1 DLI Contacts and Designates Survey: Quebec regional profile Gaëtan Drolet Train the trainers February 23–25, 2010 Université de Montréal Montreal, QC

2 Introduction to the survey  Objectives of the survey:  Provide important information to the DLI Section, the External Advisory Committee (EAC) and the Education Committee  Help plan how we can better serve DLI Contacts and DLI institutions  Learn more about the situations and requirements of DLI contacts and Designates  Provide feedback to DLI contacts and designates  Engage DLI contacts and designates in planning for the future

3 Quick Overview Final count --97 completed online surveys Response rate: Overall 82% (97/118) DLI contacts 92% (66/72) Designates 67% (31/46) Response rate for contacts allows us to treat it as a census DLI Contacts (68%) Designates (32%)

Quick overview Respondents' language of use: English78.4% French21.6% Respondents by region: Atlantic18.6% Quebec20.6% Ontario33% West27.8%

5 Q9 Respondents by region in %

NATURE OF AND SUPPORT FOR DATA SERVICES

7 Q5Among all your responsibilities, do you consider yourself a resource person for... ? Recorded in %

8 Q7 Percentage of your work dedicated to data by region and size of institution

Q8 Are data and GIS tasks or responsibilities specified in your job description?

10 Q4 How long IN TOTAL have you served as DLI contact … at your institution?

11 Q12 Does your institution offer a dedicated data service?

Q16What data-retrieval system is used by your establishment? In %

13 Section II: Q23 Satisfaction with the support you receive from your local institution to provide data services  From 1=completely dissatisfied to 5=completely satisfied

Q24 From the following support types, rank those that would contribute most to improving your establishment's data service Numbers in parentheses indicate the ranking for Canada, the % are for your region 1. Physical space 100% (8) 2. Support from upper management 75% (3) 3. Support for SIG/GIS 60% (4) 4. Increased funding 50% (1) 5. Support of the reference staff 33.3% (6) 6. Technical support 20% (2) 7. Statistical support 18.2% (5) 8. Computer support 14.3% (7)

Q22Activities with Canada and Quebec RDCs %Canada% Québec Refer researchers/students Distribute RDC flyers Mention RDC in training Correspond with RDC analyst/employee3225 Working relationship with RDC employee Sit on RDC committee Joint training activities RDC as part of your DLI responsibilities Have no RDC activity in your institution27.830

Summary: Nature of and Support for Data Services – Canada – Size of institutions can be measured in quartiles with 25% in each of the following groups: very small (<5K), small (5-10K), medium (10-20K) large (20K+) – Half of respondents in smaller institutions have fewer than 5 years experience – 64% in larger institutions have 6-10 years experience – Approximately 70% have data responsibilities as part of their job description. – Contacts with multiple hats with many variations exist in all but large institutions

Summary: Nature of and Support for Data Services – Quebec The highest rate (40%) of designates assigned to data (n=8). Only 45.5% of contacts had data-related tasks specified in their description of functions (80% in Ontario and 68% in the West). Percentage of work devoted to data: between 7.5% and 45% The average is 7.5% in Quebec, between 30 and 40% in the other regions. Large: the fewest from among the other regions. The least experienced group in Canada in terms of the number of years. The region in which the least information is collected on product use (18%, elsewhere over 30%).

SATISFACTION WITH DLI PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND DLI SECTION

Q28How often do you use DLI products and services: All DLI contacts (n=64) use CANSIM through E-STAT Quebec: 54.6% daily or weekly. 76.4% use CANSIM II through CHASS Quebec 44.4% weekly and 11.1% never. 65.6% of DLI contacts make use of training documents provided by DLI Quebec 58.4%

Seldom or Never Accessed/Canada Reports and reference documents (33.8%) Product dissemination dates (26.2%) List of survey names and acronyms (26.6%)

QuebecCanada Read dlilist messages daily or nearly every day Write dlilist messages daily or nearly every day Search dlilist messages daily or nearly every day Q28 How often do you read, write and search the dlilist? (%)

QuebecCanada Read dlilist messages seldom or never06.1 Write dlilist messages seldom or never Search dlilist messages seldom or never The Flip Side…

23 Q30Your level of satisfaction with DLI/Canada products and services

24 Q34 Top improvements to DLI products and services that would help you to work more effectively with data users at your institution

Same list without percentages Expansion of business/economic collection 2. Expansion of aggregate statistics collection 3. A single version of CANSIM on the STC website 4. Access to longitudinal pumfs 5. Quality and standardization of metadata 6. Expansion of administrative public use files

26 In Summary: Satisfaction with products, services, and the DLI Unit DLI section: numerous and positive comments about the DLI staff - top improvement mentioned is language of your choice n=5 contacts. FTP site: negative comments about the organization and documentation of the FTP site, version control, directory naming - Census/Geography products of most concern here Products and services: - comments on Pumfs/metadata - about CANSIM (n=19) - comments about access. Improving the DLI website as first priority.

THE TRAINING ENVIRONMENT

28 Q39 AS DLI contacts, do you usually attend DLI training workshops?

29 Q42 Overall, how satisfied are you with the DLI training?

30 Q43Topics of the training and their importance  The categories "Important" and "Very important" are combined.  The highest and lowest rankings are presented.  The results are presented, first for Canada as a whole, and then for Quebec.  To identify the least important training elements in your region, we selected the least important from the 18 in question 43.

31 Q43 Most important training topics and delivery modes…Canada

Top rankings for Quebec Ranking Regional workshops91.7 Hands-on sessions91.7 Subject matter presentations91.7 Training materials /DLI section presentations /Products reviews 91.7 Q43 Most important training topics and delivery modes…Quebec

33 Less important training topics and delivery modes…Canada

Less important training topics and delivery modes…Quebec Bottom rankings for QuebecRanking National training58.3 Downloading files58.3 Statistical software66.7 Statistical and data literacy66.7 License66.9

35 Summary on importance of training areas  Common important training areas for Quebec and Canada: - Regional workshops - Subject matter presentations - DLI section presentations - Hands-on training  Less important training areas for all regions: -National workshops

36 Q45 Knowledge and competencies  How do you evaluate your own knowledge and competency on 12 aspects.  Fairly competent and very competent categories were collapsed and the top and bottom ranks are presented below.  Results are provided first for Canada as a whole and then for the Quebec.

37 Q45 Evaluation of your knowledge or competency on the following aspects:

Evaluation of your knowledge or competency on the following aspects: Top rankings for QuebecRanking Census83.3 Finding and retrieveing aggregate data75.0 Knowledge of DLI surveys58.3 Knowledge of DLI products58.3 Using and interpreting data documentation50.0

39 Q45 Less knowledgeable or less competent on the following aspects:

Less knowledgeable or less competent on the following aspects: Bottom rankings for QuebecRanking Using software to manipulate variables16.7 Statistical and data literacy18.3 Using software to create specific files formats25.0 Knowledge of data outside DLI25.0 Findind and retrieving microdata/Answering reference questions 41.7

41 Summary on knowledge and competency  All regions feel comfortable with: - Census - Finding and retrieving aggregate statistics - Knowledge of DLI surveys o But feel less comfortable with: - Using software to manipulate variables - Using software to create specific file formats - Knowledge of data outside DLI - Statistical and data literacy

A FEW FACTS ABOUT DESIGNATES

Designates characteristics Served an average of 4.66 years as designates (n=31/46) % of time dedicated to data (30.7%) GIS (20.5%) other work (48.8%) 42.5% do DLI classroom instruction (Contacts 54% - 85%) DLI workshops attended by 53.3% Overall satisfaction with DLI training 4.19 (Contacts 4.13 – 4.58)

44 From the comments: The clientele for DLI training  Official clientele for the DLI workshops: DLI Contacts  Respondents have identified other clients who have DLI training needs: 1. Designates 2. Students 3. Professors 4. Researchers/Managers 5. Reference Librarians/Library Technicians

Training the trainers Training the intermediaries Training the back-up Training the local colleagues Training the end-users Coordinators Instructors Future Instructors DLI contacts Designates Reference, GovDocs, GIS Librarians Students, Faculty, Researchers, Managers The Training Continuum

DISCUSSION

Discussion: The results in general General reactions? What surprised you? What did not surprise you?

48 Discussion: Training  Fewer experienced DLI contacts may also signify a smaller pool of individuals available to provide this training. Does this indicate a need for increased and more targeted training? How do we rise to this challenge?  Does establishment size factor into planning DLI training? If yes, how?  Some establishments state that they field questions about the statistics rather than about the microdata. Should this be reflected in the types of training offered?  Does the DLI have a role to play in the local training of colleagues, researchers, and students?  Is the timing of the annual DLI workshop right?  What of the national workshop? Its role?

49 Discussion: Designates  Proportionately, Quebec has more designates assigned to data files than the rest of Canada. (Re: The 2009 training camp).  Is there an issue with the training of the designates? Is more targeted training needed? In your establishment? At the regional level?

50 Discussion: Institutional support  Do you have it?  Can you talk directly to your library director? Need to inform or train the directors about the programme? DLI role?  Ways DLI can help with institutional support.

51 Discussion: dlilist  Why do some contacts never write to the list? Should this be a cause for concern? If yes, what can we do about it?  Why do a little more than 20% of contacts never query dlilist? Is this a cause for concern? If yes, what can we do about it?

52 Discussion: Products and services  Is there a need for more information on products and services that are rarely or never accessible, such as reports and reference documents, product dissemination dates, the list of survey names and acronyms?  Suggestions for improving the ftp site?

Discussion: Competencies For your category of establishment, what competencies are most critical to the role you play? Think of competencies you lack and would like to have. What competencies and training will be required? Bring your ideas regarding competencies and training to the "train the trainers" workshop...

54 Thank you to DLI contacts and designates for their participation in this survey.