1. Social Science Datasets
November 2010
John Kaye – Social Sciences Dataset Lead

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Datasets Presentation
 British Library Datasets Programme
 MBS Resources
 Economic and Social Data Service
 Other Sources of Data
 Analysis Tools
 Data Visualization
 Citing Data
 Depositing and Archiving

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The British Library, 2010
©British Library Photographic

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Collections now
150 million items 625 km shelves 12 km p.a. growth
Most known languages Ancient to modern
Conferences
Newspapers Grey lit Patents
Paintings Magazines
Official Publications
Wax cylinders Sound Talks
IOR BIPC Photographs
Oral history e-publications Fanzines
Manuscripts Websites
IGOs
Maps and atlases Weapons Models
Research reports Books
Music scores Bread books Exhibitions

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Gate Openers to Content
“ We exist for everyone who
wants to do research – for
academic, personal or
commercial purposes”
The British Library's mission and vision, as
expressed in our strategy for 2005 - 2008. ©British Library Photographic

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What is a dataset?
 Seismic measurements taken by a
geologist.
 Genetic data collected by a medical
researcher.
 A survey of public opinions collected
by a sociologist.

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The Foundation for Research
 Data is a crucial component of the scholarly record.
 Re-acquisition may be impossible
 Datasets are essential to the British Library’s mission
to advance the World’s knowledge.

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The Datasets Programme
We envision a future where researchers can:
 Discover, access, reuse, and reference
datasets.
 Track the impact of the data that they
generate and receive appropriate credit.
Our approach is to:
 Provide a focus for the community to
establish needs, requirements and
agreement.
 Explore novel technology and creative
solutions.

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Search Our Catalogue

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Search Our Catalogue (Portals)

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Projects – Search Our Catalogue (Portals)

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Resource Guides
Topical Bibliographies and Dataset Resource Guides are
currently in production
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpsubject/socsci/topbib/bibliographies
Quantitative methods in social research (Published)
Management and Business Studies (Published)
Soon to be published:
 Sport and Society and Olympics
 Food Studies
 International organisations
 UK government data

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Management and Business Studies Resources
Topical Bibliographies available on the MBS Portal
http://www.mbsportal.bl.uk/taster/subjareas/resmethods/bl/116
166datasets_MBS_SA.pdf
Guide to using ESDS
UK National Government Resources
UK regional Government Resources
International Organsisations Data
Other Datasets for Business and Finance
Research Methods Resources

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Economic and Social Data Service - (ESDS)
http://www.esds.ac.uk/
ESDS Government
 large-scale government surveys, such as the Labour Force Survey and
the General Household Survey
 ESDS International
 multi-nation databanks, such as World Bank's World Development
Indicators, and survey data including Eurobarometer
 ESDS Longitudinal
 major UK surveys following individuals over time, such as the British
Household Panel Survey
 ESDS Qualidata
 a range of multimedia qualitative data sources

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Economic and Social Data Service - (ESDS)
Data search and download
Research method guides
Thematic guides
Online analysis
Survey Question Bank
http://surveynet.ac.uk/sqb/

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Other Sources of Data – Spatial Data
Go Geo! Search
http://www.gogeo.ac.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi
Edina Digimap and UK Borders
http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/
http://edina.ac.uk/ukborders/
Experian Mosaic data (Geodemographics/Market Research)
http://cdu.mimas.ac.uk/experian/index.htm
Landmap
http://landmap.mimas.ac.uk/

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Other Sources of Data – UK Government
Open Data - More data is becoming freely available around the world
http://data.gov.uk/
Office for National Statistics
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/Default.asp
National Digital Archive of Datasets
http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Census Data – casweb
http://casweb.mimas.ac.uk/
Regional Government
http://data.london.gov.uk/

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Other Sources of Data – International Organisations
United Nations
http://data.un.org/
European Union
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/
OECD
http://www.oecd.org/statsportal/
World Bank
http://data.worldbank.org/
IMF
http://www.imf.org/external/data.htm

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Examples of Other Sources of Data
Guardian Data Store
http://www.guardian.co.uk/data-store
Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/home/uk
Economist Intelligence Unit
http://www.eiu.com/Default.aspx
Web Archive
http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/

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Analysis Tools and Software
SPSS, SATA
ArcGIS, MapInfo, IDRISI
Excel
Online Tools

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Examples of Online Analysis Tools
ESDS NESSTAR
http://nesstar.esds.ac.uk
ESDS Spatial Tools
http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/gis/
Economists Online Dataverse
http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/NEEO
United Nations
http://data.un.org/Explorer.aspx
CASA – Gmap Creator
http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/software/gmapcreator.asp

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Data Visualisation
Presenting data in a
useful and interesting
manner
Allowing concepts to be
easlity understood
Static and Interactive
Lots of examples online e.g:
http://flowingdata.com/
http://datavisualization.ch/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog
Flowing Data Bubble Charts

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Data Visualisation – NYC Complaints to govt helpline

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Data Visualisation – Mobile Industry Lawsuits

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Citing Data

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DataCite
DataCite is an international consortium which
aims to:
 Establish easier access to research data on
the Internet
 Increase acceptance of research data as
legitimate, citable contributions to the scholarly
record
 Support data archiving that will permit results
to be verified and re-purposed for future study
 http://datacite.org/

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A Key Component for Many Goals
Make
Visible
Find
Access
Track
Impact
Verify
Reuse
Cite
?
Persistent
Identification

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Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)
offer a solution
Mostly widely used identifier for
scientific articles
Researchers, authors, publishers
know how to use them
Put datasets on the same playing
field as articles
Connecting an Article with the Underlying Data
Dataset
Yancheva et al (2007). Analyses
on sediment of Lake Maar.
PANGAEA.
doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.587840
URLs are not persistent
(e.g. Wren JD: URL decay in
MEDLINE- a 4-year follow-up
study. Bioinformatics. 2008, Jun
1;24(11):1381-5).



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Depositing and Archiving Data
Why Archive?
Institutional Repositories
UK Data Archive
Metadata and Code!

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John Kaye
Lead Content Specialist – Datasets
Social Science Collections and Research
The British Library
96 Euston Road London
NW1 2DB
Telephone: 020 7412 7450
Email: john.kaye@bl.uk
Twitter: @johnkayebl
datasets@bl.uk
Slides -
http://www.slideshare.net/johnkayebl