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Julie
Linden This workshop will present reference strategies for identifying and locating digital numeric sources and the information necessary to evaluate numeric data resources and access options. The audience for this workshop would include librarians and information specialists (for example, government documents and social science librarians) whose clientele seek numeric data and students who want to learn about data support services and librarianship. Topics covered will include: the process of finding resources at the study, question, and variable levels; understanding the "data life cycle" and why it's important for reference work; a tour of the best catalogs and websites for finding data; and using metadata and codebooks to evaluate and use data. Practical examples of data questions and search strategies will be provided, focusing on commonly used data such as Census 2000 and public opinion surveys. The workshop will conclude with a review of options for using numeric data: simple tables and spreadsheets, raw ASCII files, extraction tools and common statistical software applications. Julie Linden |