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