The Data-PASS Partnership: Collaboration, Agreements, and More Myron Gutmann ICPSR University of Michigan

My Story One overall partnership One Collaboration Agreement (for now) Effective partnership activities Multi-faceted set of collaborations: –Some involve all the partners –Others are partner-to-partner and involve subsets of the partners Question: how to ensure future activities given funding and diverse goals

The Data-PASS Partnership ICPSR (Michigan) Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science (North Carolina) Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (Connecticut) Murray Archive/Institute for Quantitative Social Science (Harvard) National Archives and Records Administration (US Government)

Partnership Goals Overview Shared Collection Development –Identification –Appraisal –Best location for content –Ingest processing Shared Technology –Common catalog –Archive tools Long-term preservation –Replication

Articles of Collaboration (Concluded fall 05) 1.Membership 2.Management Structure 3.Addition/Withdrawal of Membership 4.Subcontracting 5.Reporting 6.Cost Sharing 7.Funding & Accounting Requirements 8.Technology

Articles, continued 9.Data & Intellectual Rights 10. Transfer Protocols 11. Disputes 12. Term (Duration) 13. Post-Contract Commitments 14. Amendments

Now, how it really works… Operations & Steering Committees function very well Lots of informal discussion, with little reference to the formal agreement Much all-partner activity & discussion Much partner-to-partner collaboration Why? –Well-developed field with long-standing contacts –Rapid change requires flexible approaches

All-Partner Activities Follow Original Outline Collection Development as Core –Identification, appraisal, best ingest –Gradual progress from past to future Technology investment through Harvards VDC and Dataverse –Tools –Common Catalog Shared replication as critical future activity

Partner-to-Partner Ties have Exceeded Expectations Roper – NARA USIA Data Project Roper – Odum – ICPSR work on Private Research Organizations Harvard – Odum Technology testing partnership Roper – ICPSR Joint Poll Processing Activities

Challenges for the Future How to sustain the future without Library of Congress funding as motive Does everything need to be written? Are we the Three Musketeers ? –Is it all for one and one for all all the time? –Or do two-way and three-way collaborations arise and develop within a broader framework over time? In this context, how do we add partners?