Question
A student is looking for microdata on life insurance. More precisely on the amount of "life insurance bought" along with some demographic data.
Would someone have an idea if a survey would cover this topic?
Answer
A student at McGill was able to get data on life insurance by contacting the Life Insurance Institute of Canada directly. There is also an item in Survey of Household Spending for life insurance premiums.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Monday, June 7, 2004
Census Geography Reference Material
Question
A user here is hoping to find a non-PDF machine readable source that lists all changes in Census Subdivisions from 1981 through 2001, together with the coding and the CSD Type after each change. I suspect that she will have to go through each of the Standard Geographical Classifications, but hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Answer
The same information in a somewhat more usable format, ie as xls files, is available from the Interim list of changes to municipal boundaries, under DLI. We have pulled the files as per:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/datalib/codebooks/cstdli/92f0009xpb.htm
On the DLI ftp site, the files are (or rather were) in
/dli/geography/1991/document/interim/ and in /dli/geography/1996/interim/
A user here is hoping to find a non-PDF machine readable source that lists all changes in Census Subdivisions from 1981 through 2001, together with the coding and the CSD Type after each change. I suspect that she will have to go through each of the Standard Geographical Classifications, but hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Answer
The same information in a somewhat more usable format, ie as xls files, is available from the Interim list of changes to municipal boundaries, under DLI. We have pulled the files as per:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/datalib/codebooks/cstdli/92f0009xpb.htm
On the DLI ftp site, the files are (or rather were) in
/dli/geography/1991/document/interim/ and in /dli/geography/1996/interim/
Monday, May 10, 2004
New Name for this Blog
The Data & Statistical Reference Interview blog was renamed to the Data Interest Group for Reference Services blog, or DIGRS for short. At the May 2004 Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) External Advisory Committee (EAC) meeting, a contest was held to find a new name for this blog that had a more memorable acronym. Mark Leggott proposed DIGGER as the acronym. This was shortened to DIGR when Mary MacLeod, also of the EAC, suggested "Interest Group" for the IG in DIGR, which was expanded to: Data Interest Group Resources. Subsequently, the name was changed to Data Interest Group for Reference Services or "diggers" for short.
Wednesday, May 5, 2004
The Trade Analyser and Units of Measurement
The metadata are not always conveniently located with the data, which can lead to problems. Here is an example of trying to understand the units of measurement associated with statistics from the Trade Analyser.
A patron was referred to the Data Library from the Business Reference Desk. She was using the Trade Analyser database, which is supported online through CHASS at the University of Toronto. She had retrieved some statistics for the quantity and value of fruit puree imported to Ontario from California. The statistics, however, were listed without reference to their unit of measurement. She wanted to know the unit used for the quantity of fruit puree imported. Is it pounds, tonnes, kilograms, or some other weight or volume measurement?
Read the comments for different approaches to answering this question. You are invited to contribute your own solution, too.
A patron was referred to the Data Library from the Business Reference Desk. She was using the Trade Analyser database, which is supported online through CHASS at the University of Toronto. She had retrieved some statistics for the quantity and value of fruit puree imported to Ontario from California. The statistics, however, were listed without reference to their unit of measurement. She wanted to know the unit used for the quantity of fruit puree imported. Is it pounds, tonnes, kilograms, or some other weight or volume measurement?
Read the comments for different approaches to answering this question. You are invited to contribute your own solution, too.
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
Statistics on Vegetarians in Canada
Part of the Data Reference Mystery Series:
A patron would like statistics on vegetarians in Canada.
What constraints have they provided?
Geography: Canada
Population: Individual
Characteristics: Vegetarians
What further information might you like from this user?
Time frame: How recent must the statistics be?
Characteristics: Is the type of vegetarian important (e.g. vegan)?
Purpose: How are the statistics to be used? For example, to define or describe a population, to assess market impact, to study consumer spending patterns?
See the comments for strategies, tools, and results.
A patron would like statistics on vegetarians in Canada.
What constraints have they provided?
Geography: Canada
Population: Individual
Characteristics: Vegetarians
What further information might you like from this user?
Time frame: How recent must the statistics be?
Characteristics: Is the type of vegetarian important (e.g. vegan)?
Purpose: How are the statistics to be used? For example, to define or describe a population, to assess market impact, to study consumer spending patterns?
See the comments for strategies, tools, and results.
Monday, May 3, 2004
Gender Distribution of University Faculty
Part of the Data Reference Mystery Series:
A patron wants statistics on the gender distribution of university faculty in Canada.
This request seems to be for statistics and has the following constraints:
Time frame: ideally 2000 to 2004
Population: Canadian university faculty
Characteristics: gender
What further information would you like from this patron?
Geography: Does she or he require provincial breakdowns as well as the figures for all of Canada?
Characteristics: Will she or he need this broken down by discipline, too?
See the comments for strategies, tools, and results.
A patron wants statistics on the gender distribution of university faculty in Canada.
This request seems to be for statistics and has the following constraints:
Time frame: ideally 2000 to 2004
Population: Canadian university faculty
Characteristics: gender
What further information would you like from this patron?
Geography: Does she or he require provincial breakdowns as well as the figures for all of Canada?
Characteristics: Will she or he need this broken down by discipline, too?
See the comments for strategies, tools, and results.
Saturday, May 1, 2004
Data Reference Mystery Series
At the Atlantic DLI Workshop on April 22-23, 2004, Elizabeth Hamilton taught a session called Reference Mysteries. She discussed a model for conducting a data or statistical reference interview, including the types of follow-up queries to be asked of patrons, and then presented the group with a series of real reference questions.
Organized in small groups of three or four people, questions were disseminated to these teams to apply the data reference interview model and to propose materials or sources that would help the patron with her or his question.
The model consists of structuring the reference interview around four basic steps. First, determine if the patron is asking for data, statistics, or something else. Statistics are defined as quantitative summaries, facts, or figures that someone or some agency has produced from data. Statistics are often found in published tables in print or electronic formats. Data, on the other hand, is the raw material that is used to produce statistics. Data require processing to be of practical use.
The second step involves identifying any constraints that the patron has in mind. What is the unit of analysis or the object described by the data or statistics? Has the geography been constrained? Has a specific time period been requested? What are the characteristics that make up the data or statistics in the request?
The third step is to identify further information that you would like from the patron to help clarify her or his request. What is the intended use of the statistics or data? What resources have they already checked?
Fourth, compose a list of the resources or tools that might be useful to the patron in finding an answer. This will include the strategies employed in searching for material and resources as well as the tools used in the course of conducting the search.
This model treats the reference interview as a process and not as an end-state where an answer pops out of the information-gumball machine. The incorrect assumption with many statistical or data questions is that the outcome will consist of a single number or file at the conclusion of the reference interview. While this may be the case in some instances, there are many times when the patron will need to examine the resources that were located to see if an answer can be found.
With Elizabeth's permission, the series of questions that she circulated in her workshop session will be posted on this Web Log.
Organized in small groups of three or four people, questions were disseminated to these teams to apply the data reference interview model and to propose materials or sources that would help the patron with her or his question.
The model consists of structuring the reference interview around four basic steps. First, determine if the patron is asking for data, statistics, or something else. Statistics are defined as quantitative summaries, facts, or figures that someone or some agency has produced from data. Statistics are often found in published tables in print or electronic formats. Data, on the other hand, is the raw material that is used to produce statistics. Data require processing to be of practical use.
The second step involves identifying any constraints that the patron has in mind. What is the unit of analysis or the object described by the data or statistics? Has the geography been constrained? Has a specific time period been requested? What are the characteristics that make up the data or statistics in the request?
The third step is to identify further information that you would like from the patron to help clarify her or his request. What is the intended use of the statistics or data? What resources have they already checked?
Fourth, compose a list of the resources or tools that might be useful to the patron in finding an answer. This will include the strategies employed in searching for material and resources as well as the tools used in the course of conducting the search.
This model treats the reference interview as a process and not as an end-state where an answer pops out of the information-gumball machine. The incorrect assumption with many statistical or data questions is that the outcome will consist of a single number or file at the conclusion of the reference interview. While this may be the case in some instances, there are many times when the patron will need to examine the resources that were located to see if an answer can be found.
With Elizabeth's permission, the series of questions that she circulated in her workshop session will be posted on this Web Log.
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