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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
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