2008-2009 Annual Usage and Service Report

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2008-2009 Social Sciences Specialty Center (SSSC)

Annual Report

July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009

Table of Contents

  1. href="http://www.ssric.org/node/359#intro">Introduction
  2. href="http://www.ssric.org/node/359#data">Data
  3. href="http://www.ssric.org/node/359#icpsr">ICPSR
  4. href="http://www.ssric.org/node/359#roper">Roper
  5. href="http://www.ssric.org/node/359#fi">Field
  6. href="http://www.ssric.org/node/359#src">Student Research Conference
  7. href="http://www.ssric.org/node/359#workshops">Workshops
  8. href="http://www.ssric.org/node/359#website">Web site

Introduction

Founded in 1972, the Social Science Research and Instructional Council
(SSRIC) is the oldest of the disciplinary councils in the w:st="on">California State
University
system. With
representatives from each of the CSU campuses, the Council is dedicated to
assisting students and faculty in their learning, teaching, and research by:

  • Facilitating access to
    social science data and computer-related instructional and research
    materials
  • Promoting quantitative
    social science research by students via the annual SSRIC student
    research conference
  • Initiating and
    conducting training programs
  • Recommending
    computerized social science projects in the CSU curriculum
  • Providing a forum for
    sharing information about social science data and computer products
  • Advising CSU
    administrators on policies related to providing quantitative social science
    data for research and instruction

Data

The SSRIC is the CSU systems’ clearinghouse for social science data,
notably data from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social
Research (ICPSR) and the Field and Roper polling centers. These data sources
provide data to support quantitative social science teaching, research and
service by students, staff and faculty, and well as sponsored programs and
grant development by CSU research centers.

All the functions described above are performed by faculty representatives
as a service.  Dues requested of individual campuses primarily defray
data subscription costs.

ICPSR

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
is the largest social science data repository in the world. It is the primary
source of social science data for every research oriented university and
nearly every other university and college in the w:st="on">United States. Over the past few
years, data access from the ICPSR has gone online and interactive under the ICPSR
Direct
system. During academic year 08-09, 10,706 datasets were
downloaded from ICPSR by CSU students, faculty, and staff. 
Additionally, 509 gigabytes of data were downloaded.  The following
table summarizes utilization by campus for the 2006-07, 2007-08 and the
2008-09 academic years. 

Usage data always requires one important proviso. A single download may be
used in a class with many students, but only shows on the usage chart as a
single download. Additionally, a single faculty member may download a study
to be used for research by multiple faculty members.

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Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research

Campus

Total Data Sets Downloaded

Gigabytes Downloaded

 

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

Bakersfield

247

613

737

8.337

30.391

3.392

Channel Islands

212

61

129

13.223

0.784

13.268

Chico

317

335

516

5.486

27.941

27.450

Dominguez Hills

13

15

14

2.133

.442

.632

East w:st="on">Bay

298

289

512

21.480

7.568

14.366

Fresno

182

436

99

13.134

5.427

1.420

Fullerton

729

290

724

22.124

7.443

31.131

Humboldt

140

75

124

5.147

1.226

3.215

Long Beach

870

942

927

41.188

22.476

39.198

Los Angeles

286

534

346

19.292

14.893

5.716

Monterey w:st="on">Bay

975

38

5

17.538

3.040

.021

Northridge

147

1,114

2,955

3.943

28.327

245.573

Pomona

275

258

525

3.732

12.215

23.328

Sacramento

451

621

653

14.596

29.852

27.719

San Bernardino

201

6

42

13.451

1.240 style='mso-spacerun:yes'>          

.634

San Diego

640

325

612

16.661

17.647

19.100

San Francisco

704

229

1,130

37.511

28.819

9.457

San Jose

380

*

*

8.166

*

*

San Luis Obispo

370

386

361

9.754

25.600

18.718

San Marcos

70

103

187

1.574

3.384

21.243

Sonoma

39

160

36

3.420

18.025

2.284

Stanislaus

413

573

72

8.721

9.770

.827

Total

7,959

7,403

10,706

290.612

296.511

508.689

*San Jose
did not subscribe in AY 2007-08 and 2008-09.

ICPSR maintains a series of topical archives that allow the user to
analyze data using the Data Analysis System (DAS) which was written at UC
Berkeley.  DAS is an online program that allows individuals to access
particular studies that have been set up for this program. Information is
only available for the system and is not broken down by campus. 

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Fiscal year

Number of times accessed

2006-07

1,369

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2007-08 

1,310

2008-09

1,454

ICPSR also offers an extensive summer program in quantitative
analysis.  Our membership in ICPSR allows us to distribute a portion of
our membership fee to cover expenses for participants in the summer program
to help defray their costs.  The following table summarizes the number
of faculty and students (primarily faculty) that were enrolled in the ICPSR’s
summer program in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

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Summer

Number of enrollees

2006

7

2007

2

2008

7

2009

14

Roper w:st="on">Center style='font-size:13.5pt'> for Public Opinion

The Roper w:st="on">Center provides public opinion data
for the nation and the world. More than half of the Roper holdings are
international. Studies go back many decades providing the opportunity to do
longitudinal research.  The CSU established a system wide membership in
the Roper w:st="on">Center in October,
2004.  From October, 2004 through September, 2005 the CSU was
limited to 50 data sets per year and data had to be ordered through one
individual.  Starting in October, 2005, CSU students, faculty, and staff
could download Roper data directly to their desktop through Roper Express
(similar to ICPSR Direct).  This resulted in a large increase in
utilization of Roper data. 

The following table summarizes the number of data sets that were
downloaded from the Roper
Center
archive during
2006-0, 2007-08 and 2008-09.  During academic 06-07, 332 datasets were downloaded
from the Roper w:st="on">Center by CSU students, faculty, and
staff. During academic year 07-08, 248 datasets were downloaded.  This
increased to 662 in academic year 08-09. 
The Roper
Center
also offers class=SpellE>iPOLL which is a data base of
survey questions which can be used for trend analysis and to select data sets
for downloading.  This table also reports the number of times that
students, faculty, and staff used iPOLL
During academic year 06-07, students, faculty, and staff accessed class=SpellE>iPOLL 505 times, while during
07-08 iPOLL was accessed 399
times.  This increased to 716 in academic year 08-09. style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  The following table summarizes utilization
by campus for the 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years style='color:red'>.

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w:st="on">Roper Center
for Public Opinion Research

Campus

Data Sets Downloaded

class=spelle>iPOLL Sessions

 

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

Bakersfield

29

14

57

25

6

31

Channel Islands

0

3

4

1

10

17

Chico

15

0

36

10

3

74

Dominguez Hills

2

21

444

65

57

427

East w:st="on">Bay

13

2

2

15

3

2

Fresno

8

9

2

19

18

10

Fullerton

40

13

53

41

21

59

Humboldt

8

18

10

19

21

8

Long Beach

21

64

4

32

37

22

Los Angeles

9

2

0

29

1

0

Monterey w:st="on">Bay

1

6

0

1

16

1

Northridge

4

7

2

8

28

5

Pomona

3

3

9

6

40

23

Sacramento

20

1

4

31

3

7

San Bernardino

12

0

3

18

0

1

San Diego

89

11

15

84

19

7

San Francisco

6

40

4

4

51

5

San Jose

5

*

*

53

*

*

San Luis Obispo

17

0

7

17

0

1

San Marcos

0

0

0

1

4

0

Sonoma

18

30

4

9

46

4

Stanislaus

12

4

2

17

15

6

Total

332

248

662

505

399

716

*San Jose
did not subscribe in AY 2007-08 and 2008-09.

The Field Institute

The CSU maintains a membership in the Field Institute which provides our
students, faculty, and staff access to both current and past Field polls. The
Field Institute is one of several state polls that provide current political
opinion data for the state on issues of interest to policy makers,
researchers, and students. In addition to access to these polls, our
membership in The Field Institute provides faculty with the ability to place
up to 18 questions per year on the Field Polls. Field hosts an annual Field
Workshop in San Francisco
which provides information on many topics of current interest to the state.

The CSU contracts with UC Berkeley to provide access to the data sets we
receive from the Field Institute. The following table provides information on
the number of times that students, faculty, or staff accessed the Field
archive at Berkeley.
This refers to the number of times that a person logged onto the Field
archive to look for or download data for the 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, and
2008-09 academic years.  During academic year 2008-09, 984 Field data
sets were accessed.

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Field

Campus

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

Bakersfield

293

0

0

0

Channel Islands

0

0

0

0

Chico

401

1268

519

361

Dominguez Hills

317

0

0

0

East w:st="on">Bay

4

32

0

18

Fresno

78

11

70

28

Fullerton

0

0

0

0

Humboldt

333

394

385

449

Long Beach

1

256

11

0

Los Angeles

9

273

150

0

Monterey w:st="on">Bay

69

97

0

0

Northridge

0

23

0

0

Pomona

513

366

268

96

Sacramento

457

525

72

23

San Bernardino

1

78

1

0

San Diego

6

122

2

6

San Francisco

47

105

375

3

San Jose

0

0

*

*

San Luis Obispo

65

83

13

0

San Marcos

135

5

0

0

Sonoma

28

1

3

0

Stanislaus

0

70

207

0

Unknown campus

105

0

0

0

Total

2862

3709

2076

984

*San Jose
did not subscribe in AY 2007-08 and 2008-09.

Student Research Conference name=src>

The SSRIC sponsors an annual student research conference for both
undergraduates and graduates where students can present their research in a
supportive setting. For many students, this is their first opportunity to
present their research at a professional conference. The 2007 conference was
held in Northridge with 36 student presentations from 13 CSU campuses. The
2008 conference was held in Long
Beach
with 47 presentations from 8 participating
campuses. The 2009 conference was held in w:st="on">Sacramento with 43 presentations (including
50 students) from 12 participating campuses.

Training Workshops name=workshops>

Volunteer SSRIC representatives led 12 training workshops on six campuses
during the 2008-09 academic year,
with a total of 155 participants.  Those campuses were Bakersfield,
Fresno, Northridge, Pomona,
San Jose and
Stanislaus. These workshops are intended to promote the use of data and
teaching modules and to instruct participants in how to access these
resources. Most of those attending were faculty although there were some
graduate students.  More workshops are planned on numerous campuses this
coming academic year.

Website

The SSRIC Web site is online at href="http://www.ssric.org/node/www.ssric.org">www.ssric.org. The site
consolidates and expands information previously scattered on servers at the w:st="on">Bakersfield, Los Angeles,
and Pomona
campuses. The new site makes it much easier to communicate information about
resources, events, and services provided to students, faculty, and staff
through the Council. The site offers among other things:

  • Announcements of
    upcoming events
  • A contact list of
    Council representatives from each campus
  • Information for
    research oriented social science faculty throughout the CSU
  • Comprehensive
    information about the annual SSRIC Student Research Conference
  • Instructions for
    ordering ICPSR, Field, and Roper data
  • Information about the
    Field Fellowship and Question Credits program
  • Information about the
    ICPSR Summer Program
  • Curriculum materials
    contained in the SSRIC Teaching Resources Depository, including various
    modules and exercises, an SPSS primer, and an online textbook/Web site
    on research methods
  • Curriculum materials
    contained in POWERMUTT, an online text for teaching research methods in
    political science and cognate disciplines