Handling Reference

Questions

DLI Orientation Session

Kingston, Ontario

April 5, 2004

How much you do will depend

on the level of service you offer

in your data centre!

Worst reference question?

I need some data

Reference interview questions

Why do you need data?

What type of data do you need?

What are you looking for?

What geographic area(s) do you need?

What time period do you want?

Why do you need data?

Any number of reasons:

I need data to do stats with

I need to know that there is data available, but

I don’t actually have to use it (yet)

I need it for my thesis

I need to prepare a sample for my class to

use on their exercises

I need to know if we have it for a grant

proposal

Types of data needs (1)

A data file dealing with a specific topic

A data file that contains specific variables

Data files that can be compared (for

countries, time periods, regions)

Types of data needs (2)

Aggregate data

Time series data

Microdata

Geospatial data

Map

Aggregate data

Type of data

Level of aggregation (geographic)

Level of aggregation (unit of analysis)

Format

E.g, Exports from Ontario of pig iron in Excel format

Time series data

Aggregate data

Adds time to an aggregate question

Which stats package is very important May be able to convert between formats

Microdata

Unit of analysis (individual, household,

family, business)

Level of geographic detail needed

Topics (usually more than one)

E.g., health and income of London individuals

Geospatial Data

Adds the ability to link data to maps

May want to link microdata or aggregate data

(e.g., respondents’ location, average income)

Requires establishing level (and format) of

geographic link

Add on all previous requirements

Geospatial linking

May link unrelated data sources

Postal Code Conversion file allows mapping of characteristics of individual respondents (by postal code) with census socio-demographics of census tract

You may have to find out if this is what your user needs – they may not express it

Maps

Format of map (e.g., Arcview, Mapinfo)

Geographic coverage (e.g, CMA of London, or CSD of city of London)

Characteristics of map (e.g., street networks, waters, rail lines, electrical transmission lines, elevations)

Currency of map (e.g., what time is captured)

Congratulations

You have found out what the patron wants,

(or thinks they want) and why

That may have been the easy part

Now, you have to find it …

Where to look

http://idls.ssc.uwo.ca/idls/presentation/DLI

Orientation/referencetools19972004.doc (see handout): this document provides various reference

sources to help with locating materials

Google can work – or can deliver garbage

It works well to find organizations; not so

well for units within gov’t departments

Be creative

Think of alternate terms or approaches for

a topic (e.g., unemployment may be hidden under

labour force activity)

Look at the question backwards – who

might have collected the desired data –

then look for the organization instead of

the data (e.g., tobacco use → Non-smoker’s rights

organizations)

Be careful

Certain organizations are biased

Government organizations can be biased

Get data sets from opposed organizations

and compare them if no neutral data exist

Try to help users evaluate data reliability

Tools for finding variables

Statistics Canada Thematic Search Tool http://www.statcan.ca/english/Tst/ssint.htm

Other networked search capabilities IDLS

http://idls.ssc.uwo.ca

QWIFS

http://library.queensu.ca/webdoc/ssdc/access_external.html

Sherlock

http://sherlock.crepuq.qc.ca/public/anglais/recherche.html

What next?

What you do with the patron after you identify the needed data depends on your level of service

Don’t ignore codebooks as a reference source or as a technical resource

What you do with them if you can’t provide the data is the flip side of that issue.

Can’t find a data file?

Maybe it doesn’t exist (hasn’t been

collected) – new approach to a subject

May not be available in electronic format

(Civil Aviation…)

May be non-released administrative data

Can’t provide a data file?

May not be publicly available

Proprietary data (esp. business)

Confidential data

Administrative data

May not be able to obtain it

Can’t afford to purchase it

Can’t obtain it (e.g., some education data is not distributed outside of United States)

Data have been lost

What else?

Ask questions – DLIlist, SOS-DATA,

individual contacts, etc.

Refer patrons to others who can help:

Remote access, Research Data Centre,

colleague, StatsCan division, etc.

Be lazy!

See if other people have done the work

and will share (e.g., SPSS syntax)

Record what you have done – you don’t

want to have to do the same work again!

Share the work that you have done –

assist others

Final words

This morning, I said working with data is

fun – reference is what makes it fun and

satisfying (instant or delayed gratification)

Reference can define your data service

Providing what you have is easy

Letting patrons know it’s there isn’t easy

Providing what you don’t have is difficult