Data Services @ The University Library

Jointly sponsored by the University Library and ATLAS

(Applied Technologies for Learning in the Arts & Sciences, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences)

Data Services Office Hours in the Library

Location: Government Documents Library (Main Library, 2nd Floor, Room 200D)
Time: Wednesdays 1:30-4:30 pm (No appointment necessary)
Spring semester 2008

Enhance and expand your research and teaching with data

Need help finding or downloading statistical and spatial data? Stop by the Data Services Office Hours in the University Library. Dawn Owens-Nicholson (Data Archivist, ATLAS) and librarians with a wide range of expertise will be available to help you locate relevant data sets in opinion polls, election studies, social surveys, census, education, and health data and prepare them for analysis in SPSS, SAS, STATA and ArcGIS.

Services Overview

The University Library and ATLAS are experimenting with ways to collaborate in providing robust support for faculty and students who are using numeric data sets for research and teaching. Pilot projects launched in Spring 2008 include Data Services Office Hours (Wednesday 1:30-4:30 pm, 200-D Main Library), where staff from ATLAS and librarians with a wide range of expertise will work together to provide reference and technical consultation to help users identify and use data.

Services offered include: acquiring data sets needed for teaching and research; locating, downloading and preparing data for secondary analysis; identifying and creating course materials and teaching tools (including customized data sets drawn from various data repositories) and consulting about software problems.

If the Spring 2008 pilot is successful, these hours and services will be expanded. Comments about this initiative can be directed to JoAnn Jacoby, Chair of the ATLAS-Library Collaboration Task Force.

Software and Data Services Workstation

Now available!
A data services workstation is now installed in the Government Documents Library (200-D Main Library), with SPSS, SAS, STATA and ArcGIS. Members of the UIUC community can login with their NetID and password, off-campus users will need to ask the staff at the Government Documents reference desk or the InfoDesk to request a Guest Account on your behalf.

College-specific computer labs may also offer statistical software like SPSS or Stata. Check with individual labs for more information. For instance, the ATLAS labs are open to students in the College of LAS and provide some machines with statistical packages.

Upcoming Workshops

4 out of 5 Professors Agree: Citing Polls in Your Papers Will Earn You a Better Grade

Would you like to enhance your research papers with data from public opinion polls? Learn to use the fabulous Roper iPOLL database which contains nearly half a million public opinion survey questions dating from 1935 to 2008. We will focus on examples using election year topics. No knowledge of statistics or statistical programming is required. Jointly sponsored by the University Library and ATLAS. Registration preferred.

Thursday, March 27th 3:30-4:30pm Location: Undergraduate Library 291 - Register for this Workshop

Rock the Data, Rock the Vote: Using Election Survey Data

The American National Election Studies (ANES) are a series of national surveys of the American electorate taken in every election year since 1948. This workshop will show you how to create your own tables from the 1948-2004 ANES cumulative file using an online web-based tool. No knowledge of statistics or statistical programming is required. Jointly sponsored by the University Library and ATLAS. Registration preferred.

Thursday, April 3rd, 3:30-4:30pm Location: Undergraduate Library 291 Register for this Workshop

Health, Economic, Social & Political Data for Secondary Analysis

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is the world's largest archive of digital social science data. Learn to search ICPSR's catalog of holdings, download data, and read it into a statistics program (SPSS) to make tables. Our examples will focus on topics suggested by the audience. Some prior experience with SPSS may be helpful, but is not necessary. Registration preferred.

Thursday, April 10th, 3:30-4:30pm Location: Undergraduate Library 291 Register for this Workshop

Data-related Guides and Tutorials

Learn where to look and how to find the data you need.

Need Numbers? Need Assistance?

Call the Government Documents Library (217) 244-6445 , email ATLAS at atlas-consult@uiuc.edu, contact Ask a Librarian or ESSL Ask a Librarian, or stop the Data Services Office Hours in the Library.

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