Table-Oriented Reference and Working Libraries for Economic and Social Research

统计部门一直面临着如何分发他们生成的数据的问题。尽管计算机排版技术取得了进步，但印刷出版物的制作仍然昂贵且耗时。印刷媒体也不容易在摘要、新生成的表格或计算中重新使用。计算机磁带上提供的数据不仅需要使用大型计算机，而且通常还涉及对专门的临时编程服务的投资。随着个人电脑的普及，一些统计部门开始把他们的数据储存在软盘上，这些软盘可以被这些机器读取。然而，这种软盘通常只是简单地从大型计算机磁带中下载，而且大多数用户没有利用这些数据或在没有大量附带文档的情况下理解和分析这些数据所需的编程支持。因此，销售额一直很低，数据的有效利用也大大减少。在本项目第一阶段下进行的研究成功地检验了发展一种电子出版形式的可行性，这种形式将统计数据与其文件结合起来，以便用户可以像在印刷出版物中那样直接阅读输出，计算机可以直接利用它进行处理和分析。第一阶段还成功地开发了原型软件，它允许用户列出、检索和浏览表格数据和文档，从中提取，并将它们打印出来或翻译成适合其他软件包处理的形式。该推荐奖将支持小企业创新研究计划资助的项目的最后（第二阶段）阶段。第二阶段将涉及将第一阶段的成果推进为一个能够服务于不同统计机构的各种传播做法的通用参考图书馆系统，为从不同的数据库，包括载有不同类型数据的基地检索和合并数据提供设施；并提供处理和分析工具，以满足普通用户的需求，同时满足高级用户（包括数据提供者）更复杂的需求。第二阶段还将涉及对基本软件进行修改，使其操作特点和特点适应不断变化的计算机技术和电子出版环境。将在第二阶段研究下开发的产品和服务将与国内外各种统计机构合作进行。由此产生的技术随后将通过直接销售或租赁安排提供给这些数据来源。由于大公司面临与公共部门统计部门相同的许多数据处理问题，因此将探讨将这项技术推广到公司用户。

Statistical offices have always had the problem of how to distribute the data they generate. Despite advances in computer composition, printed publications remain expensive and time consuming to produce. Printed media also do not easily lend themselves to re-use in extracts, newly generated tables, or calculations. Data provided on computer tape not only require access to a mainframe computer, they also generally involve investment in specialized ad hoc programming services. With the spread of personal computers, some statistical offices are providing their data on diskettes that can be read by these machines. However such diskettes are often simple downloads from mainframe computer tapes, and most users do not have the programming support needed to utilize the data or to understand and analyze them in the absence of extensive accompanying documentation. As a result, sales have been small and the productive use of data much curtailed. The research carried out under Phase I of the present project successfully tested the feasibility of developing a form of electronic publishing that would integrate statistical data with their documentation so that users could read the output directly, as in a printed publication, and the computer could utilize it directly for processing and analytic purposes. Phase I also successfully developed prototype software that would allow users to list, retrieve, and browse through tabular data and documentation, make extracts from them, and print them out or translate them into forms suitable for processing by other software packages. The recommended award will support the final (Phase II) stage of a project funded under the Small Business Innovation Research Program. Phase II will be concerned with advancing the accomplishments of Phase I into a generalized reference library system capable of serving the varied dissemination practices of different statistical agencies, providing facilities for retrieving and merging data from different databases, including bases containing diverse types of data, and furnishing processing and analytic tools that meet the needs of the casual user at the same time as they satisfy the more complex requirements of advanced users, including data providers. Phase II will also be concerned with creating modifications to the basic software that adapt its operating characteristics and special features to the changing landscape of computer technology and electronic publishing. The products and services to be developed under Phase II research will be undertaken in cooperation with statistical offices of various sorts both at home and abroad. The resultant technology will thereafter be offered to such data sources via direct sale or leasing arrangements. Since large corporations face many of the same data handling problems as statistical offices in the public sector, extension of the technology to corporate users will be explored.