31 March 2000 Wendy Watkins UPDATE ON DATA

31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

UPDATE ON DATA LIBERATION Mike Sivyer 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins VICTORIA, DECEMBER, 2002

STAFF UPDATE SINCE DECEMBER 2001 Sage Cram began as the Communication. Liaison Officer in DLI Section in Feb. 2002 l She is a position that had been vacant for 5 months… l …after being filled for 5 months… l. . . after being vacant for 8 months! l First duty - attend Atlantic DLI Workshop l 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

OTHER STAFF CHANGES l Anne Chartrand started working with DLI Section on part time basis l She undertook responsibility to publish new edition of newsletter l Roger Arsenault (SPSS writer) left at end of Sept. 2002 when contract ended 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE l All 66 members have now signed and returned new Licence Agreement l Everyone signed up on a permanent basis - no need to sign another agreement in foreseeable future 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE l We have instituted new invoicing procedures l All invoices will be sent out during first quarter of Stats Can’s fiscal year i. e. April - May l This will help DLI Section better manager budget 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

l All members currently paid up until end of March 2003 l Next invoice will be sent out spring 2003 to cover up to end of March 2004 l If/when subscriptions fees go up Chief Statistician has agreed to maintain STC proportion of overall budget (28% - 30%) 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

DLI COLLECTION UPDATE l l Continue to add new and revised files to DLI Collection Currently have over 16, 000 files - these include data and metadata files Large number of Census and Geography files being added Have increased FTP Storage space from 17 gigs to 70 gigs to accommodate continued growth 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

l We have had discussions with Workplace and Employees Survey and should be getting a public use file of employee part. l Have also had discussion with Health Canada and Queens University about obtaining file from their joint survey (Health behaviors of school-aged children) Also under discussion are obtaining files from Millennium Scholarship Fund 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins l

OTHER NEWS l Have re-started publication of the newsletter: l Have produced two issues of DLI Update since last spring - just released new issue containing two major articles l Looking for articles for next issue to be published by spring - submit articles to Anne Chartrand 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

l Census began releasing data last spring with DLI members having access to additional details on Census/STC web - Level 2 l Some problems first day of release but soon corrected l CA*NET 3 helped with heavy traffic issue and now Census site and Level 2 access seems to be running smoothly 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

l Have not released new version of DLI web site due to a number of problems: l Marie Josée only doing this part time - creation of new pages take priority l Almost completed English version when requested to make changes to comply with new departmental guidelines 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

New Initiative With Mc. Graw-Hill Ryerson l Ontario Education Liaison Officer (Sunita Kossta) arranged initiative with textbook publisher l They will include blurb about DLI and DLI logo in university textbooks l Will also include a link to DLI web site from their textbook site 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

NEW ON-LINE DOCUMENT l l l Learning Resources has a new document that should help with Data Literacy Called: Statistics: Power from Data Contains a lot of information on survey and statistical concepts and definitions 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2003 l Hope to have final version of new DLI web site within next few months l Staff of Section should remain stable for next while 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

PERSONNELL CHANGES TO COME l Christiane to retire at end of Oct. 2003 l Ernie to leave Library in July 2003 l Anne to become full time with DLI - will take over duties of Christiane and Roger Other unforeseen changes could occur that might have 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins a major impact l

OTHER CHANGES IN 2003 Three EAC academic member seats are up for renewal in fall l Currently seats filled by: l Chuck Humphrey (U. of Alberta) l Barbara Znamarowski ( Trent) l Mary Mac. Leod (Acadia) l If required identification and selection of replacement members to be done by EAC Chair(s) and the 31 March, 2000 Director responsible. Wendy for. Watkins the DLI l

DLI TRAINING IN 2003 l l l DLI Training and CAPDU to be held in conjunction with IASSIST in 2003 To be held at University of Ottawa: May 25 - May 30 May 25 = CAPDU Annual Meeting (suggested) May 26 = concurrent DLI-CAPDU workshops May 27 = IASSIST workshops May 28 - May 30 = IASSIST Conference 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

l Regional Workshops budget (2003 -04) to be used to provide travel assistance to DLI Contacts l Check out conference web site at: http: //iassist 2003. ssc. uwo. ca/ l Susan Mowers and Wendy Watkins coordinating local arrangements 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

MAJOR ISSUE RE: FUTURE OF PUBLIC FILES l We have met and will continue to meet with producing divisions to encourage them to continue to produce public use files l This is becoming more and more difficult for divisions to do for a number of reasons - Ray will elaborate further 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

l We will be asking DLI Contacts to start to provide some kind of feedback Need to know such information as : l Who is using file? Researchers? Students? l Numbers? l For what purpose? Research? Teaching? l Which files are being used? l Are there any problems with files and/or documentation 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins l What can be improved and how? l

l Very important that this information be collected and fed back to authoring divisions l Along with other information can be used to help justify continued creation of PUMFs l Chuck & Elizabeth study on NPHS - as described in latest DLI Update l This was very well received by Health Division 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins

l Inspired Director to ask Chief Statistician about difficulty getting public files approved l This partly due to new stringent conditions placed by Microdata Release Committee related to issue of confidentiality and ability to identify individual respondent l He agreed to look into this - although encouraging not a guarantee that situation will soon change 31 March, 2000 Wendy Watkins