The Wolfgram Memorial Library has entered a subscription to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).
All Widener staff, students, and faculty have access to the extensive ICPSR data holdings via any campus computer. Access is direct and quick by accessing the ICPSR Web site at www.icpsr.umich.edu.
ICPSR, established in 1962, provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction and offers training in quantitative methods. The data are free and can be used for research and for instruction by all members of the Widener Community.
In addition to the general archive, ICPSR hosts a number of special topic archives, including the Health and Medical Care Archive (HMCA), Child Care and Early Education (Research Connections), Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS), Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR), the International Archive of Education Data (IAED), the Minority Data Resource Center (MDRC), the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA). Data from all of these topical archives are conveniently available at the ICPSR Web site.
The site is easy to navigate and provides descriptive material about various thematic collections, including Political Science, Social Sciences, Instruction and Learning, Minority Data and a wide variety of specialty archives in a variety of disciplines. I invite and encourage you to explore the site to see how using the data can benefit you and your students.
First-time users will be asked to create an ICPSR MyData account; thereafter, you will need your email address and password to download data. Once accessing the ICPSR site, you will need to go to the ‘Create Account’ tag in the upper left of the screen and follow the steps to create your account. Thereafter, all you need to do is to log in as necessary to search for datasets and to download your information.
Should you have questions about accessing the site, please feel free to contact me (x4087, redanford@widener.edu) and I can provide further information.
Dr. Steve Thorpe (x4117), (swthorpe@widener.edu) is available to answer technical questions regarding downloaded data.
I am pleased to be able to offer this service to you and your students.
Robert Danford, Director
Wolfgram Memorial Library