Jane Fry, Carleton University Michelle Edwards, University of Guelph Jane Fry, Carleton University Michelle Edwards, University of Guelph Best Practices Document Best Practices Document

Where did we start? <Guelph & Carleton tagset documents <Queen’s started working on their document <A number of other institutions interested wanted to join and contribute

Did NOT want to re-invent the wheel and Did NOT want to duplicate efforts

International DDI “Standard” <All three documents began with the complete DDI 2.x codebook <Each document contained the required tags for DDI Light <Therefore, didn’t need to start from scratch

Summer 2007: How we joined efforts <Three meetings: June – Guelph July - Queen’s August - Carleton

Goal of our meetings <To produce one document Consistent and easy to interpret tag definitions – based on DDI “bible” Consistent formatting for Ontario files

Process (Logistics) <Tag by tag – each of 5 DDI sections Definitions Examples Formatting

Collaboration <Three different points of view <Two different servers to view <Three different documents to examine

And then … Lots of discussion … more discussion … DDI break … a few of us lost our minds along the way … more discussion … s to DDI … more discussion … eventually a decision … more discussion … and then … The Best Practices Document

Structure of the Document (BPD) <Introduction <Main document Five sections of DDI <Appendices

BPD Introduction project <Overview of DDI 2.x <What is a tag and how to set it up <Questions, comments and contact info

Structure of Each DDI Section <Overview of each section <Table of all tags <Each tag Mandatory / optional & repeatable & attributes Description Formatting notes Examples

Structure of Each DDI Section <Same structure for each of the 5 DDI codebook sections Document Description Study Description File Description Variable Description Other Material

Tag Formatting <BPD recommends common formatting for all tags <Any unique formatting highlighted with

Tag Example: Formatting Note: Format for Agency/Institution and Place of Work/Department: Name of Agency/Institution. Name of Place of Work/Department (yes, that is a period between the two place names!) Format for Names: Last name, First name

Many examples for tags: Edwards, Michelle Fair, Aaron Brett, Jan

To end each DDI section <Complete html example at the end of each section <Why? To show how all the tags fit together

BPD Appendices: 1.Glossary 2.Related Information 3.Data Documentation Initiative

1. BPD Glossary <Always helpful for a quick reference <Contains: DDI CDATA OntarioBuys XML Schema …

2. BPD Related Information <Two sections: Statistics Canada Sources – where to find tag content Nesstar a list of Nesstar-related issues Tag number differences

3. BPD Data Documentation Initiative <An overview of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) <Basis of this project

Where is the BPD? <Document is loaded and available on a Wiki

BPD Feedback <Received some feedback to date <Looking for more <More feedback and community participation = a more comprehensive document

BPD Updates Coming <Appendices to be revised to include information on other DDI tools <Additional tags to be included, especially variable format

Version 2 of BPD to be released by the end of January 2008

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