Use of Standardized Metadata to Find, Select and Access Statistical Data - Experience of Statistics Canada - Joint UNECE/Eurostat/OECD Work Session on Statistical Metadata (METIS) Geneva, February 9-11, 2004

Objective of Presentation Answer the question: “How can the corporate Metadatabase (IMDB) of Statistics Canada help users find, select and access statistical data held in its on-line database (CANSIM)?”

Contents of Presentation l What is CANSIM? l What is the IMDB? l Accessing CANSIM data from IMDB – Demonstration – Naming and defining variables – Finding variable & accessing data – Implementation schedule

What is CANSIM? l Stands for: CANadian Socio-economic Information Management system l Corporate data dissemination database l Accessible on STC Web site l 1.3K tables (+ 700 “terminated”) l 18.3M time series (incl. 413K “terminated”) (over 14M for “health” alone) (over 14M for “health” alone) l 800 variables (as defined in IMDB)

What is the IMDB? l Corporate repository of information on over 350 surveys (+400 “discontinued”) ÙDevelopment began in 1999 Ù4 pre-existing systems integrated ÙSupports on-line dissemination activities: The Daily CANSIM On-line catalogue Canadian Statistic Tables

What is the IMDB content? l HTML pages generated from IMDB: -Overview of survey (mandate, users, uses) -Survey population & Questionnaire image -Methodology description (10 components) -Data accuracy measures l In the Fall of 2004: -Variable names and definitions -Link to classifications & CANSIM tables -“Time Travel” from November 2000 on

Naming and defining variables l Variable = Statistical unit + property + representation (as per ISO model) l Statistical unit is agent, event or item about which data are produced l Property is characteristic of statistical unit being measured l Representation is form given to resulting data, e.g. Name, Index, Type

… Naming and defining variables l Naming convention: all three elements used to create name of variable - Value of Sales of Establishment - Value of Sales of Establishment - Type of Assets of Establishment - Name of Geographic location of Person - Type of Occupation of Person - Value of GDP of Economy

… Naming and defining variables l Definition of variable provided by joined definitions of its 3 components + specification of associated classifications (or units of measure) + specification of associated classifications (or units of measure) Note about Variable – Classification relationship: - ISO 11179: one-to-one relationship - IMDB: one-to-many, but one-to-one between classification and variable in one CANSIM table

Finding variable & accessing data l Browsing the list of 800 variables –By variable topic (20) and sub-topic (156) –By statistical unit (75) –By classification domain (20) l Search engine to scan the list of: –variable names in IMDB and return the ones containing the word entered or its thesaurus equivalent; or –class names/codes within classifications, search the word entered or its thesaurus equivalent, and return the variables and CANSIM table numbers associated with the matching codes

Implementation schedule l Winter 2004: loading variables and classifications in IMDB, implementing Browsing mechanism and “time travel”, finalizing re-design of web pages l Spring 2004: display new pages with new features on Intranet to obtain feedback from survey managers l Fall 2004: display on Internet l Winter 2005: Implementation of Search mechanism