1. ESDS Resources for BCS Users Vanessa Higgins Centre for Census and Survey Research University of Manchester

2. ESDS Government Funded by ESRC, part of larger ESDS, started 2003 Supports major UK data series –Large surveys conducted, usually by government –Eg:Labour Force Survey; General Household Survey; British Crime Survey –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. Survey pages

5. External resources and links at dataset level National Statistics BCS page British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) BCS pageBritish Market Research Bureau (BMRB) BCS page Home Office (HO) BCS pages Crime in England 2005/6 online report (HO web site)Crime in England 2005/6 online report Crime Statistics for England and WalesCrime Statistics for England and Wales Social Trends Question Bank Scottish Crime Survey

6. Guiding new users through...

7. What do our users use the data for? 2 online searchable databases: Current Usage: Registration information records the research use to which data is put. We share registration information on our web site if the user permits Publications: Users are requested to inform ESDS of publications, but we also harvest information from the ISI WOK bibliographic database

8. Teaching datasets Cut-down data for teaching 2000 data – core sample Excludes boosts Includes weights for individual and household analysis 55 variables User guide

9. Statistical/analysis guides SPSS STATA Weighting the social surveys Analysis over time Linking and hierarchy (forthcoming)

10. Themed Guides Employment and labour market Health Social capital Ethnicity Consumption (forthcoming) Data Sources in Scotland Data Sources in Northern Ireland

11. Help-desk 250+ Queries in the last year Range of different ranges of complexity: –How do I get access to the BCS? –Which weight should I use? –What level of geography can I get? –Why does my analysis show high levels of missing data? –The documentation says variable X is in the data but I cant find it Help desk involves collaboration with UKDA, HO, ONS, NatCen etc

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

13. Keeping in touch Website contains news & information about consultations/data developments JISCmail esds-govsurveys list Newsletter –Biannual (June and Dec) –Available on website or hard copy –Contains Survey news from ONS etc New ESDS resources Summaries of meetings/hot topics Focus on researchers

14. The important last slide… Helpdesk: govsurveys@esds.ac.uk (0161)275 1980 Website: http://www.esds.ac.uk/government Jisc list: esds-govsurveys@jiscmail.ac.uk Crim-bcs-users@jiscmail.ac.uk

15. Consultation Improving our services Raising awareness and improving outreach

16. Consultation Heard of ESDS? Heard of UKDA? Who do we contact to get information to you/others? Do you think our plans will work ? –Themed leaflets in conference packs? Which conferences? –Themed posters to academic departments? –Workshops for new postgraduates? –Learning and teaching networks? –Any good tips for us? Any other resources youd find useful?