links to data and metadata THE SERVICES

Marie Josée Bourgeois THE SERVICES

Other Team members include: Jackie Godfrey Responsible for: Project on-line infrastructure Data security i.e.. Passwords, IP validation, etc FTP & Web listservs THE SERVICES

Others who are connected to Team Anne Chartrand - Administrative Assistant Carole Paradis - Cataloguing of DLI Collection Ernie Boyko - Director of Library THE SERVICES

Although the Licence states as is this is not really the case When a product is received by Team a number of steps are performed before it is placed in the Collection: First of all check to ensure that all files - data, metadata (French & English) have been received Open each file to ensure it is what it says it is (e.g if a.DOC then file is a WORD file, etc) THE SERVICES

Run program against data file to verify: Number of records Record length Overall size of file Compare results against codebook and/or record layout If SAS and/or SPSS received run against file If no SPSS - create it Rename all files to conform to DLI standards THE SERVICES

Create FTP path & directories Create Readme file Load all files into appropriate place Update all related Web pages ( Site Additions, List of Products, Product Release Table and Web Site page, etc.) Announce addition on DLILIST THE SERVICES

To help users keep track of receipt of product we have Product Release Table on Web When data availability announced in Daily we add product to table Must first ensure that a DLI product (e.g. PUMF) will be produced Contact division to determine date of release of PUMF Monitor and update Product Release Table on ongoing basis THE SERVICES

The Daily is the official release vehicle of STC All data must first be announced in Daily before being disseminated to public Data announced in Daily does not mean that a public file is available Could just be an announcement of data availability - i.e. for custom requests Look at DLI Update of Fall 2000 for a detailed description of how STC released in the Daily THE SERVICES

DLI Update A newsletter designed as a means to inform, teach and share information containing articles written by various DLI Contacts and Team members Produced by Liaison/Communications Officer Originally intended to be produced on a semi - regular basis (there were 3 in 1997, 2 in 98, 1 in 99 and 2 in 2000) Due to lack of resource have not produced a new issue since fall 2000 THE SERVICES

SPSS Many files have not come with SPSS descriptions - these are created by DLI Team Often older files do not have French versions of documentation so extremely difficult to create French SPSS Creation of these SPSS labels can take some time after receipt of documentation, depending on workload, size of file, and if any documentation in electronic format THE SERVICES

SPSS Starting to receive some kind of SPSS descriptors from author divisions If and when SPSS supplied by author division they can require major editing to fit with DLI Users requirements (e.g. length of variable and value labels) The preparation of SPSS is a major undertaking and the DLI Team expends 1+ FTE on this activity THE SERVICES

Training DLI project subsidises annual Regional Training Workshops DLI Web page will provide links to various training materials Team members assist in training workshops if and when required THE SERVICES

CA*NET3 - new service being offered by DLI A separate internet line connecting individual universities, federal & provincial government labs and research institutes through provincially based Regional Advanced Networks (RAN) Developed by CANARIE and private industry and is the worlds first national optical internet DLI pays annual fee to be connected to this line Has increased download efficiencies for DLI Contacts THE SERVICES

The DLI is a partnership between Statistics Canada and the participating post secondary institutions There are currently 66 member institutions (BCIT left but Red Deer College joined) Have received enquiries from some CEGEPs We are thinking about foreign institutions with Canadian Studies programs THE COMMUNITY

Major activities and direction of project guided by members themselves through the External Advisory Committee (EAC) EAC meets twice a year to review and discuss major issues Co-Chairs are in frequent contact with DLI Manager and Director at STC New governance document on EAC to be on Web soon THE COMMUNITY

EAC made up of following academic members: Elizabeth Hamilton - UNB Mary MacLeod - Acadia Gaetan Drolet - Laval Barbara Znamirowski - Trent Wendy Watkins - Carleton (Co-Chair) Mark Leggott - U of Winnipeg Chuck Humphrey - U of Alberta (Co-Chair) Walter Piovesan - Simon Fraser THE COMMUNITY

Other voting members: Bruno Gnassi - DSP Jeffery Smith - Asst Director Special Surveys Ernie Boyko - STC Mike Sivyer - STC Other participants include: Rest of DLI Team Often invite members of different STC divisions to make presentations to EAC on their products, etc. THE COMMUNITY

There are a number of advantages to belonging to DLI: The DLI provides academic community with one stop shopping for SCT products at affordable prices Provide a forum for sharing information and obtaining advice Value added to basic STC products (e.g. SPSS) Participation in training workshops also a great community builder THE COMMUNITY