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

统计局一直存在如何分配其产生的数据的问题。尽管计算机合成技术取得了进步，但印刷出版物的制作仍然既昂贵又耗时。印刷媒体也不容易在摘录、新生成的表格或计算中重复使用。计算机磁带上提供的数据不仅需要进入大型计算机，而且通常还涉及对专门的特别编程服务的投资。随着个人计算机的普及，一些统计局正在将其数据存储在这些机器可以读取的软盘上。然而，这种软盘往往是从大型计算机磁带上简单下载的，而且大多数用户在没有广泛的附带文件的情况下，没有利用这些数据或理解和分析这些数据所需的编程支持。其结果是，销量一直很小，数据的生产性利用也大大减少。在本项目第一阶段进行的研究成功地测试了开发一种将统计数据与文件相结合的电子出版形式的可行性，以便用户可以像在印刷出版物中那样直接阅读产出，计算机可以直接将其用于处理和分析目的。第一阶段还成功地开发了原型软件，使用户能够列出、检索和浏览表格数据和文件，对它们进行摘录，并将它们打印出来或翻译成适合其他软件包处理的形式。推荐的奖项将支持小型企业创新研究计划资助的项目的最后(第二阶段)阶段。第二阶段将致力于推动第一阶段的成果成为能够为不同统计机构的不同传播做法提供服务的通用参考图书馆系统，为检索和合并来自不同数据库的数据提供便利，包括包含不同类型数据的数据库，以及提供在满足包括数据提供商在内的高级用户的更复杂要求的同时满足临时用户需求的处理和分析工具。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格局。在第二阶段研究下将开发的产品和服务将与国内外各类统计机构合作进行。此后，所产生的技术将通过直接销售或租赁安排提供给这些数据来源。由于大公司面临许多与公共部门统计机构相同的数据处理问题，因此将探索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.