Counting Heads Enhancing the Historical Censuses Collection for

Aim • To develop the Collection of Historical and Contemporary Census Data and Related

Partners • MIMAS and Census Dissemination Unit, University of Manchester • School of Geography,

Background • Considerable scope for widening use of CHCC data for learning and teaching

Objectives • To promote effective student use of networked services across learning and teaching

Project Deliverables • A range of supporting learning and teaching resources for teachers and

CHCC Data • Census Area Statistics • Sample of Anonymised Records • Historical Censuses

Census Area Statistics • 1971, 1981, 1991 (& 2001) Census Area Statistics (CAS) –

Sample of Anonymised Records • 1991 (& 2001) Sample of Anonymised Records (SARs) –

Casweb • Web Interface to 1991 CAS • Intuitive web interface with 3 -step

Casweb 1. Select area - from map or a list 2. Select tables 3.

Download data • Text format • Mappable format – Arc. View – Map. Info

Text format AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Mappable format Unemployment – Tyne and Wear Census data Crown copyright Boundary data copyright

Descartes • Interactive exploration of Census data within your Web browser • Leicestershire sample

Casweb/Descartes Integration • Simplified Interface • Temporal visualisation (1971 – 2001) • Simple mapping

Learning and Teaching Pathways AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Further information • CHCC Project Website http: //www. chcc. ac. uk • Census Information

Part of the Arts and Humanities Data Service and the UK Data Archive. Funded

Historical Censuses Collection • 1881 Census of England, Wales and Scotland – 100% sample

Making the HCC Accessible • Datasets created at various times by various groups using

Web Based Data Extraction • Extraction system allows users to locate and extract subsets

User Experience enter web site log on define query review query refine query download

Extracting Data • Extraction – Underlying query is SQL, but this is hidden from

Timetable • Prototype October 2001 – Testing in conjunction with Learning and Teaching materials

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Counting Heads: Enhancing the Historical Censuses Collection for Learning and Teaching (Part 1) Cressida Chappell and Hamish James History Data Service Part of the Arts and Humanities Data Service and the UK Data Archive. Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

Aim • To develop the Collection of Historical and Contemporary Census Data and Related Materials (CHCC) into a major learning and teaching resource and increase its use in learning and teaching • Funded by the JISC for 3 years (October 2000 - September 2003) under the DNER Development Programme as part of an initiative to enhance JISC services for learning and teaching AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Partners • MIMAS and Census Dissemination Unit, University of Manchester • School of Geography, University of Leeds • Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester • History Data Service, University of Essex • LTSN Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Glasgow • UK Data Archive, University of Essex AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Background • Considerable scope for widening use of CHCC data for learning and teaching • Census data has great value across many disciplines • Census data is used extensively in academic research • BUT census data is significantly under used in learning and teaching • Clear evidence that they could be more widely used in learning and teaching • Working knowledge of how to access and analyse census data will be of great benefit to students from a wide variety of academic disciplines AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Objectives • To promote effective student use of networked services across learning and teaching • To increase the CHCC user base in learning and teaching and to build new user communities • To improve awareness about the contexts in which census data can be used in learning and teaching • To improve access to primary data sources by linking together data extraction, visualisation and exploration tools • To reduce the work needed by tutors to use CHCC data in learning and teaching • To speed the use of 2001 Census outputs AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Project Deliverables • A range of supporting learning and teaching resources for teachers and students • Resource discovery tools and cross-searchable metadata for the CHCC and associated learning and teaching materials • Improved web-based data extraction and data exploration and visualisation interfaces to the CHCC suitable for student use • Enhancement of the CHCC through adding and linking other information AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

CHCC Data • Census Area Statistics • Sample of Anonymised Records • Historical Censuses Collection AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Census Area Statistics • 1971, 1981, 1991 (& 2001) Census Area Statistics (CAS) – Small Area Statistics (SAS) – Local Base Statistics (LBS) • Tables of aggregated data for a range of spatial units • Consisting of cross-tabulations of two or more census variables • Containing information about households and individuals covering topics such as age, gender, occupation, qualifications, ethnicity, social class, employment, family structure, amenities and tenure AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Sample of Anonymised Records • 1991 (& 2001) Sample of Anonymised Records (SARs) – 2% Individual SAR • 1. 1 million individuals • Full range of census topics on individuals and summary information about households – 1% Household SAR • 216, 000 households • ½ million persons within households • Allows linkage between household and family members • Full range of census topics and derived household and family level variables AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Casweb • Web Interface to 1991 CAS • Intuitive web interface with 3 -step selection process • List and map based selection options • Outputs boundaries integrated with the Census data AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Casweb 1. Select area - from map or a list 2. Select tables 3. Select variables from tables AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Download data • Text format • Mappable format – Arc. View – Map. Info MIF/MID AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Text format AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Mappable format Unemployment – Tyne and Wear Census data Crown copyright Boundary data copyright Ed-Line Consortium AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Descartes • Interactive exploration of Census data within your Web browser • Leicestershire sample data available to unregistered users • Registered census users may select county Crown copyright Descartes is the result of research being undertaken at the German National Research Centre for Information Technology (GMD) and with the company Dialogis. AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Casweb/Descartes Integration • Simplified Interface • Temporal visualisation (1971 – 2001) • Simple mapping of census variables AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Learning and Teaching Pathways AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Further information • CHCC Project Website http: //www. chcc. ac. uk • Census Information Gateway http: //www. census. ac. uk • Descartes Leicestershire demonstrator dataset for unregistered users http: //www. mimas. ac. uk/descartes AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Part of the Arts and Humanities Data Service and the UK Data Archive. Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

Project Deliverables • A range of supporting learning and teaching resources for teachers and students • A portal to facilitate resource discovery of census data and associated learning and teaching materials • Improved web-based data extraction and data exploration and visualisation interfaces suitable for student use • Enhancement of the CHCC through adding and linking other information • Historical Censuses Collection deliverables – Web based data extraction – Learning and teaching materials AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Historical Censuses Collection • 1881 Census of England, Wales and Scotland – 100% sample created by volunteers for the Genealogical Society of Utah – Revised version created by the Future of Work team at the University of Essex History Department • 1851 Census of England, Wales and Scotland – 2% sample created by Dr Michael Anderson • 36 smaller area studies created by academics • Aggregate data: the Great Britain Historical Database and the Database of Irish Statistics AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Making the HCC Accessible • Datasets created at various times by various groups using various technologies • Datasets vary in layout, coding, standardisation, and information transcribed from census enumerators’ books • Improve the compatibility of the data collections which make up the HCC by standardising presentation, data structure, formats and coding • Large volume of data can overwhelm people, and computers too • Provide searching and extraction methods to obtain smaller subsets from the HCC AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Web Based Data Extraction • Extraction system allows users to locate and extract subsets of data from the HCC • HCC is quite large (~30 GB) making online analysis difficult to implement – Queries are slow to run (5 - 15 minutes) – Large amounts of data to send over the network (approaching a gigabyte for many counties) • These factors suggest an online extraction system rather than an online analysis system – User can use software and hardware of their choosing to analyse the extracted data – Download can be conducted by the user when the network is less busy – Large or complex requests can be scheduled to maintain an even level of system performance AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

User Experience enter web site log on define query review query refine query download options system emails user system generates data system processes request AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service log on and download data

Extracting Data • Extraction – Underlying query is SQL, but this is hidden from user – Restrictions in the query are limited to controlled lists of values provided in lookup tables • Complex experience needs to be managed …. AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Timetable • Prototype October 2001 – Testing in conjunction with Learning and Teaching materials • Live system June 2002 AHC-UK 2001 - © History Data Service

Part of the Arts and Humanities Data Service and the UK Data Archive. Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Arts and Humanities Research Board.