Kitimat CA / CSD

Question

I am a little baffled about something that's probably obvious. I just printed off two DAuid lists from GeoSuite: one for the CSD of Kitimat (the DM) and one for the Kitimat CA . I got the same list of 15 DAuids for both. I thought this was kind of strange, so I brought up the 2006 Community Profiles for each of these areas. The land area and population is exactly the same for both. GeoSuite confirmed this. Somehow I would have thought that the CSD would be a smaller area than the CA.

Answer

This is the definition of a CA:

A census agglomeration must have an urban core population of at least 10,000. A census agglomeration (CA) is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a large urban area (known as the urban core). A CA must have an urban core population of at least 10,000. To be included in the CMA or CA, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows derived from census place of work data.

It not often, but it happens that a CA is one equivalent to one CSD in which you find the appropriate urban core of at least 10,000 population and that the total population for that CSD is at least 10,000

For Kitimat, the CA is based on the population of the previous census, that is 2001, and the population was 10,285 with an urban core of at least 10,000. It may not be a CA in 2011 since the population is now below 10,000, thus the urban core is now lower than the treshold of 10,000 people.

And yes, the CA is equal to the CSD in this case and beware that it may not be a CA when Geography Division do their revision for the 2011 Census.

Updated Products - PEA (Provincial Economic Accounts)

Provincial Economic Accounts (PEA)

The following files have been added:

13-001 - National Income and Expenditure Accounts - Quarterly Estimates -Third Quarter 2007

13-014 - Financial Flow Accounts - Quarterly Estimates -Third Quarter 2007

13-214 - National Balance Sheet Accounts, Quarterly Estimates - Third Quarter 2007

13f0016 - Estimates of Labour Income - Monthly Estimates - September 2007

Web: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/pea.htm
FTP: /ftp/dli/pea

Census Tract Crime Statistics

Question

I have a researcher looking for any available crime data for a census tract in Prince George (actually, he's looking for the data for a neighbourhood, but this Census Tract comes pretty close to covering it). I don't think we have access to anything at that geography, but I thought I'd better check to be sure. If not, are custom tabulations possible?

Answer

I checked with the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics and census tract level crime data isn't available. The lowest geographical area for which they can provide crime data is the police service level. They told me that Prince George has 2 respondents, an RCMP Municipal Force (59710 respondent code) and a RCMP Rural Detachment (59831 respondent code). Both of these forces send them crime data for their respective jurisdictions (areas of responsibility).

We have this data in the DLI collection the Crime Statistics "All Police services, 1977-2006" (ps_all.zip) file
(http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/justice.htm).
You can open the ps_all.zip file and search for Prince George or the respondent code.

First Nations Reserves in Ontario

Question

A faculty member here needs a list of all the reserves in Ontario with their population figures. I thought I had seen this somewhere once, but now I can't locate it anywhere. If it exists, I'd like to know where; if not, how can I generate one?

Answer

Applicable information can be found in the First Nations profiles, at
http://sdiprod2.inac.gc.ca/FNProfiles
and the 2001 Census Aboriginal Population Profiles available at
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/Profil01/AP01/Search/List/Page.cfm?Lang=E&GeoCode=35

Updated Products - NPHS / HES

National Population Health Survey (NPHS) Cycle 6, 2004-2005 - Synthetic Files

The National Population Health Survey was designed to collect information on the health of the Canadian population and related socio-demographic information.

It is important to note that these synthethic files do not contain real data and should never be used for analytical purposes. Their only purpose is to assist users to develop and test the computer programs that are to be submitted by remote job submission.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/nphs/nphssynthetic.htm
FTP: /ftp/dli/nphs/Synthetic_Files-Dummy_files

**************

Households and the Environment Survey -- 2006 PUMF

The Household Environment Survey (HES) measures the environmental practices and behaviours of Canadian households that relate to the condition of our air, water and soils. The survey was also design to collect data to develop and improve three key environmental indicators: air quality, water quality and greenhouse gas emissions.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/hes.htm
FTP: /ftp/dli/hes/2006

Number of Mothers in Canada

Question

A simple question -- how many women in Canada are mothers -- is proving surprisingly difficult to answer. The census doesn't ask the question anymore, and I can't find it anywhere else. What, if anything, am I missing?

Answer

Take a look at Cansim Table Table 102-4508 Mothers, all ages.

Hazelnut Production Figures for British Columbia

Question

I am trying to find time series hazelnut/filbert production figures for B.C. Could any of you agriculture statistics gurus out there please point me in the right direction. I thought I might have luck in CANSIM, but nothing so far.

Answer

I can't find a time series either, but there is a series of annual reports from the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Lands on this page:
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/stats/index.htm

Check out Annual B.C. Horticultural Statistics for 2004. Further down the page you can find Selected Fruit and Vegetable Statistics - Berry and Nut Statistics. These tables cover 1991-2003. If a time series database exists I failed to find it.

The Agriculture Division has also indicated that data back to 1977 is available through the Query function in Canada Foods Stats
(http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=23F0001XBB).
Click on View and follow the instructions.

Occupational Surveillance in Canada: Cause-specific Mortality Among Workers, 1965-1991

Occupational Surveillance in Canada: Cause-specific Mortality Among Workers, 1965-1991

This CD-ROM is the first Canada-wide publication of occupational mortality risks produced in Canada. A previous publication for the province of British Columbia (Occupational mortality in British Columbia 1950-1978) was published in 1986 as Statistics Canada catalogue no. 84-544 (ISBN 0-660-59382-32872-X).

This publication helps identify occupational groups across Canada with excessive mortality due to specific causes. It also provides a Canadian monitoring system to detect previously unsuspected associations between, for example, cancer and occupation and provide a powerful tool for both generating and testing hypotheses.

The publication gives the results of a longitudinal follow-up of the 10% Canadian Occupational Cohort, a sample of 700,000 individuals, both
women and men, in the Canadian workforce during the period 1965-71, linked to the Canadian Mortality Data Base (CMDB) for 1965-1991.

This publication is likely to be of interest to the medical and research community, workers' compensation and safety boards, ministries of health and labour, regulatory agencies and the general public.

Web: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/osc.htm
FTP: /dli/osc

Divorce Settlements

Question

A student has been told by a professor that statistics on a given topic exist on the STC website, yet I have found no evidence of it. In this case, it's about the amounts of money people get as a result of divorce settlements. Or am I missing something? I would welcome any advice!

Answer

To the best of our knowledge, Statistics Canada does not collect data on the value of divorce settlements. Our main divorce related statistics are divorces counts from vital statistics.

The closest I found to data on money people receive as a result of divorce settlements were variables on support payments in SLID and the Maintenance Enforcement Survey and a study titled "Why Do Children Move into and out of Low Income: Changing Labour Market Conditions or Marriage and Divorce"
(http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0019MIE/11F0019MIE1999132.pdf).

Hospital Personnel

Question

I have a student who is looking for data on staffing in Ontario hospitals - her question was "Are there any data bases that list staff in hospitals by occupation?" By staff she means members of the health care team -- doctors, nurses, pharmacists etc., and she wants this by hospital if at all possible.

The Statistics Canada publication Hospital Statistics used to contain this information, but I can't find anything since the databases were turned over to CIHI. Anything I'm missing?

Answer

You are right. These data are now collected by CIHI and not by STC anymore.

Name Change - World Trade Data / Canadian Trade Data

World Trade Data is now called World Trade Analyzer
Canadian Trade Data is now called World Trade Atlas -- Canadian Edition

The content of these products has not changed, only their names have been modified.

Web:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/worldtrade.htm
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/cantrade.htm

FTP:
/ftp/dli/trade/world-trade-analyzer
/ftp/dli/trade/world-trade-atlas-canada-edition

Survey of Canadian Attitudes Towards Learning

Question

Will the DLI be receiving the Survey of Canadian Attitudes Towards Learning 2007? It was announced in Today's Daily:

Results from the second Survey of Canadian Attitudes towards Learning will be released on Monday, November 26, 2007 in the Statistics Canada Daily. The Daily can be downloaded at no charge from the Statistics Canada website (www.statcan.ca).

The article indicates that it can be acquired via a special request from Culture, Tourism, and Centre for Educ. Stats and doesn't indicate if there would be a charge for this.

Answer

A PUMF wasn't produced for the Survey of Canadian Attitudes Towards Learning, 2007 and the author division can't provide us with any standard tables for this survey.

Some of the findings from the survey are available on the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) website at
http://www.ccl-cca.ca/ccl/reports/SCAL/?Language=EN

Additional data is available from the Centre for Education Statistics as a special request (custom tabulation) but there would be fees for this data.

Updated products - Road Network File (RNF)

Road Network File, 2007

The 2007 Road Network File (RNF) (92-500-XWE2007001) is now available. The Road Network File (RNF) is a digital representation of Canada's national road network, containing information such as street names, types, direction and address ranges. The information comes from the National Geographic Database (NGD).

A reference guide is also included.

The 2007 Road Network File does not replace the 2006 Road Network File, which is a similar product available as part of the 2006 suite of Geography products, and used in conjunction with products and services from the 2006 Census.

FTP:
/ftp/dli/geography/2006/spatial_info_products(mapinfo-arcinfo guides)produits_d'info_spatiale/arcinfo/rnf-frr/2007
/ftp/dli/geography/2006/spatial_info_products(mapinfo-arcinfo-guides)produits_d'info_spatiale/mapinfo/rnf-frr/2007

Internet Data at Municipal Level

Question

Looking for data on use of Internet by citizens and businesses for municipalities in Ontario. Researcher wants to know: can we expect CMA level only for this kind of data from Statcan ?

1. For each geographical area, rate of Internet use for citizens.

2. For each geographical area, rate of Internet use for businesses.

3. Type of public access points available within each geographical area (library, internet cafe, etc.)

Answer

The Canadian Internet Use Survey (2005) contains variables to distinguish Toronto, and other rural versus urban areas in Ontario, as well as a number of locations of use (although not specifically internet cafes). It does not, however, cover business use, since it is a survey of households.

I suspect that, for a more specific geographic breakdown of rates of use by municipalities in Ontario, you will need to request a special tabulation.

The Survey of electronic commerce and technology (SECT) seems to attempt to collect comparable data for business - SDDS 4225.
http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=
getSurvey&SDDS=4225&lang=en&db=IMDB&dbg=f&adm=8&dis=2

As far as I can tell, the aggregate stats published from this Survey are available in CANSIM, but only for Canada as a whole, not broken down by province even.

Destination port and top exporter by commodity data

Question

I have a student who wants BC forest product export data to China. She wants it broken down by type of product. I was able to help her with the Trade Analyser from CHASS, but she would like more detailed data if she can get it. What she is looking for is a breakdown by Chinese destination port as well as the top BC exporters (companies) for the different products. Does anyone have suggestions for this more detailed data?

Answer

Our International Trade Division has provided me with the following information in response to your request for export data for BC forest products.

The exporter names they have are confidential and they can not disseminate any company name and/or business number.

The information they have on ports would be for Canadian ports only and is available only as a customized tabulation (on a cost-recovery basis). None of the export documentation they capture contains the port names for the country of destination i.e., Chinese ports.

They indicated that Industry Canada's online trade data (formerly known as Strategis -
http://www.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrkti/tdst/engdoc/tr_homep.html)
would have information on exports to China originating from BC by commodity up to the 6 digit level from 1996 to present day.

The World Trade Atlas (available on this page
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/cantrade.htm)
would provide you with exports to China for commodities at the HS10 level broken down by Province of Origin (BC) for the same timelines. Province of Origin is defined as the province the goods were grown, mined, or manufactured.

The International Trade Division has indicated that they would be available to provide you with assistance identifying the HS codes associated with forestry products if you need any help.

Benefits of Beyond 20/20

Question

I am interested in descriptions how Data Librarians offer and when they used Beyond 20/20 data.

Answers

1) The B2020 files have a great deal of value. The first thing is the interface. It is extremely intuitive and powerful - students pick it up very quickly. (the intuitiveness of B2020 has been challenged by some)

The second is the type of data and how it is indexed/presented. I find it easy to wade through census tables using B2020.

If you are looking to introduce data to non-data librarians this is a good door in.

2) Since so many commonly used resources are only available in Beyond 20/20 format, I don't see how one can avoid using it:
- Annual estimates of employment earnings and hours
- Canadian business patterns
- Labour force historical review
- Income trends in Canada
- Canada's retirement income programs
- CCJS statistics
- not to mention the cd-rom versions of some UN and pretty much all OECD products

Beyond 20/20 Sorting Question

Question

With regard to census data, if I only want the top Province level data in any given file - how would I do that without selecting each line separately? Is there a trick here? Right now - as far as I'm aware the only way to obtain this would be to hold my Ctrl button done, scroll through the file and select each province.

Answer

1. Make the "Geography" dimension active.
2. Click on that double-arrowed "Sort" icon above.
3. Choose "Code" & "Increasing Numeric" and "Ok".

The result should be Canada, then all provinces, then all territories.

You can also find a B2020 Help Sheet at
http://www.library.carleton.ca/ssdata/surveys/b2020.html along with links to the B2020 User Guides.

Military Base Hospitals & Health Regions

Question

I have a researcher using health indicators for Health Region 3557 Renfrew County and District Health Unit who would like to confirm if this includes, as it does geographically, the Petawawa base hospital?

Answer

If you are using the health indicators from STC, it provides health information related to the population in that Health Region. This is information from respondents at the household level so it does not include information from the Petawawa base hospital. This is excluded from the universe.

If you are using health indicators provided from CIHI, it provides information from the Health sector and institutions such as Petawawa base hospital would be included.

Annual Survey of Manufactures Data

Question

An Economics grad student would like to find firm level data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures. The data in CANSIM seems to be at the industry level, by province. Is it possible for us to acquire firm level data such as are used in this article?

Answer

The author division for the Annual Survey of Manufactures could provide you with outputs and inputs based on the Standard Classification of Goods (SCG) as a custom tabulation (for a fee).

More Detailed University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS) Data

Question

An administrator here is looking for some data from UCASS that is more detailed than what she's already been able to obtain. Specifically, she's looking a version of the following table:
Table 2
Number of Full-Time University Teachers by Region, Field,
Highest Earned Degree, Staff Functions, Rank, Sex and
Median Age, 2004-2005
disaggregated by university. The statement about disclosure control in the IMDB suggests that it is at least possible (with the consent in writing of each institution involved) -- or am I reading this wrong? If this is possible, what should she do to get the ball rolling?

Answer

The Centre for Education Statistics can produce this table for you with a breakdown by institution on a custom basis. There would be a cost of $300 for the table and they would require 5-10 working days for processing once the order is placed.

Education/Occupation/Industry Data

Question

An MBA student is looking for two types of data:

1) Field of study as a student vs. occupation in labour force. I checked one of the National Graduates Surveys, and this data seems to be collected, but the occupation data is suppressed. Is there any way for this student to get these figures other than going to an RDC? If RDC is the only way to get this data, would Remote Data Access be a possibility?

2) Migration of workers from the paper industry (NAICS 3221). Something that shows workers in this field a year or two or five down the road and in what industry they are now working. (Kind of like the mobility data in the Census, except this would be for type of work (preferably by NAICS).

Answer

The Centre for Education Statistics has said that "There is no way of getting the occupation variable except through the RDCs and right at the moment we do not offer Remote Data Access due to shortage of staff."

After searching the collection for a survey that would provide mobility data (by NAICS) over time for workers in the paper industry (NAICS 3221), an appropriate source could not be located.

Sexual Assault Data

Question

A student needs data for the last 10 yrs, for all cases of rape reported, the day and the time of the incidence.

I've looked at Crime Statistics in Canada (2006) and am wondering if I can get this information from the incident-based microdata version of the UCR survey.

Do we have access to this version of the UCR survey through DLI ?

Answer

We have Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) data on sexual assault offences for the last 10 years in the DLI collection but these data don't include information about the day or time of the assaults.

When I asked the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics about your request, they explained that there were changes to the Criminal Code of Canada in 1983 which removed rape and introduced a three tiered structure of sexual assault offences. So from 1983 onwards, the UCR provides data on sexual assault offences levels I, II and II. Our contact described the three levels as follows: "'Sexual Assault' offences, Level I (sexual assault - the most minor level), Level II (sexual assault with a weapon - serious injury to victim) and Level III (aggravated sexual assault - grievous injury to the victim)".

A table can be created by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics using UCR data that details the number of incidents and rate per 100 000 population of sexual assault offences (Level I, II and III) in Canada from 1996 to 2006.

The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics told me that they might be able to produce more detailed tables on sexual assault offences if you placed a custom request but this would be a fee based service as the tables don't exist as a standard product. The data in these tables would probably start in 1998, might specify if assaults occurred in the am or pm and wouldn't contain data from all police forces across Canada. But, as I mentioned above, these tables would only be available as a custom service for a fee.

Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging

Question

A student has discovered the on-line copy of the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (ASML), and would like to obtain data from this survey. DLI access seems to end at 1995.

What is the status of the more recent data? Is it available in CANSIM?

Answer

Data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (ASML) is available in CANSIM table 301-0006 "Principal statistics for manufacturing industries, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), annual (dollars unless otherwise noted)". Additional related (but often terminated) tables are listed at:
http://cansim2.statcan.ca/cgi-win/cnsmcgi.exe?LANG=e&ResultTemplate=CII&CORCMD=GETEXT&CORTYP
=1&CORRELTYP=4&CORID=2103

The Daily releases that are listed on:
http://cansim2.statcan.ca/cgi-win/cnsmcgi.exe?LANG=e&ResultTemplate=CST&CORCMD
=GETEXT&CORTYP=1&CORRELTYP=50&CORID=2103

These sources were located through the "Links to related products" section on the left side bar of the "Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (ASML)" page in the Definitions, data sources and methods of the STC website:
http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=2103&lang=en
&db=IMDB&dbg=f&adm=8&dis=2

National Survey of Non-Profit and Voluntary Organizations PUMF

Question

Will there be a PUMF for the National Survey of Non-Profit and Voluntary Organizations?

Answer

Due to confidentiality requirements, no PUMF was produced from the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations (2003).

The following publications appear to be based on this survey and may be of interest:
Cornerstones of Community: Highlights from the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations
(http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=61-533-X)
Summary of the Findings of the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations
(http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=61-533-S)

Charitable Donations

Question

A student is looking for data on charitable donations by individuals, by age, prior to 1997 or after 2005.

Answer

The 2004 edition of small area data: charitable donors, has data back to 1995 by age category, in the files saaddon_t01.xls and saaddon_t02.xls. The Small Area and Administrative Data Division may also be able to provide you with data prior to 1995.

An alternative would be to derive estimates from the survey of family expenditures.

Open & Closed Mortgage Data

Question

A student here is looking for data on the number of open and closed mortgages issued per year for some period of time. CANSIM appears to have nothing; neither does CMHC. Any ideas?

Answer

The Income Statistics Division does not have this data in their holdings. They indicated that the data might be available through the Bank of Canada. There may also be relevant data in the CMHC's NHA loan approval system and Conventional Lending Survey.

If it isn't available there, you might want to search industry sources to see if the figures have been published there. The CMHC Library might also be able to provide some suggestions. They can be reached at (613) 748-2367 or toll-free at 1-800-668-2642 (ask for the library).

DA Maps for PEI

Question

Why are dissemination area reference maps unavailable for PEI under "Dissemination Area Reference Maps, by Census Tracts, for Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations"
(http://geodepot.statcan.ca/Diss2006/Maps/CTDA_e.jsp).

Answer

Maps for PEI aren't available through that page because PEI does not have CMAs or CAs which are part of the Census Tract program. (There are no census tracts in PEI). PEI has non-tracted Census Agglomerationss.

Dissemination area reference maps for PEI can be found under "Dissemination Area Reference Maps, by Non-tracted Census Agglomerations"
(http://geodepot.statcan.ca/Diss2006/Maps/CADA_e.jsp)

Coal Prices

Question

I have a user looking for coal prices. She is looking at the coal fired electricity plants in Ontario and wants to know the coat of coal.

Answer

The Manufacturing, Construction and Energy Division has confirmed that they don't publish prices for coal. Coal consumption and production data are available in Chapter 7 of the Energy Statistics Handbook, 57-601-XWE at:
http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=57-601-X, but not prices.

Your user may also be interested in:
- CANSIM Table 330-0006 "Raw materials price indexes, monthly (index, 1997=100)" will give you a monthly price index for the price of coal (thermal) from 1991 to 2007. This will tell how you the price of coal (thermal) has varied over time. I checked with our Prices Division and they can't provide actual coal prices, only indexes.

- Although more general, your student may wish to consult the other coal related STC products and publications available at
http://cansim2.statcan.ca/cgi-win/cnsmcgi.pgm?lang=E&SP_Action=Sub&SP_ID=486

- And finally, NRCAN has an interesting Mineral and Metal Commodity Review for Coal (2005) at
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/ms/cmy/content/2005/22.pdf .
The author or the NRCAN Minerals and Mining Statistics Division
(http://mmsd1.mms.nrcan.gc.ca/mmsd/contact_e.asp)
may have some suggestions for you as well if you contact them directly.

DLI National Training Day Presentations

Presentations given at DLI National Training Day in Montreal (May 14, 2007) are available in the DLI Training Repository at
https://ozone.scholarsportal.info/handle/1873/69

You can browse by date to view the National Training Day presentations.

Community Profile - Ft. McMurray

Question

Fort McMurray, Alberta has a population of approximately 41,000 people yet it does not show up in the 2001 or 2006 Community Profiles as a "stand alone" community rather it indicates that it is part of the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo. Is this because the municipality has almost no other population except for that of Fort McMurray?

Answer

Community Profiles will always direct you to an incorporated municipality; there is a note to this effect in the Help/FAQ section:

"The data are available only for municipalities or their equivalent counties and metropolitan areas. Data are not available for 'unincorporated' places."

This includes some very well known places which are now parts of larger municipalities. If Wood Buffalo is the legal name for the place then that is what you will find in the census tables even though Fort McMurray may be better known. The way around this is to identify the dissemination areas that make up the part you are interested in and use the DA profiles for data.

Home Ownership in Newfoundland

Question

A patron wants information on home ownership in Newfoundland, i.e. those who own their homes and those with an outstanding mortgage. She'd also like an urban-rural breakdown, if available, and with stats covering 1950 onwards. I tried the following:

1) CANSIM - found nothing.
2) CMHC materials do not cover what she's looking for. There's one multi-volume CMHC title in Microlog that she'll consult shortly.
3) A variable search in IDLS retrieved the Survey of Financial Security for 1999 and 2005. 2005 only provides a breakdown for the Atlantic region, but 1999 does cover Newfoundland. Using the DLS site from U of T, we did a cross-tabulation of home ownership by province (weighted), but this provides her with a 1999 snapshot only. It seems like she'll get bits & pieces rather than a convenient and continuous time stretch that doesn't appear to exist.
4) Census info covers "owned" and "rented", with no elaboration about "owned".
5) A colleague suggested debt statistics, but that takes me back to the Survey of Financial Security noted above in no. 3.

In terms of DLI data, is there anything I've missed?

Answer

A variable search in IDLS came up with the following files as being relevant to your user's question about mortgages. I didn't check to see that they all also have urban/rural (or size of area of residence) variables. The FAMEX and SHS series would probably be most useful.

- 1971 census - PUST individual file
- 1986 census - PUMS family file
- 1991 census - PUMS family file
- 1996 census - PUMF household file
- 1996 census - PUMF family file
- 2001 census - PUMF family file
- 2001 census - PUMF household file
- General Social Survey 1990 / 1991
- Survey of Approaches to Educational Planning 2002
- Survey of Consumer Finances, 1972: Household Income (1971), Facilities and Equipment (1972)
- Survey of Consumer Finances, 1977: Income (1976), Assets and Debts (1977), of Economic Families and Unattached Individuals
- Survey of Consumer Finances, 1984: Income (1983), Assets and Debts (1984), of Economic Families and Unattached Individuals
- Survey of Consumer Finances, 1985: Household Income (1984), Facilities and Equipment (1985)
- Survey of Consumer Finances, 1991: Household Income (1990), Facilities and Equipment (1991)
- Survey of Family Expenditures, 1969 / 1974 / 1978 / 1982 / 1984 / 1986 /1990 / 1992 / 1996
- Survey of Financial Security, 1999
- Survey of Household Spending, 1997 / 1998 / 1999 / 2000 / 2001 / 2002 / 2003 / 2004 / 2005
- Survey on Ageing and Independence: August 1991

You may also wish to consult CANSIM table 203-0019. This table is based on the Survey of Household Spending and it will provide you with estimated number of households reporting (x 1,000) and Percent of households reporting an Owned dwelling, an Owned dwelling with mortgage(s) or an Owned dwelling without mortgage. This table will give you data for Newfoundland andLabrador or St.John's from 1997 to 2005.

Census Tract (CT) Correspondence File 2001 and 2006 Census

The census tract correspondence file for the 2001 and 2006 Census is available in Excel format on the DLI FTP site at
/ftp/dli/geography/2006/correspondence_files_fichiers_de_correspondance(da-sd_db-sd). The file on the FTP was produced for technical users and lists 2001 Census tracts and the corresponding Census Tracts in the 2006 Census.

A 2001 to 2006 CT correspondence table will also be included in the 2006 Census Tract Profile publications. You can take a look at the 2001 Census Tract Profile print publications for an example of the type of correspondence table has been included in the CT Profile publications.

Access to DLI for Retired, Sessional Faculty

Question

What are the access rights to the DLI data for retired, sessional faculty?

Answer

That depends on a few variables. Is your faculty member currently retired AND a sessional? If so, the answer is yes. If the retired faculty member has emeritus status, the answer is also yes. But if he's a retired-sessional and has no emeritus status, then I'd think not.

Emeritus professors are still treated by universities as part of their staff. They are given office space, access to research facilities and continue to be listed as part of the faculty at their institution. If the professor has emeritus status then he is considered an eligible user of DLI data.

In the case of a student who was doing research with a retired professor who did not have emeritus status, the student met the criteria of the licence (an educator, student, or staff member of good standing with an educational institution participating in DLI). The alumnus no longer met this criteria. Results of the research can be shared with the alumnus, but data cannot.

Soybean & Canola Crushings

Question

I have a user looking for soybean and canola crushings. The data is available for 1971 to 1992 but after that date there are no data points. Confidentiality is stated as the reason. Could you explain why?

The cansim series are V383415 and V1459122.

Answer

The data has been suppressed to meet the confidentiality requirements of the Statistics Act. Here are the details I obtained from the Agriculture Division when I asked them about this table:

"As per the footnotes for the table, the data is indeed suppressed to meet the confidentiality requirements of the Statistics Act. As for the specific reason that it might be suppressed, here are some possibilities such as not having enough respondents available to guarantee confidentiality, having one or a few operations contributing an unacceptably high proportion of the value as compared to the other operations or that the data obtained from the surveys is deemed too unreliable to be published for that type of crop."

Note: If you go to the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association - you can get monthly figures from 2005 - July 2007.

Emigration/return of foreign born professionals

Question

A student is doing a research on the topic of emigration or return migration of foreign-born professionals in Canada, 1990 to 2003 for her graduate research methods course. Is there an appropriate data set to address this topic?

Answer

This data doesn't appear to be available in a DLI product.

Our Demography Division has data on emigration and returning emigrants but not data on emigration or return emigration of foreign born professionals in particular.

Some of the data your graduate student was hoping for might be available as a fee based custom request from the longitudinal administrative data (LAD) file.

Here is what the author division told me about the data that might be available as a fee based custom request:

"Our longitudinal administrative data (LAD) contain variables from the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB). A couple of variables (from IMDB) relate to field of work: Immigrant's Intended Occupation and Immigrant's Industry Codes. On the LAD, we also have NAICS coding to identify primary and secondary industry of employment. This industry information is captured for all individuals for whom we have a T4 record.

By linking to the IMDB, we identify immigrants who arrived to Canada starting in 1980 (landing year). This allows a researcher to then study the incomes and family characteristics of this group of individuals through the years, up to 2005. With the LAD, I believe we can also identify return migrants, although we could not always distinguish foreign-born from Canadian-born unless that individual was already identified as an immigrant through IMDB.

The LAD Data Dictionary (12-585-XIE -
http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=12-585-X)
which contains a complete glossary of LAD variables, is always a good starting point. I suggest your client consult the dictionary and examine the different variables that can be used. Once we have more details on the output required, we can further discuss feasibility of project and related costs."

2006 Community Profile for Gimli (Town)

Question

I can't find Gimli (Town) in the 2006 Profiles, although Gimli (Rural Municipality) is there. Is the profile hiding somewhere?

Answer

Gimli (Town) was amalgamated with and is now part of Gimli (Rural Municipality).
(Source: Manitoba Community Profiles
http://www.communityprofiles.mb.ca/cgi-bin/csd/index.cgi?id=4618031)

As the town has been amalgamated into the rural municipality, there is no 2006 Community Profile for the town. Data for the town is now included in the Community Profile for the area into which it was amalgamated, Gimli (Rural municipality). If you run a place name search for Gimli in the 2006 Community Profile, it will point you to the profile for Gimli (Rural Municipality).

2006 Community Profiles

Question

I have been looking at the 2006 Community Profiles and I am sort of upset and disappointed by them. I suppose I should have realized that the wave of amalgamation/ "dissolving" of communities would have significant impact on the easy of use of Census data but it is only recently I have realized the implications.

I used to introduce Census data using the Community Profiles and would ask a class member to give me a name of a small town they were from. Invariably in the 1996 and 2001 Community Profiles I would get a nice display of info which always seemed to impress the students.

Don't try the same thing for 2006 - you will look very unimpressive!!

Because of amalgamation/dissolution (sic?) many "smaller" communities have completely disappeared from Community Profiles - two that I have come across, and there are hundreds, are Simcoe, a town of 15,000 and Lindsay, a town of about the same.

Simcoe has become "Norfolk" which is the "City" and the CA name and is included in an area with about 60,000 people. Similarly Lindsay is now Kawartha Lakes which is a "City", a CA and a CD (!) of about 75,000 people which covers about 15 preexisting communities.

So the answer is to use Urban Areas to get the small town / community info for 2006.

The point of all this background is to ask whether the Census people would consider adding Urban Area data to the 2006 Community Profiles because without it many communities appear not to exist. The Community Profiles have always been a great, quick source of community info and I am sorry to see that has disappeared for many smaller places

Answer

The community profile was created to answer the questions from the general population concerning characteristics of the community they live in. We called it community profile mainly because there were no other names that were suitable (municipalities, township, and many other names that can be significant only in specific areas). The other reason was that the general public and students don't necessarily specify the name of the legal entity they live in. For example, I live in Orleans which at one point (few years back) was a village then split and part was amalgamated in a city called Gloucester and another part was amalgamated in another city called Cumberland. Lately, all of these were amalgamated as the City of Ottawa. For people that are still writing Orleans as their address would be lead to City of Ottawa for information on the Community Profile. If this was not done, it could be very frustrating for the general public not to be able to find information on the community they live in. Furthermore, there were so many community dissolved in 2001 that it was agreed for one census cycle that a profile would be available for dissolved entities such as Simcoe. As you are probably aware, when you pull Simcoe's profile in 2001, it would provide data but also indicate that this entity was dissolved and now part of Norfolk City. This was done for once census to give municipalities a chance to have information before and after amalgamation in order to help them in the transition to these new entities.

I understand very well your questions but I will add that from the user testing on the community profile, we were confirmed repeatedly to keep it very simple in terms of access and the level of geography for which information is available such as the legal entity you live in. It has been with the Summary tables, the most popular part of the Statistics Canada's site and I would be very reluctant to complicate the geography in fear of losing the general public.

Now, understanding that urban areas are not a legal entity and unless you fully understand the concept, this could be very misleading as part of the community profile. That being said, the other way is to use the Census Tract Profile which boundaries have remain relatively stable and still follow previous entities boundaries.

There is also this product: Catalogue No.: 95F0495XCB2001009 which is the Profile for Urban Areas, 2001 Census and which provide characteristics for urban areas in Canada, listed alphabetically by provinces which quite easy to use. I know it's not the Community Profile but being shown separately, it does not confuse users from the general public thinking that Simcoe Urban Area is the boundary of a city.

2001 Census Agricultural Regions

Question

The 2001 Agricultural Community Profiles state:
"The profiles include agricultural statistics on population and farm operators, land use and land practices, farm finances, crops and horticulture, and livestock for most communities at the geographic level of the census division (CD) and census agricultural region (CAR). "

I would like the data for the CARs for Manitoba but I can't seem to obtain the information.

Answer

I spoke with the Agriculture Division and they confirmed that the 2001 Agricultural Community Profiles module will not allow you to look up profiles for census agricultural regions (CARs).

They suggested that you consult the 2001 Farm Data and Farm Operator Data Full Release tables for data on Manitoba CARs. The data tables for this product are available on our website at:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/95F0302XIE/2001001/tables.htm

We also have farm data and farm operator data (including CAR level data) in the Census Agricultural 2001 folder on the DLI FTP under
ftp/dli/census/agricultural/2001. You may wish to use these files obtain the CAR level data you need.

Agriculture Statistics for Aboriginal People

Question

A student is interested in knowing farm and farm operator statistics (latest, if possible) for Canada and looking specifically for number of farms owned by aboriginal people; total agricultural land owned by aboriginal farmers (individually or by bands both on- and off- reserve); and the type of crops (most often) grown by aboriginal farmers. Any feedback on from where this information may be available will be appreciated.

Answer

I have checked with our Agriculture Division (including their Census of Agriculture section) and they unfortunately don't have the data on Aboriginal farmers that your student is looking for.

Demography Division - Deaths

Question

Does Demography Division ever provide researchers with data estimates prior to the official publication date? A research group here completed their project in March 2007 and would like to complete the analysis [and publish, of course] ASAP. They need estimates of deaths by age and sex [only interested in those over 80 years old] for Quebec through March 2007, or at least a 2006/2007 estimate. At the moment these are only available on CANSIM through January, 2005 or July 2004, depending on the series used.

They would be able to pay for more recent data, if it would be available to them.

Answer

I spoke with our Demography Division and they could provide you with monthly total deaths in Quebec up to March 2007 (no breakdown by age and sex). If this is of interest, you could request this data through the Statistics Canada Regional Reference Centre in Montreal at infostats@statcan.ca or at 1-800-263-1136. Please note that fees would be associated with this service.

Monthly deaths for Quebec by age and sex up to October 2007 will be available as a custom request on December 20th 2007.

CANSIM table 051-0002 "Deaths, by sex and age group, Canada, provinces and territories, annual (persons)" can give you deaths by age and sex for Quebec for the year 2005/2006 (July 1 to June 30).

Economic Output Figures for Victoria Communities

Question

A graduate student here is looking for economic output figures (something that would be equivalent to the GDP) for five communities in the Victoria area (Colwood, Esquimalt, Langford, Oak Bay, and Central Saanich). Anyone have any ideas on how she can approach this?

Answer

According to the Industry Accounts Division, the lowest level of output figures produced are provincial. When asked for ideas on how your student could approach her research question, they said that she might want to consider using Census data (earnings for example) but cautioned that the resulting output comparison would be very very basic.

Your student may want to look at FPmarkets : Canadian Demographics 2007 that gives economic profiles at municipality level. However, there is nothing for the communities for which you are looking data because they are too small (neither at CMA level nor at CA level). However, there are many tables for District Municipalites of Victoria CMA.

Annual Estimates of Employment, Earnings and Hours

Question

A faculty member has inquired as to whether the Annual Estimates of Employment, Earnings and Hours based on NAICS 1991-2006 survey will ever be available for finer geographic levels specifically at the CD or CSD level? Or if it might be available as a custom tabulation request.

Answer

The author division has confirmed that the survey from which this product stems only provides data at the national and provincial level. They do not expect to produce data for finer geographical level from this survey nor would this information be available through a custom tabulation.

University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS)

Question

A researcher is looking at the demographic profile of teaching professionals and I came across University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS) with release date "August 2, 2007 (preliminary)". On the statcan page, it does not really tell from where this data is available - dli or custom made tabulations for fee or if its just released. What are the plans on availability?

Answer

The Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics Division has provided the DLI with a some education standard tables, some of which appear to be from UCASS (University and College Academic Staff System). The most recent data we currently have in these tables are for 2004-2005. I have contacted the author division to see if more recent versions of these tables or a PUMF are available.

FTP: /usr2/ftp/dli/education
WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/education.htm

ucass.zip
Teachers-in-universities-2004_2005.xls
Table 1.1 Number of Full-Time University Teachers by Rank, Sex and Region, Selected years, 1960-1961 to 2004-2005
Table 1.2 Number of Full-Time University Teachers by Rank, Sex and Province, Selected years, 1960-1961 to 2004-2005
Table 2 Number of Full-Time University Teachers by Region, Field, Highest Earned Degree, Staff Functions, Rank, Sex and Median Age, 2004-2005
Table 3 Median Age of Full-Time University Teachers by Region, Field, Highest Earned Degree, Staff Functions, Rank and Sex, 2004-2005
Table 4 Median Age of Full-Time University Teachers by Region, Field, Highest Earned Degree, Staff Functions, Rank and Sex, 2004-2005
Table 5 Number and Median Salaries of Full-Time University Teachers by age, Sex and Field Canada, 2004-2005

According to The Daily and the Online Catalogue, the following publication also appears to have been released based on the 2006-2007 survey:
http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=81-595-M2007052

Data from UCASS also appears to be available (for a fee) as a custom tabulation
http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=81C0015

Religious & Civil Marriage Statistics by Province

Question

I would like to request availability and contact information please for annual provincial / territorial statistics from 1960 to the most current, for total religious and civil / non-religious marriages.

Answer

You may want to look at CANSIM table 101-1013. It seems to have data for # of marriages by province by type of officiant (ex. clergy, non-clergy) for 2000 to 2003. This table unfortunately doesn't go back to the 1960's however. Otherwise, the data might be available from the Health Statistics Division as a custom fee based retrieval.

Road Statistics

Question

A student here is looking for data on the % paved roads, automobile density and mean miles driven annually for:
Quebec City, 1989
City of Edmonton, 1989

Two years ago, Joel Rivard described how to use DMTI data in ArcView to get the road lengths for Ontario; what the student wants is paved roads, and for the above cities. I suspect she'd be happy with even just the overall road length.

Any ideas? I realize getting data for these exact years is likely to be problematic, to say the least, so whatever can be obtained would be appreciated.

Answer

I contacted our Geography Division to see if they had the information your student needs and they confirmed that they do not. They did however provide the following suggestions:

"Contact the respective province and their Ministry of Transportation, they should have the percentage of paved roads and arc lengths. We do not collect such attribute information.

GeoBase has a national road network file available for free download (see Natural Resources Canada NRCan website for the link)." I found the following information and link to Geobase on the NRCan website:
http://www.cits.rncan.gc.ca/cit/servlet/CIT/site_id=1&page_id=1-008-001.html

Visits to Primary Care Physicians

Question

A student is looking for "MOST FREQUENT REASONS FOR VISITS TO THE OFFICES OF PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS". He has data from the US, but is looking for data from Canada.

I dug around a bit, and found the Health Services Access Survey (HSAS) (Survey number 5002). CANSIM Table 105-3041 makes use of this survey, but collapses the detail contained in the survey. It appears, as well, that this survey focuses on visits to 'specialists' rather than 'primary care physicians'.

The kinds of 'reasons for visits' the researcher found for the US data include:
(rate per 1000)
general medical examination 83.84
cough 56.16
sore throat 34.80
well baby examination 34.56
follow-up visit 29.69
fever 28.40
earache 21.80
hypertension 21.20
head cold, upper respiratory infection 19.20
skin rash 18.66
nasal congestion 17.78
back pain, ache, discomfort 17.63
blood pressure check 16.63
headache 16.10

I have checked the CCHS, and related surveys, as well as looking at CIHI and CIHR web sites, to no avail. There are a couple of articles in "Health Reports", but these lack the detail of the US data.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Answer

Our Special Surveys Division appears to have conducted a survey called the "Canadian Survey of Experiences with Primary Health Care (CSE-PHC)" on behalf of the Health Council of Canada
(http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?
Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5138&lang=en&db=IMDB&dbg=f&adm=8&dis=2 ).
The content of its questionnaire
(http://www.statcan.ca/english/sdds/instrument/5138_Q1_V1_E.pdf)
leads me to think that it doesn't have the level of detail your student requires. It is has been released as a master file through the Research Data Centres, but a PUMF will not be released.

Canadian Community Health Survey & Census

Question

A researcher is planning to analyze variables from CCHS and socio-economic indicators avaliable from Census data at the community level (looking at rural urban differences). As per the documentation on CCHS- PUMF, the public use file has a variable named GEOEDPMF (Grouped -Health Region) is derived from GEOEDHRA (Health Region) futher derived from Dissemination Area and Postal code (all three available in master data file). If the patron is planning to use CCHS PUMF, is there a way to go to DA level or postal code level without going through RDC (master data file) or there is any other way of looking at the community level parameters in CCHS and distinguish rural and urban areas.

Answer

The only ways of which I know that the CCHS PUMF can be linked to census results are

(i) the Census Profiles by health regions (see
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/82-221-XIE/2007001/profiles.htm)
and (ii) use of the peer grouping information on health regions (see
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/82-221-XIE/2007001/regions.htm).
The peer groupings differentiate health regions on some basic characteristics, including urban-rural mix (see
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/82-221-XIE/2007001/hregions/hrtable5.htm).

Inter-Corporate Ownership Access

Question

Is the ICO a DSP product that can be made available to the public? It is still showing up on the StatCan website as a DLI product.

Answer

Yes, the fourth quarter (December) issue of the Inter-corporate Ownership CD-ROM is a DSP product, even if this is not currently indicated in the ICO record in the STC Online Catalogue of Products and Services.

The information in the May 14 2002 DLI List posts about the ICO is still accurate. Technically, only the fourth quarter issue is a DSP product while the issues for all four quarters are available through the DLI. However, as stated in the May 14 2002 DLI List posts, you can allow the public to consult the issues for all four quarters.

Quarterly GDP by Province

Question

A researcher is looking for quarterly (or monthly) expenditure-based provincial GDP data in constant prices. However CANSIM has this quarterly data only for the country as table 384-0002 OR as annual data for the provinces in table 380-0002. Does anyone know of any sources for this quarterly provincial data that they could direct me to?

Answer

The author division has confirmed that they only produce annual data for provincial GDP.

FED Profiles for 2003 Representation Order

Question

We have a professor interested in efficient access to Census 2001 profile data by FED for the 2003 representation order.

It is possible to find the data, riding by riding, for these 'adjusted' FED's on the Stats Can website:
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/fedprofile/index.cfm
but are these calculated profiles made available as a set, to the DLI?

Answer

The Census 2001 Profiles by FED for the 2003 representation order are available on the DLI FTP site in Beyond 20/20 format at:
/census/2001/B2020/Profiles/cumulative-electronic-profiles-b2020/can
filename: 95f0495xcb01011-can-ivt.zip

Query about CRIC

Question

The current government has dismantled the Centre for Research and Information on Canada (CRIC), which used to do regular public opinion surveys as well as collecting other kinds of data. It all used to be available to Canadians through their website (including the data sets), until just the last couple of days when their website disappeared as well. Do you know who might have received it?

Answer

Both CORA at Kingston and Carleton University have received some of the data files. I'm about to contact Bob Burge at Queen's to see if we can share what we have that they don't and vice versa. We have a mandate from the Canadian Unity Council to try to track down what we can.

You can get the metadata from the CRIC collection that we house if you go to
http://www.library.carleton.ca/ssdata/surveys/pop_cric.html

Click on Carleton University Data Centre and then CRIC. We don't have security in place at the individual file level to allow access at this time, but we will be moving the files to a more open server in the future.

Concordances for SOC to NOC

Question

We have a researcher who needs to convert the 1991 SOC codes for occupations in the NPHS to NOC codes. I have not been able to find any direct concordance from 1991 SOC to the NOC. Have I missed something?

My searches have led me to conclude that this will actually involve two steps:

1 -- convert from the 1991 SOC to the 1980 SOC via 12F0028XDE

2 -- then convert from the 1980 SOC to the NOC 12F0029XDE

If there is a more direct method for doing this, I would appreciate being introduced to it!

Answer

There's a concordance on the DLI ftp side, in
/standard_classifications/concordance

As far as I can tell, the socnoce.xls and nocsoce.xls files are NOC to/from the 1991 SOC, and the soc1980_noc.txt and noc_soc1980.txt files are to/from the 1980 SOC.

Also, a tool from Standard Division will help the conversion from NOC to NOC-S. The following URL:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Subjects/Standard/soc/2001/nocs01-index.htm explains the difference between NOC and NOC-S.

The tool helps map NOC and NOC-S at the unit group level for 2006. This should save researchers some time, but note that some adjustment will be required when applying this to older data due to changes in NOC-S over time. (2006 does not add or delete any unit groups from the 2001 version, though there are some changes in unit group titles).

Question about Survey of Household Spending (SHS) Variables

Question

Is it safe to assume that a code of 0 in either variable PURPRICP or SELPRICE means that no house was purchased or sold in the year? If so, we can code 0 to designate a missing value (not applicable), and allow users to make meaningful estimates of house prices. As it stands right now, the average purchase price of a home is under $9,000, and the average selling price under $5,000.

Answer

Yes, it is safe to say no house was purchased or sold in the year.

New Product - Teacher's Guide to Data Discovery

Teacher's Guide to Data Discovery as released in today's Daily.
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/12-593-XIE/12-593-XIE2007001.htm
Teachers are finding that basic statistical skills “reading and creating tables, constructing graphs and calculating measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode)" are required across the curricula. Students practise these skills not only in the traditionally number-based subjects like mathematics and economics, but also in history, geography and other subjects.

This guide was written to support both elementary and secondary teachers in helping students develop basic statistical skills. It provides teachers with specific instructions on:

- Finding interesting and grade-appropriate Canadian datasets
- Choosing appropriate graphs for different kinds of data
- Calculating basic statistical measures, with or without statistical software

Very positive feedback already from the education community with the Ontario Ministry of Education including a version on 1,000 teacher training CD-ROMs and linking to it from their OCUP website

LICO by CSD

Question

A researcher is hoping to prepare maps for the incidence of low income by CSD from 1980 forward. She has found that the 1996 and 2001 Censuses publish the incidence rate of low-income at the census division level. Is this available for previous to 1996?

Answer

There is certainly 'Incidence of low income' in the 1991 profile files at the CSD level - it's right down at the bottom of the list of characteristics in the 2B file, immediately before the household income categories. Ditto 1986. And it seems to be available in the 1981 census tract level profile file, so the prospect is good it's in the CSD-level file too. For LICO prior to 1981, it would have to be obtained via a custom tabulation.

NYSE Trade & Quote Database

Question

A faculty member here wishes the Library to subscribe to the New York Stock Exchange Trade and Quote database; I've never heard of it before. I gather this is something that not very many universities have and that most often it is the business school that pays for it.

Any comments about this that I can share with the Collections Development Unit?

Answer

The NYSE Trade and Quote data is available directly from the NYSE on DVD or via the WRDS service (must pay for the WRDS membership).

They do offer an academic discount. You may buy the data in monthly increments or by the year for historical data.

Your collections folks (or your business librarian, if you have one) need to contact the NYSE for a detailed quote.

The contact information can be found on their website.

We looked at subscribing to TAQ but because you have to pay an annual rate for the current year plus purchase, for a flat fee, each historical year (goes back to 1993) we decided we couldn't afford a long enough backfile to allow for data analysis. If you want to learn more you can visit this website.

Updated Product - Survey of Household Spending

Survey of Household Spending, Public-use Microdata File 2005

Understanding consumer spending is important for a wide variety of users, including social policy analysts, advocacy and community groups, businesses and all levels of government. The public-use microdata file for the 2005 Survey of Household Spending gives users the ability to conduct their own analysis of spending on a wide variety of goods and services, dwelling characteristics and possession of household equipment and services. Results from the 2005 Survey of Household Spending were originally released in The Daily on December 12, 2006.

The public-use microdata file for the Survey of Household Spending contains household level information about expenditures on a wide variety of goods and services: food, shelter, clothing, transportation, health care, child care, education, reading materials, communications, recreation, furniture, tobacco and alcohol, gambling, taxes, insurance premiums, pension contributions, money gifts and charitable contributions. All records have been thoroughly screened to ensure the anonymity of respondents.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/shs/shs2005.htm

FTP: /dli/shs/2005

Updated Products - International Travel Survey (ITS) 2007

International Travel Survey -- 2007 Q1

Data for the first quarter of 2007 has been added.
The International Travel Survey (ITS) provides statistics on travellers, to and from Canada.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/its/its2007.htm
FTP: /dli/its/2007

Saskatchewan GDP

Question

A patron is looking of Saskatchewan GDP by Industry, Current Dollars from 2004-2006 (or latest). Cansim table 379-0025 provides figures till 2003 by province. I am wondering if the data is available after 2003.

Answer

The current dollar GDP by industry for 2004 for Saskatchewan will be released this fall. The author division has indicated that these tables come from the Input Output tables which are released 3 years after the reference period (2004 would be released in 2007, etc).

PUMF for National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses Survey

Question

Are there any plans to create a PUMF from the National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses (NSWHN) survey?

Answer

The author division has confirmed that a PUMF will not be created for the National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses (NSWHN). The Microdata Release Committee has indicated that it is not possible to create a PUMF for this survey so there are no plans to change this decision in the future.

Interesting details regarding the disclosure and availability of NSWHN data are available in the Data, definitions and sources section of the Statistics Canada website (click here). According to this page, the master file for this survey should be available through the RDCs.

Updated Products - Small Area and Administrative Data (SAAD)

Title, Years added

Canadian Capital Gains, 2004 - 2005
Charitable Donors, 2004 - 2005
Canadian Investment Income, 2004 - 2005
Canadian Investors, 2004 - 2005
Canadian Savers, 2004 - 2005
Canadian Taxfilers, 2004 - 2005
Economic Dependency Profiles, 2004
Families, 2004
Labour Force Income Profiles, 2004
Migration Estimates, 2004 - 2005
Neighbourhood Income and Demographics, 2004
RRSP Contribution Limits (room), 2005 - 2006
RRSP Contributors, 2004 - 2005
Seniors 2004

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/saad.htm
FTP: /usr2/ftp/dli/saad

Updated Products - NLSCY Cycle 6 Synthetic files

The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) is a long-term study of Canadian children that follows their development and well-being from birth to early adulthood. The study is designed to collect information about factors influencing a child's social, emotional and behavioural development and to monitor the impact of these factors on the child's development over time.

Additional information regarding the NLSCY is available here.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/nlscy.htm

FTP: /usr2/ftp/dli/nlscy/synthetic/synthetic-cycle6-2004-2005

New Product - Your Guide to Data Sources on Census-related Topics

The 2006 Census Dissemination Project is pleased to announce the release of 'Your Guide to Data Sources on Census-related Topics', catalogue no. 92-135-GWE.

In this guide you will find lists of surveys and data sources available at Statistics Canada. Used to obtain information on a variety of subjects, including census-related topics, these surveys and data sources complement the existing information obtained through the census.

This product is available in HTML on the Internet and can be found by clicking on the Census button located on the sidebar of the Statistics Canada home page, under the headings Spotlight and Census consultation. This guide is also available free of charge in the on-line catalogue at
http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=92-135-GWE

Updated Products - Residential Telephone Service Survey (RTSS)

Residential Telephone Service Survey - 2006

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/rtss/rtss200612.htm
FTP: /ftp/dli/rtss/2006/12

Updated Products - Income Trends in Canada (ITC) 1980-2005

Income Trends in Canada is an extensive collection of income statistics, covering topics such as income distribution, income tax, government transfers, and low income. The data are drawn from two household surveys: the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Data since 1996 are taken from SLID, while historical data prior to 1996 are drawn from the SCF.

Income Trends in Canada provides a complete list of the tables and directions for getting started. It also contains background information on the survey, its content and methodology, and other SLID data products and services.

In addition to provincial detail, many of the tables present estimates for the 15 largest Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), as follows: Halifax, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, St.-Catharines-Niagara, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Windsor, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria. Due to sample size limitations and sampling variability, estimates for urban areas are less reliable and are subject to larger errors than provincial and national estimates. Given the variability of the annual estimates, users are cautioned against drawing conclusions from single year-to-year comparisons alone.

Income Trends in Canada uses the Beyond 20/20 Browser software for accessing and manipulating tables.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/itc.htm
FTP: /ftp/dli/itc/1980-2005

Definition of Economic Region

Question

Could someone please provide a clear definition of what an "Economic Region" is in the 2001 Census? We've looked at the User's Guide and well the definition alludes me.

Answer

Here's a link to the long definition:
http://geodepot.statcan.ca/Diss/Reference/COGG/LongDescription_e.cfm?GEO_LEVEL=8&REFCODE=1&LANG=E

Census of Agriculture Missing Data at CCS Level

Question

One of our biology researchers is using the DLI Census of Agriculture 2001 B2020 tables for a GIS research project and has reported that the tables are consistently missing Consolidated Census Subdivisions (CCS).

Specifically, a total of 138 Consolidated Census Subdivisions are missing from the b2020 tables across Atl, Que, Ont, MSk, & ABC, e.g., TABLE3Atl, TABLE3Que, TABLE3Ont, TABLE3MSk, TABLE3ABC and are not accounted for by the documented CCS amalgamations. The researcher has tested and found this consistently for tables 3, 28 and 32 and wishes to know:

Have the 138 attached CCS’s been amalgamated, but not documented? If so, what are the correct CCS’s to use? If the 138 attached CCS’s have not been amalgamated, have they been suppressed, or can they be obtained through means other than the DLI B2020 files? Please provide some detail for methodology documentation / follow-up purposes.

Answer

Some of the CCS's in the list were checked and found to have zero farms.

If you have the reference maps from 2001 at bottom of the list of CCS within Census Divisions (after the maps) you will find the note "all Census Consolidated Subdivisions in italics had no farms in 2001". If you don't have the reference maps they are found at www.statcan.ca under census, under 2001 census, under census of agriculture, under farm data, and under reference maps.

Question about CCHS 3.1 Variables

Question

A student has asked the following question about the Canadian Community Health Survey:

I am having a hard time understanding the definition of one of the derived variables in the CCHS 3.1 - namely: INCEDRRS, found on page 251-252 of the derived variables booklet. The description of this variable is confusing and I am unsure of what INCEDADR (that INCEDRRS is based on) refers to exactly. I am wondering if INCEDRRS is essentially the same as TEMP_RATIO (p. 244-), but at the health region level and divided into 10 deciles? Any thoughts that you have on this definition would be greatly appreciated.

Answer

The TEMP_RATIO is the respondent's household income divided by its corresponding LICO (low income cut-off - based on household size and the size of community the respondent's household is located in).

INCEDADR is a variable that makes everyone's ratio ranging from 0 to 1. We simply divide the TEMP_RATIO of each household by the highest
household TEMP_RATIO among all CCHS respondents.

These adjusted ratios are then divided into 10 equal groups (deciles) and are calculated at the national level (INCEDRCA), within each province (INCEDRPR) and within each health region (INCEDRRS).

UN Common Database

As of 1 May 2007, use of the Common Database will be FREE OF CHARGE. No subscription will be necessary after that date, and all users can access the full range of data, metadata and various search tools without restriction.

A new system, UN data, will be launched in Summer 2007 and will provide improved access and searchability for UNSD databases. Click here for more information.

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/UNdata/default.htm

CANSIM by Geographical Area

Question

Is it possible to get a list of CANSIM series by geographical area? I am most interested in identifying those that are at the CMA/CA level. It was suggested that I search by keyword for the area e.g. Toronto but I was hoping for something a little easier than this.

Answer

If there is a metadata field for geography in the CANSIM record, it doesn't appear to be indexed for searching purposes, although this is a reasonable search field to expect to find in CANSIM. After all, there are 2667 tables with Geography included in the "Dimension descriptions".

EA Boundary Files for 1981 Census

Question

One of our biologists is looking at birds and needs to map population density at the EA level from 1981 to 2001. He (and I) can only find CSD-level data for 1981. Do these data exist? I've checked the DLI ftp site and can't find anything below CSD for 1981.

Answer

It turns out that Statistics Canada never produced EA boundary files for the 1981 Census and the land area is not available for your researcher to calculate the population density.

LSIC Wave 3

Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada - Wave 3

This survey was designed to provide information on how new immigrants adjust to life in Canada and to understand the factors that can help or hinder this adjustment. The data will be used to evaluate the current services available and help improve them.

Format available: CD-ROM at RDC

NOTE:
There will not be a PUMF
This is the last wave for this survey

Variables in National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth cycles

Question

A student is asking why, in the primary PUMF files for the NLSCY, the numbers of variables are so different:

cycle 1 - 1415 variables
cycle 2 - 913 variables
cycle 3 - 331 variables

I'm guessing it's because of the increasing need to drop variables to protect confidentiality as the survey continued, but he wants to make sure. Am I right, or were variables dropped on a whim?

Answer

We had a presentation from the folks looking at longitudinal PUMFs at the last EAC meeting. The issue of dropping variables was brought forth and the answer was that they are ensuring that respondent confidentiality does not become an issue when a file is longitudinal. This helps explain when the numbers of variables shrinks from cycle to cycle - the more detail is available, the more risky it becomes.

Personal Savings Rate

Question

I am looking for the personal savings rate for people with specific income levels. If you know where I can find this, please let me know.

Answer

STC does not measure savings rate by income levels. We have it by province or for Canada as a whole.

Survey of Innovation

Question

Will there be a DLI release for the 2005 Survey of Innovation as in 2003?

Answer

As a result of the html requirements we have adjusted our diffusion strategy. We do not have the capacity to make the tables available in both Excel and html and so we decided to make use of CANSIM. 2005 data will be made available on CANSIM. We already had a release in the Daily in June 2006. We are in the process of creating detailed statistical tables. One set of data is already available on CANSIM (Table 358-0062). Data from 2003 is also available on CANSIM (358-0027 to 358-0061)

Updated Products - CSGVP / SWH / FPI / CBP

Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating - 2004

The public use microdata file from the 2004 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (CSGVP) is now available. This file contains information collected from more than 20,000 respondents aged 15 and over residing in private households in the 10 provinces.

The public use microdata file provides provincial-level information about the ways in which Canadians donate money and in-kind gifts to charitable and nonprofit organizations; volunteer their time to these organizations; provide help directly to others; and participate as members in groups and organizations. Socio-demographic, income and labour force data are also included on the file.

FTP: /ftp/dli/csgvp
WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/csgvp.htm

Survey of 1981 Work History

This survey attempted to answer the following: How many employees, working less than 120 hours per month, preferred to work more hours, and what were the main reasons preventing them from doing so? among those who changed employers, were there any pattern to the type of industry or occupation change? did wage rates of full-time and part-time workers vary significantly? were people in a particular age group more or less likely to change employers during the year than those in another age group? and to what extent did part-time workers contribute to the total family income?

FTP: /ftp/dli/swh
WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/whs.htm

Financial Performance Indicators 2003-2005

Financial Performance Indicators for Canadian Business is an authoritative reference source of key financial ratios by industry. It is based on up-to-date, reliable and comprehensive data on Canadian businesses, derived from Statistics Canada databases of financial statements.

The indicators are designed to serve as financial performance benchmarks against which individual firms and industries can be compared. It allows firms to precisely position themselves within their peer group.

FTP: /ftp/dli/fpi
WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/fpicb.htm

Canadian Business Patterns December 2006

The Canadian Business Patterns contains data that reflect counts of business establishments by: 9 employment size ranges, including "indeterminate" (as of December 1997); geography groupings: province/territory, census division, census subdivision, census metropolitan area and census agglomeration; and Standard Industrial Classification which classifies each establishment in Canada into a specific industry (tables at the 1, 2, 3 and 4-digit level). Since the December 1998 reference period, these data are also presented using the North American Industry Classification System (tables at the 2, 3, 4 and 6-digit level). A concordance table showing the relationships between both classification systems is included with the product.

The Canadian Business Patterns is packaged with software that allows the user the flexibility of manipulating and viewing the data on a customized basis.

FTP: /ftp/dli/cbp
WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/cbp.htm

Datum used for LONG and LAT in PCCF

Question

In the PCCF+ 4h program - I know the longtitude and latitude format is xx.xxxxxx and -xxx.xxxxxx, respectively, but what Datum was used for the LONG and LAT? Options would be NAD83 or NAD27?

Answer

From the reference guide for the PCCF & PCCF+ (Statistics Canada Catalogue 4 no. 92F0153GIE):

2001 Census geography features

* Within major urban areas, postal code address ranges are linked to the National Geographic Base (NGB) and wherever possible, a block-face link is identified.

* The 2001 postal code conversion process has produced some cases of reduced data quality. A part of the process generated cases where a postal code was assigned to all blocks located along a road. This occurred when a postal code could be geocoded to a road but not to a specific address range. The system then assigned the postal code to all 2001 blocks linked to the road identifier. In some cases, especially if the road was very long, this process was not appropriate and has resulted in poorer data quality. 4,522 postal codes in the PCCF were corrected where postal codes were related to ‘Main’ postal delivery installations. The records related to these postal codes were re-geocoded so that they are linked to the correct 2001 Census geography. Another group of records (associated with 40 postal codes) with incorrect census subdivision linkages in the province of Québec were also re-geocoded and corrected in the PCCF.

* A geographic unit, the block, has been added to the standard hierarchy.

* A statistical area classification code (SAC) has been added to the census subdivision.

* All the spatial information is now based on the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83).

Statistics on Businesses Contributing Money to Sporting Events

Question

A prof is looking for information on the amount of money spent by Canadian businesses to support sporting events in Canada. He's just at the starting point for his research so he's mainly wondering what's available, but would ideally like some combination of the following variables over the past ten years:

type of business
size of business
type of sporting event/sport
level of activity (e.g. local, national)
location of event
amount of money contributed

Any suggestions? I'm really not very familiar with most of the business surveys. I've looked a little bit at Quarterly Survey of Financial Statistics for Enterprises and Financial and Taxation Statistics for Enterprises but haven't seen a category for charitable donations. I found reference to a survey done by the group Imagine Canada called Business Contributions to Canadian Communities, which is more qualitative than quantitative. I'm not sure where else to go on this
one.

Answer

Statistics Canada collects some information on charitable donations, but only at the individual level - not for businesses.

I am sure the information is collected under business expenditures, but it would appear under a very wide umbrella probably intuitively called "other expenses".

Either way, Statistics Canada is not your best source for this information.

SLID 2003

Question

With regard to the SLIDs 2003 persons file, what does code 10 mean for the variable 'reawpt1' (reason for part-time work)? According to the variable description, no such value should exist, but there are in fact quite a few observations with that value.

Answer

The code is defined in the data dictionary :
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/75F0026XIE/75F0026XIE2005001.htm

http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/75F0026XIE/2005001/t05430.htm#reawpt1

Status of Continuing Education Students under DLI

Question

A student at one of the local community colleges (not a DLI member institution) would like to know if she can use DLI data - namely DA-level census statistics from the 2001 census, for a project if she registers for a Continuing Education course.

For the time that she is a continuing education student, it is my understanding that she would be considered a student in good standing of this institution, yes? The data would be used for course work (although not necessarily for a course taught at this university), and no outside funding is involved.

Answer

This was considered and approved.

Road Motor Vehicle Survey

Question

I have a student who would like to acquire the Road Motor Vehicle Survey - Fuel

Status: Active
Frequency: Monthly
Record number: 2746

This survey collects data on the sales of gasoline, diesel fuels and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for which road taxes were paid.

Answer

The results of this survey are reported in CanSim table 405-002 (Road Moter Vehicle Fuel Sales - Annual) and table 405-003 (Road Motor Vehicle Fuel Sales -Monthly)

Available from CHASS or E-stat.

DSP & Switching from CODOC to LC

Question

This question is with regard to the increasing trend in the integration of government documents into a library's main collection.

One concern that the Depository Services Program (DSP) has concerning this change in the management of government documents collections is that the change may result in a shift of responsibility for the collection from a dedicated government documents librarian to a number of subject specialist librarians who may or may not be fully aware of the responsibilities that a Full Depository library has for the material received from the Depository Services Program. There are at least two areas of concern.

One is the requirement to catalogue all material received from the DSP. In some libraries, this requirement may be at odds with cataloguing policies and procedures for general collections with the result that publications judged to be ephemera such as brochures and pamphlets, for example, may not be catalogued at all. This inevitably diminishes public access and long term preservation to and for these publications which together are the primary intent of the partnership between the DSP and Full Depository Libraries (FDL). While I have been told that some Technical Services policies do not consider brochures and pamphlets worthy of being catalogued or even retained, in our view, these types of publications often contain important information for the public in a condensed form and as I have had occasion to observe, libraries that retain collections of these types of publications often have thereby, a very useful capsule history of government programs, services or activities for subject area treated by them. In any case, under the existing agreement with the DSP, FDL's are required to retain these publications and catalogue them (although "catalogue" is not the word used in the guideline).

A second concern is that with responsibility for DSP material distributed to any number of authorities within the library, instead of centralized under the authority of a government documents specialist, DSP Retention Guidelines may not be adhered to. Essentially, FDL's are required to retain all DSP material received unless an item is replaced by a newer edition or an alternate format.

My question to FDL's that have embarked on the integration of their government documents collections would be: "With DSP publications integrated into general collections, how do your bibliographic control systems ensure that DSP material will be catalogued and not be de-accessioned in a manner that would violate the terms and conditions entered into with the DSP"?

Responses

Our intention, if we go ahead with the integration, is to continue to have dedicated government publications librarians. We will have to give up a measure of control, for example, in cataloguing where we will no longer directly supervise the work. However, we do catalogue all materials received, including pamphlets - any plan we come with would have to include these - and that won't change. Our collection as a whole isn't weeded though some material may be sent to offsite storage.

******************
In response to your question, we do indicate in our catalogue records that an item was received via the DSP. As well, we use a stamp labelled "DSP" on the items, whether they are paper, microform, diskette, etc. to indicate that the item came to us via the DSP. The stamp usually appears on the outside of the item. We decided to do this so that if there were ever any weeding projects done by the subject librarians that they would know to leave the DSP items alone. I would then need to be consulted on whether or not an item could be removed and, of course, would use the DSP retention guidelines to make any decisions. If I recall correctly, we have not weeded any DSP items from the collection unless they have been replaced by another format, eg. microform. Even then, we tend to keep everything.

We still have a librarian responsible for Government Publications (myself) and I also have overall responsibility for the depository collection despite the integration of the collection and the mainstreaming of the technical processes, like acquisitions and cataloguing. Pamphlets and brochures are catalogued, classified and shelved.

******************
A liaison librarian will continue to be responsible for Canadian government documents and this includes sorting the material for the LC or CODOC collection [only monographs will go into our LC collection]. Pamphlets and brochures are still coded as they do not meet the guidelines for circulation from the LC collection.

The library also continues to have a full time government documents library assistant responsible for receiving government publications, checkin for serials/series and ordering of additional copies.

All government publications have a fixed field assignment and with the introduction of the library's new Endeca catalogue, a search, limited to government publications will provide both the CODOC and Library of Congress items.

A major special project this summer is to integrate the historical government publications and the main CODOC collection into one
sequence. Government publications is a valuable high use collection and the library's goal is to ensure ease of access.

Switching from CODOC to LC

Question

For institutions that originally used CODOC, but have switched to LC or Dewey, did you freeze the CODOC collection and switch to LC/Dewey only for incoming materials, or did you do some kind of reclassification project? If the latter, how big was the collection and how long did it take you?

I do know of some specific examples, but would like to know of more.

Responses

McMaster University Library recently switched from CODOC to LC. There is still a "core" CODOC collection. Links with government publications information follow:

Main bibliographic services page -
http://library.mcmaster.ca/cat-coll/catacq.htm

The background report will be found at -
http://library.mcmaster.ca/cat-coll/govpubreport.pdf

and, our core collection list -
http://library.mcmaster.ca/cat-coll/gpintegration.htm

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In 1993, we made a decision to integrate our government publications collection in with the rest of materials received by the library. We had been coding our documents using a modified version of CODOC and we had been coding them for a separate catalogue which no longer exists. One of the reasons for integrating and for choosing to LC classify and catalogue our government publications was that it was becoming increasingly difficult for people to identify what was and what wasn't a government publication. With the privatization of some government bodies and the constant author name changes, we decided that it would be best to treat these materials the same way that we do others, ie., classify them by subject and provide full catalogue descriptions with LC subject headings. The only exception was Statistics Canada publications which we thought were suited to CODOC (we imbed the Statistics Canada catalogue number into the CODOC number that we use).

We began by classifying and cataloguing new monographs and new serials. We have done some reclassification of older materials that are in the CODOC collection. The "ideal" would be to have all of these materials reclassified, however, it is a very time
consuming project. So, even 13 years after the decision was made to integrate, we still have quite a few of our older government publications, both monographs and serials, in a separately housed, coded collection in our library. We no longer have a separate
catalogue of government publications, ie., everything is listed in our library catalogue (we use the Sirsi system).

In addition to integrating the collection, we also "mainstreamed" many of the processes for government publications. The former Government Publications Unit which did the acquisitions and coding of materials was disbanded and staff were integrated into our
Acquisitions Unit.

I know that there are both pros and cons to integration. It is difficult for those who prefer to have government publications in one area so that they can be browsed easily. But, with constant government author changes, this wasn't possible anyway.

***************
University of Western Ontario, Western Libraries, is in the final stages of a complete conversion to LC of a CODOC collection at The D.B.Weldon Library. The collection size is apx.120,000 items now, although it was much larger at the outset.

When we began the project in 2003, we knew from the catalogue that we had 62,500 monographs and 11,900 serial records, but we did not know how many items that represented. That made it difficult to estimate processing costs, even with accurate time studies. We planned to re-class the print collection only, and leave microfiche and microfilm in CODOC.

We started the project by limiting the scope of the collection to reduce the size before re-classification. For one year we transferred material to low use storage or the rare book collection, without changing the CODOC. If something was suitable for the general circulating collection, it was re-classed to LC and transferred to the stacks. Librarians selected material for transfer, and 4 casual assistants (students) working under the supervision of a Library Assistant Holdings Specialist, processed the location changes in a workroom in The D.B.Weldon Library. ARCC, our low use collection storage facility and rare book collection, is attached to this library. That was a big advantage for the project.

While the collection size was being pared down, cataloguers in Library Technical Services worked on creating a scheme, an LC Expansion for Canadian Government Publications. Under the direction of a cataloguer, two students applied the new LC Expansion tables to review files of the Canadian material, placing the new LC call numbers in the 095 field.

Re-labelling CODOC to LC began on site in January 2004 with a crew of 3 students and the Holdings Specialist. Beginning with Canada, at CA1, and continuing in CODOC sequence, the crew found the new LC call number in the 095 field. The students created new labels, applied, taped, and shifted the material to the new LC sequence. Within 24 hours, the Holdings Specialist would flip the 095 and the 099 fields in each bibliographic record, and the new call number would appear in the catalogue.

The conversion of Canadian documents took about 2 years to complete. For the UK, UN, US and other material we used existing LC call numbers when possible. The new LC arrangement of the collection is interesting and successful. Canadian and international statistics are grouped together for easy access.

***************
My sense is that the push to convert from CODOC to LC is driven far more by “Technical Services” than by “Public Services” motives. This is not surprising given the trend to shrink Tech Services in recent years – and CODOC specialists have been a prime target for cutting. But, the move away from CODOC has profound public service implications. I have yet to encounter a Government Documents specialist who felt the public is better served by a ‘merged’ collection.

The merged collections I have seen just don’t make sense. I have seen, for example, historical Canadian Sessional Papers sitting right next to Presidential Papers of the United States! While my goal is not to defend CODOC as the perfect system, there IS some logic in its jurisdictional approach – certainly from a ‘gov docs’ reference perspective. In my experience (20 years and counting), researchers want information by topic, yes – but when it comes to government information, they want it at a specific jurisdictional level. CODOC supports this approach.

The concerns raised by the DSP’s Gay Lepkey (potential problems with cataloguing and retention of DSP material in an integrated collection) are in my view just a symptom of the larger problem he hints at – the loss of “dedicated government documents librarian[s]” in academic libraries. It seems to me that the ‘dumbing down’ of our collections (by converting them to LC) has gone hand-in-hand with the devaluation of government information specialists and specialized reference services. And to make matters worse, losing consolidated government documents collections makes growing the next generation of gov docs specialists that much more difficult.

At Queen’s, we are fortunate to have government documents ‘partnered’ with maps, air photos, and our data service, under one administrative unit: Maps, Data, & Government Information Centre (MADGIC). There are several MADGIC units in academic libraries across the country, most with dedicated specialists. In my view, the synergies realized by this grouping of resources and expertise vastly improve public service.

I can’t change the fact that many Academic Libraries are moving down the LC path when it comes to government documents. I can, however, make a plea for the continued hiring and mentoring of dedicated government documents specialists in academic libraries. If you don't use it, you lose it.

***************
I suggest that there is a middle way on this question:

First, certain core government publications need to be kept together in order to be used effectively. These include parliamentary
records, annual reports, estimates, public accounts, sessional papers, statutes and regulations, census and most other Statistics Canada publications.

Most of these are serials, but monographic materials might form part of this core.

If they are kept together, there is also the chance that government information expertise can be developed and maintained.

On the other hand, monographs may in many cases be more accessible through LC classification. This appeared to be the case in my working situation, where there were duplicate monographs in the government publications section and in the main collections.
These included anthropological papers, geological surveys, environmental reports, etc. By and large, those copies in the main
stacks were more heavily used, though it may have been due to generally superior cataloguing, including LC subject headings,
and not just LC classification.

Not to be forgotten are the many government documents that are too fragile to survive in the main stacks. These might survive
quite nicely in a government publications department, where pamphlet boxes are standard equipment. Given LC classification,
the choices are shelving in the main stacks, along with regular monographs and serials (and where long term preservation is
out of the question), or vertical files. These fragile materials include not only leaflets of minor or transitory value, but in
some cases important policy documents, speeches, etc.

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