UK DATA ARCHIVE Louise Corti, ODAF April 2008

UK Data Archive an internationally-renowned centre of expertise in data acquisition, preservation, dissemination and promotion curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the UK provides resource discovery and support for the secondary use of quantitative and qualitative data in research, learning and teaching a lead partner of the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) provides preservation services for other data organisations facilitates international data exchange

UKDA holdings Data for research and teaching purposes and used in all sectors and for many different disciplines official agencies - mainly central government official agencies - mainly central government individual academics - research grants individual academics - research grants market research agencies market research agencies public records/historical sources public records/historical sources links to UK census data links to UK census data qualitative and quantitative qualitative and quantitative international statistical time series international statistical time series access to international data via access to international data via links with other data archives worldwide links with other data archives worldwide history data service in-house (AHDS) history data service in-house (AHDS) 5,000+ datasets in the collection 5,000+ datasets in the collection 250+ new datasets are added each year 250+ new datasets are added each year 60,000+ datasets distributed worldwide p.a. 60,000+ datasets distributed worldwide p.a.

Preservation UKDA currently preserve UKDA currently preserve approximately 4,600 studies approximately 4,600 studies occupying about 650GB but with capacity for more than 3TBytes on main system occupying about 650GB but with capacity for more than 3TBytes on main system 266,000 files, 56,000 directories (average file size 2.6MBytes). 266,000 files, 56,000 directories (average file size 2.6MBytes). growing by about 100GB per year growing by about 100GB per year more than 40 years of electronic data preservation more than 40 years of electronic data preservation have (so far) not lost any data! have (so far) not lost any data!

ESDS structure ESDS Management ESDS Management central help desk service; coherent and flexible collections development policy; central registration service; links to other ESRC resources central help desk service; coherent and flexible collections development policy; central registration service; links to other ESRC resources ESDS Access and Preservation ESDS Access and Preservation collections development strategy; ingest activities - including data and documentation processing; metadata creation; data dissemination services; long-term preservation collections development strategy; ingest activities - including data and documentation processing; metadata creation; data dissemination services; long-term preservation Specialist data services Specialist data services ESDS Government ESDS Government ESDS International ESDS International ESDS Longitudinal ESDS Longitudinal ESDS Qualidata ESDS Qualidata dedicated web sites data and documentation enhancements tailored user support outreach and training

Data support services (DSS) Run ESDS advisory service for researchers Run ESDS advisory service for researchers data creation, data management and sharing data creation, data management and sharing Run environmental data support Run environmental data support new kinds of data new kinds of data Bidding for MRC DSS Bidding for MRC DSS

Finding data catalogue of holdings – some 4600 collections catalogue of holdings – some 4600 collections limited and basic DDI 2.0 TO Describes study, methods and data collection limited and basic DDI 2.0 TO Describes study, methods and data collection records all study related publications (voluntary) records all study related publications (voluntary) lists variables for SPSS datasets lists variables for SPSS datasets can download user guide free (pdf) can download user guide free (pdf)

Data sharing and access registration using Athens including agreement to an End User Licence, fine-grained access control registration using Athens including agreement to an End User Licence, fine-grained access control download service (SPSS, STATA, ASCII, RTF etc) download service (SPSS, STATA, ASCII, RTF etc) online data browsing online data browsing Nesstar - simple data analysis, visualisation, downloading and subsetting of survey and aggregate dataXML Nesstar - simple data analysis, visualisation, downloading and subsetting of survey and aggregate dataXML ESDS Qualidata online – exploring qualitative data XML ESDS Qualidata online – exploring qualitative data XML Beyond 20/20 – tabulating and graphing international macro databanks Beyond 20/20 – tabulating and graphing international macro databanks

UKDA R&D data management – advice & training data management – advice & training consent and confidentiality – advice consent and confidentiality – advice access and authentication systems – Shibboleth access and authentication systems – Shibboleth Secure data service (bid ) Secure data service (bid ) Data exchange standards & tools – survey and qualitative Data exchange standards & tools – survey and qualitative Preservation metadata and METS Preservation metadata and METS thesaurus development thesaurus development Self-archiving FEDORA system Self-archiving FEDORA system text mining applications for textual data text mining applications for textual data Web 2.0 & social networking tools – self tagging; feedback; facebook Web 2.0 & social networking tools – self tagging; feedback; facebook survey question bank (bid) survey question bank (bid) E-science – discussions on grid-enabling data E-science – discussions on grid-enabling data

What wed like to do if we had money more of last slide more of last slide data visualisation – numbers and words and beyond NESSTAR data visualisation – numbers and words and beyond NESSTAR based on open source tools! based on open source tools! intelligent resource discovery – text mining capacity plus linking catalogues in different domains intelligent resource discovery – text mining capacity plus linking catalogues in different domains more harmonised data – across series more harmonised data – across series legacy work to bring collections up to scratch legacy work to bring collections up to scratch digitisation of paper/analogue sources digitisation of paper/analogue sources