Got Data? The Role of Digital Information in Shaping 21st Century Research

On November 17^th, Dr. Francine Berman spoke in O’Neill Library on the topic, “Got Data? The Role of Digital Information in Shaping 21^st Century Research”.

This event was sponsored jointly by the Boston College Libraries and the Boston College Institute for the Liberal Arts and is now available online.

Dr. Berman is Vice President for Research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and former Director, San Diego Supercomputing Center. Dr. Berman was introduced by Dr. Tom Wall, University Librarian.

Please take some time to view this outstanding video where Dr. Berman discusses technology issues critical to researchers in the future!

New ICPSR Studies December 2011

New ICPSR Studies December 2011

Global Views 2010: American Public Opinion and Foreign Policy

National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2010

Capital Punishment in the United States, 1973-2009

Data on International Election Monitoring: Three Global Datasets on
Election Quality, Election Events and International Election Observation

ICPSR Studies available to all BC faculty and students.

Questions? Contact Barbara Mento

NPR Series: The Search For Analysts To Make Sense Of 'Big Data'

The Search For Analysts To Make Sense Of 'Big Data'

As businesses collect larger amounts of data, corporations must find new hires with data skills to analyze and visualize the data.
Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011 Boston's NPR News Station.

ICPSR Summer Undergraduate Internship 2012

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), is now accepting applications for its annual summer internship program.

Interns spend ten weeks from June 4 - August 10, 2012, at ICPSR (Ann Arbor, Michigan), during which they will:

· Work in small groups and with faculty mentors to complete research projects resulting in conference-ready posters
· Gain experience using statistical programs such as SAS, SPSS, and Stata to check data, working in both UNIX and Windows environments
· Attend courses in the ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research
· Participate in a weekly Lunch and Lecture series that covers topics related to social science research and professional development.

For details go to ICPSR Summer Undergraduate 2012

Questions? Contact ICPSR representative Barbara Mento

GIS Day Open House Nov. 16th O'Neill Library

Join us at the O'Neill Library for a celebration of GIS Day Nov.16th, 2011.



• Learn more about Geographic Information Systems and how this powerful data mapping tool can enhance your research.

• See a demonstration of the ArcGIS software and B.C. spatial data.
Sign up for a personal tutorial on how to use GIS software.

• Browse posters with samples of GIS applications and it’s use at Boston College.

• Pick up a flyer (GIS Contest Flyer 2012) with details of our GIS contest (with prizes) and information on how to download the ArcGIS software!

Drop by for demonstrations of ArcGIS in the lobby of the O'Neill Library from:

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.
3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Try a chocolate globe while they last . . .

Any questions? Contact Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Manager: barbara.mento@bc.edu

Sponsored by Boston College Libraries

GIS Workshop Nov. 4th, 10:00-11:30, O'Neill 245

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used for visualizing, managing, creating, and analyzing geographic data. GIS use is growing at Boston College in fields such as Nursing, Social Work, History, Theology and Economics but has applications in all disciplines. GIS workshops are offered once a semester by Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian and Constantin Andronache, Research Services, ITS.
Learn more about this exciting research tool!

The next workshop is:
Introduction to ArcGIS
Nov. 4th from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. O'Neill 245


To register, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial.

Locating and Using Data for Secondary Research at Boston College: October 18th, O'Neill 307, 12-1:30

Join Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian and Rani Dalgin, Senior Statistical Consultant, Research Services, ITS, for a hands on workshop:
Locating and Using Data for Secondary Research at Boston College, October 18th, O'Neill 307, 12-1:30 p.m.

To register, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial.

Boston College offers many sources and repositories of data for secondary research in the social sciences, education, nursing, economics, business and other disciplines. This workshop is particularly geared to researchers who need to access, analyze and manipulate data from BC's subscription data repositories. This tutorial will help you:

- Find the data you need for your research or class project.
- Learn about the Boston College collection of data resources in the Statistical Data Catalog.
- How to download the data onto your desktop, including how to import into quantitative analytical tools such as SPSS.
Tour of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, a dathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifa archive that includes over 6,000 datasets.

We will also discuss the library's guides to key Business, Economics, Education, Health, and General U.S. and cross-national data sources. Topics may be customized based on attendees' research interests. Please contact datasupport@bc.edu for more information.

New OECD report: OECD Employment Outlook 2011

"The OECD Employment Outlook is an annual publication that surveys labour market conditions in OECD countries and analyses issues of interest to researchers and policy makers. The 2011 issue highlights policy issues related to: the recent economic crisis and the adequacy of income support for the unemployed; social protection and labour markets in emerging economies; earnings volatility; and qualifications mismatch."

Full text access to Boston College Community: OECD Employment Outlook

New American Hospital Association Annual Survey Database

The O’Neill Library is glad to offer the American Hospital Association Annual Survey Database 2009 to the Boston College Community.

This database contains comprehensive hospital data from 6,500 hospitals. Areas of coverage include: demographics; organizational structure; facilities and services; utilization data; community orientation indicators; physician arrangements; managed care relationships and expenses.

For the Connell School of Nursing this data is invaluable in studies of nurse staffing, assurance of equitable health services to the community, utilization of health facilities on state and national levels, and in the planning of healthcare programs, for example.

The wealth of data will be of use to many subject areas besides the health care fields. Social work, sociology, and education can use the data to explore how health care affects people in the community and in the quality of their lives.

Psychologists might want to know what services are available in psychiatric care units, both on an inpatient and outpatient basis. Economics and business researchers can use the data to track health care trends and inform health care policy proposals. Communications and media specialists research all of these aspects of health care data.

Barbara Mento, O’Neill Library Data Librarian,barbara.mento@bc.edu and ITS Research Services researchservices@bc.edu are available for assistance in accessing or analyzing the data.

Access is restricted to the Boston College Community.

New OECD Economic Report on Greece

This 2011 edition of OECD's periodic survey of the Greek economy includes chapters covering fiscal sustainability, structural fiscal reforms, and labour and product market reforms.

OECD Economic Surveys: Greece 2011 (BC Community Only)

Recent ICPSR Additions July, 2011

Study 9000 War Ledger Data, 1870-1974

This study examines the relationship between national power and war. In the first dataset, the conditions preceding the outbreak of war are examined. In particular, the links between national growth and the onset of war are addressed. The second dataset contains variables which measure national capabilities and estimate political capacities. The third dataset relates to the consequences of war in terms of national power and growth. The final two datasets concern nuclear deterrence: the fourth dataset contains crisis data to test whether deterrence works, and the last dataset contains information on U.S. and U.S.S.R. defense expenditures in order to establish if the two major nuclear powers are in a nuclear arms race.

Study 22060 Prevalence, Context, and Reporting of Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault on Campus of Two Large Public Universities in the United States, 2005-2006

The primary research objective of this study was to examine the prevalence, nature, and reporting of various types of sexual assault experienced by university students in an effort to inform the development of targeted intervention strategies.

Note that ICPSR is one of the first six data repositories to earn the Data Seal of Approval. Created by the Data Archiving and Networked Services archive in The Netherlands and overseen by an international board, the Data Seal of Approval is meant to demonstrate to researchers that data repositories are taking appropriate measures to ensure the long-term availability and quality of data they hold.

Need more information? Contact Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian