Locating and Using Data for Secondary Research Workshop Oct. 19 at Noon

Locating and Using Data for Secondary Research

Oct 19 12:00 - 1:30 O'Neill 307

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; and how to download the data onto your desktop, including how to import into quantitative analytical tools such as SPSS. Get a tour of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, a data archive that includes over 5,000 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.

Co-taught by Rani Dalgin, Senior Statistical Consultant, ITS Research Services and Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian

To register please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial(s) that you are interested in attending.

New ICPSR Studies!

Study 27841 Effectiveness of Prisoner Reentry Services as Crime Control for Inmates Released in New York, 2000-2005

Study 28762 Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), 1996-1997: Baseline
Dataset

Study 28961 National Home and Hospice Care Survey, 2007

Study 2038 State Court Processing Statistics, 1990-2006: Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties

Available to Boston College Community.
Questions? Barbara Mento: barbara.mento@bc.edu

Learn the Power of Mapping Data!

Introduction to ArcGIS
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used for visualizing, managing, creating, and analyzing geographic data. Such applications are widely used in academia, private industry and government agencies. ArcGIS Desktop software is an integrated suite of advanced GIS applications and interfaces, including ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcGlobe, ArcScene, ArcToolbox, and ModelBuilder. Using these applications and inter...faces, you can perform various GIS tasks, from simple to advanced, including: mapping, geographic analysis, geostatistics, data editing, compilation, management and visualization. Using ArcGIS, you can understand the geographic context of your data, allowing you to see relationships and identify patterns in new ways. ArcGIS Desktop is scalable to meet the needs of many types of users.

This session will introduce users to: 1) ArcGIS software, data and technical support at Boston College; 2) License options; 3) Main ArcGIS features and capabilities (ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcTool, ArcGlobe); 4) Demos using Census data and Environmental data. Options to get data and training will be also discussed. No prior knowledge of ArcGIS is required.

Location: O’Neill 245
Instructors: Constantin Andronache, ITS Research Services and Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian.

Note: Sign up for only one session. The content is identical.

Session 1: September 20, 2010 10:00 – 11:30 am
Session 2: September 20, 2010 3:00 – 4:30 pm
Register: email name of workshop and session choice to: researchservices@bc.edu

ArcGIS 10 Transforms the Way People Use GIS

News Release from ERSI

New Release Simplifies Your Work, Provides New Ways to Share Information, Supplies GIS in the Cloud, and Much More

Redlands, California— June 29, 2010— ArcGIS 10, which is now available from Esri, is transforming the way people use geographic information system (GIS) technology. With this release, users will be more productive with their work and will be able to take advantage of GIS everywhere: via individual local desktops, across desktops and browsers leveraging central servers, and in the cloud.

Full article

Recent ICPSR Study Additions

Boston College students and faculty can chose from over 6000 datasets in the ICPSR data archive. Here are some recent additions:

27001 Child Care and Children with Special Needs: Challenges for Low Income Families, 2002-2005

2896 Historical, Demographic, Economic, and Social Data: The United States,
1790-2002


4690 Americans' Changing Lives: Waves I, II, III, and IV, 1986, 1989, 1994, and 2002


20862 Latino National Survey (LNS), 2006

Questions about data or how to download data? Email: Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian

Summer GIS Workshop June 15, 2010 from 10:00 - 11:30 O'Neill 245

Summer is a great time for faculty and students to learn about Geographic Information Systems as a research tool during a hands on workshop.
The workshop includes:

* ArcGIS software, data and technical support at Boston College
*License options
*Main ArcGIS features and capabilities (ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcTool, ArcGlobe)
*Demos using Census and Environmental data.

Co-taught by Constantin Andronache, ITS Research Services, and Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian.
Further details at: Introduction to ArcGIS

Registration
To sign up for a tutorial, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of this tutorial.

Roper Center Data use in New Pew Research Report

A new Pew Research Center report called "Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor; The People and Their Government" cites data from the Roper Center Research.

Boston College Libraries provide access to the full Roper Center Opinion Archvies
for the Boston College community.

Current Hot Topics from the site include:

Afghanistan, the Economy, Global Warming, Immigration, the Supreme Court and Terrorism.

Questions? Contact Barbara Mento