External Research Resources Support and Dissemination Core

正如1998年最初提议的那样，外部研究资源核心的目的是提供 支持威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的研究人员和我们的校外合作者 正在或计划进行有关健康和老龄化的研究。我们的分支机构是社会学家， 流行病学家、经济学家、政治学家、公共卫生专家和医生。我们的凌驾 目标是创建一个一站式的信息和服务商店，允许研究人员花费他们的时间 做研究，就这样。我们的项目数据库，列出了我们的所有与衰老相关的研究项目 附属机构已经参与，我们的项目书目列出了数百种与老龄化有关的出版物 由我们的附属公司在过去十年中撰写的，展示了我们实践方法的成功。 尽管提供给两个数据核心的资源有限，但我们的小尺寸和 我们在数据社区中的地位相对较新，我们的数据档案员/分析师和图书馆员 创新、见多识广、平易近人的团队。我们认为，这一声誉的一个原因是直接的 这是我们投资Nesstar的结果，Nesstar是为我们的在线数据归档提供支持的软件。这个软件套件， 它由服务器软件、浏览器界面和元数据创作工具组成，允许潜在的 二次数据用户搜索感兴趣的数据集和变量，通过 非常用户友好的向下钻取文件夹样式显示系统，执行基本的表格和回归 分析，并子集和提取流行文件格式(例如，SAS、SPSS和 Stata)。能够搜索所有级别的元数据，从研究标题、摘要和关键字到变量 值和值标签，以及将搜索结果链接到重要上下文元数据的功能是独一无二的 Nesstar系统：SDA、DataFerret和ICPSR的自主开发的系统没有提供同等的功能。 因为我们的Nesstar归档的基于Web的用户界面可供具有 广泛的计算技能和统计经验，因为我们不收取会员费或 否则限制对我们在线档案的访问，我们可以为各种终端提供公平、用户友好的访问 用户，从高中生和倡导团体到独立的政策分析师和学术界 研究人员。此外，由于我们的档案可以与全球各地基于Nesstar的档案无缝链接 在世界范围内，发布到BADGIR上的数据更有可能被用于比较和跨国研究 研究报告发布在一个孤立的项目或档案网站上。我们在这里有很好的伙伴：其他数据档案 由Nesstar软件提供支持的包括东苏塞克斯县议会和东部地区公共卫生 (英格兰)当局、纽芬兰和拉布拉多政府、国际住户调查 网络，威尔士地方政府数据股，NorHealth(挪威)，澳大利亚社会科学数据 档案馆、丹麦数据档案馆、欧洲社会调查、德国社会科学 基础设施服务和ZA、一般社会调查(在NORC)和英国数据档案馆。因为我们 我是三个欧洲数据档案馆之外的首批用户之一，他们参与了 这个元数据创作工具和Web服务器，我们能够说服Nesstar包括一些 用户与之交互的服务器侧界面中的内容和格式的重要修改， 以及元数据创作工具。我们的数据分析员/档案管理员受邀讲解 Nesstar相对于其他元数据创作和服务器端浏览器界面。CDHA主持了第一个Nesstar 在第一个五年期资助期内在欧盟以外举办培训课程。NORC数据图书馆员 参加了此培训课程，他们现在运行自己的Nesstar支持的在线数据归档 综合社会调查。

As originally proposed in 1998, the purpose of the External Research Resources Core is to provide support to researchers at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and our off-campus collaborators who either are, or are planning to, conduct research concerning health and aging. Our affiliates are sociologists, epidemiologists, economists, political scientists, public health specialists, and doctors. Our over-riding objective is to create a one-stop shop for information and services that allow researchers to spend their time doing research, period. Our projects database, listing all of the aging-related research projects in which our affiliates have been engaged, and our project bibliography that lists hundreds of aging-related publications written by our affiliates over the past ten years demonstrate the success of our hands-on approach. Despite the limited resources that have been made available to the two data cores, our small size, and our status as a relative new-comer in the data community, our Data Archivist/Analyst and Librarian are viewed as innovative, knowledgeable, and approachable team. We believe that one reason for this reputation is a direct result of our investment in Nesstar, the software that powers our on-line data archive. This software suite, which consists of server software, a browser interface, and metadata authoring tools, allows potential secondary data users to search for datasets and variables of interest, browse data documentation via an extraordinarily user-friendly drill-down folder-style display system, perform basic tabular and regression analyses, and to subset and extract variables and cases of interest in popular file formats (e.g., SAS, SPSS, and Stata). The ability to search all levels of metadata, from study title, abstract, and keywords, down to variable values and value labels, and the capacity to link search results to important contextual metadata is unique to the Nesstar system: SDA, DataFerret, and ICPSR's homegrown systems do not offer equivalent capabilities. Because the web-based user interface for our Nesstar archive is accessible to potential data users with a wide range of computing skills and statistical experience, and because we do not charge a membership fee or otherwise restrict access to our online archive, we can provide equitable, user-friendly access to a variety of end users, from high school students and advocacy groups to independent policy analysts and academic researchers. In addition, because our archive can be linked seamlessly with Nesstar-based archives around the world, data posted to BADGIR are more likely to be used for comparative and cross-national studies than are studies posted to an isolated project or archival website. We are in good company here: other data archives powered by the Nesstar software include the East Sussex County Council and the Eastern Region Public Health Authority (in England), the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the International Household Survey Network, the Local Government Data Unit - Wales, Norhealth (in Norway), the Australian Social Science Data Archive, DANS (the Danish Data Archive), the European Social Survey, the German Social Science Infrastructure Services and ZA, the General Social Survey (at NORC), and the UK Data Archive. Because we were one of the first users outside of the three European data Archives who participated in the development of this metadata authoring tool and web server, we were able to convince Nesstar to include a number of important modifications in content and formatting in the server-side interface with which the user interacts, and to the metadata authoring tool. Our Data Analyst/Archivist has been invited to speak about the merits of Nesstar relative to other metadata authoring and server-side browser interfaces. CDHA hosted the first Nesstar training course outside of the European Union in the first five-year funding period. Data Librarians at NORC attended this training course, and they now run their own Nesstar-powered on-line data archive for the General Social Survey.