Archiving the Retirement History Longitudinal Survey

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests funds to support ongoing work by the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) in the development of enhanced archival research materials and extraction tools to facilitate the study of historical patterns of retirement behavior in the United States. The current application focuses on enhancements for the 6 waves that make up the Retirement History Longitudinal Survey (RHLS). The RHLS represents 1 of the foundation studies of retirement behavior and the impacts of economic planning on the lives of aging populations in the United States. This study was first acquired by NACDA in 1984 and while it remains archivally stable it requires substantial enhancements to facilitate its use as an integrated research tool. We propose to implement a focused archival delivery system that will allow us to address 4 distinct research needs: 1.Enhancements to Data Structure: We will update and standardize the 6 panels of data constituting the Retirement History Longitudinal Survey. These enhancements include updating the current OSIRIS storage format to include alternative delivery formats (software ready analysis files) and organizing the data in a way that facilitates its use as a longitudinal study. 2. Enhancements to Documentation: We will extensively revise the documentation on the RHLS to include updated versions of codebooks and questionnaires and include update data definition files. More importantly, we will upgrade the online documentation files to reflect XML, DDI compliant file format standards. These standards simplify data extraction, variable identification across waves and facilitate use. The concordance codebook created as part of this process will allow for simplified variable organization and identification of common variables across waves of the study. 3. Enhancements to Dissemination: In addition the point of service, web-based download and delivery system we will update the RHLS so it is compatible with our on-line Data Analysis Systems (DAS). This enhancement will allow the users to generate customized subsets of specific variables from this complex study. The users will also be able to perform preliminary review of the data on line prior to downloading these user defined analysis datasets. 4. Enhancements to Value Added Support Services: We will provide the RHLS a full suite of support tools and bibliographic reference materials. Included in this suite of tools will be online listings of research literature associated with the study with stable links to electronic source of publications. Additionally we will attempt to identify and add additional technical material on the use, potential applications, and history of the RHLS to the database.