1. ESDS Resources Anthony Rafferty ESDS Government Centre for Census and Survey Research University of Manchester

2. ESDS Government Supports major UK data series –Large surveys conducted, usually by government –Eg: Labour Force Survey General Household Survey British Crime Survey Health Survey for England –Repeated cross-sections, often continuous –Important, widely used microdata Joint service –Team at UK Data Archive ingest and archive data –Team at Manchester deal with users –Registration for the data managed by ESDS centrally

3. Role Too much stuff? –Navigating users through the right materials –Creating additional materials to help users discover datasets and supporting materials Promoting the use of the data Encouraging good practice Bridging the gap between data collector and users

4. Annual themes Workshops and other materials are related to an annual substantive theme –Year 1: Employment and the Labour Market –Year 2: Health –Year 3: Social capital –Year 4: Ethnicity Ensures that work has an emphasis on substantive research Each year a thematic guide is produced which looks at how to explore the research theme with the data

5. Web-based resources to support users Thematic Guides FAQs & Starting Analysis Methodological Guides –SPSS, Stata –Guide to weighting Publications database Data usage search Links to other web resources http://www.esds.ac.uk/government/resources

6. Outreach events Introductory workshops Joint workshops with other ESDS services Methods Research conferences Dataset user meetings Other presentations Posters

7. Improving the usability of data Creating annual themed teaching datasets Change over time – comparison of variables, LFS, GHS –Generating syntax to enable comparability Harmonising Vital Statistics access and formatting

11. Keeping in touch Biannual newsletter Email newslist Home page contains news –Our news –New data Helpdesk

12. Data developments Website contains news about major developments GHS(L) response to the design –Impact for secondary analysts with respect to continuity and merging datasets to increase sample size IHS: next meeting 29 th March 07

13. The important last slide… Helpdesk: govsurveys@esds.ac.uk (0161) 275 4722 Website: http://www.esds.ac.uk/government JISCmail: esds-govsurveys@jiscmail.ac.uk