Perspectives of a New Archivist

1
Perspectives of a New Archivist

• Jennifer Darragh
• Data Archivist
• Population Research Institute
• Social Science Research Institute
• The Pennsylvania State University
• IASSIST Annual Conference
• University of Connecticut
• June 14, 2002

Authors Notes
2

• Ive been the Data Archivist for the Population
  Research Institute since September 2000 and for
  the Social Science Research Institute since its
  formation in July 2001. Im a little nervous
  speaking in front of so many seasoned
  professionals. I feel like a kindergartener
  trying to teach college students their ABCs. I
  tend to crack jokes too when Im nervous, so
  please bear with me.
• Prior to coming to Penn State, I worked as a
  research specialist on a primary data collection
  project at the University of Pittsburgh Medical
  Center. The data from this study is wonderful,
  but due to its sensitive content, it will not
  likely be released any time soon.
• I have found that coming from a data producing
  background to a data preserving and distributing
  background has helped me understand the
  perspectives of both the producer and the user.
  Understanding the needs of both has definitely
  helped in my relations with both.
• As a newer archivist, I have not had much
  experience at all with archiving before the
  internet convoluted or made things easier
  depending on your perspective. I am looking
  forward very much to hearing the rest of the
  panel and all of you sharing your perspectives on
  the changes that have occurred in archiving over
  time.

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Thoughts on Restricted Data and Useful
TipsWhere is Archiving Headed?
Authors Notes
4

• Rather than give you a lot of examples of
  particular restricted contracts which would
  take up all the time we have here I thought I
  would share some of the observations and tips
  that have proven useful when I deal with
  restricted data. If anyone would like to ask
  questions after the presentation or see me later
  about restricted data licensing for The
  National Center for Education Statistics,
  Medicare Beneficiary Survey, National
  Longitudinal Survey of Youth Geocode Data, or the
  National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health,
  Id be happy to share my experiences with you.
• I also thought that after I go through some
  issues pertaining to restricted data, that I
  would share some of my perceptions as a new
  archivist as to where archiving is headed.

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Thoughts on Restricted Data and Useful Tips

• Making Contacts
• Public Restricted Data
• User Education
• Keep Up With Changing Technology
• Can We Simplify the Process of Obtaining
  Restricted Data?

Authors Notes
6

• I was specifically asked to speak to all of you
  today about my experiences with restricted data.
  Im sure many of you have dealt with restricted
  data of different kinds. Each contract or
  agreement is different, and I thought I could
  possibly offer some tips that can help obtaining
  restricted data be more of a positive experience.
• MAKING CONTACTS - Tip number one is to always
  make contact with a human being whenever
  possible. Be it phone or email, make sure you
  have a real person to talk to for questions about
  the data, paperwork, and security provisions.
  Finding a good contact can sometimes be the luck
  of the draw. The best persons to look for are
  data managers, statistical managers, project
  managers, etc. When you are dealing with
  governmental agencies, its a little less
  specific, but usually you can find one person who
  can be a lifeline for dealing with all of the
  complications. I had an experience when I was
  attempting to call the person in charge of
  restricted contracting (at an agency that will
  remain nameless) and could not get this person at
  all, even via email. At the suggestion of PRIs
  Data Archive Assistant Lisa Broniszewski, I
  pushed 0 when I got the voicemail (for the 10th
  time) to see if I could get a receptionist. I
  did! This receptionist told me that the person
  is at their desk, and they didnt understand why
  there was no answer. Well, the receptionist told
  the supervisor of the department, she contacted
  me, and I was finally able to fulfill a very
  important request for two of my faculty. Never
  underestimate the power of a contact. This
  contact has also proved to be very valuable when
  dealing with new data requests for this agency
  and for contractual changes that need made.

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• PUBLIC RESTRICTED DATA More often,
  web-available public datasets are requiring
  online registration before access is granted to
  each user. Depending upon how involved the
  registration is, it can almost seem as if you are
  going after restricted data. Users are
  frustrated and as an archivist, Im frustrated
  because I am trying to take some pressure off of
  the user by obtaining data for them.
  Registration is important for the data producer
  to gather statistics on what research is being
  done with the data and by whom. Funding agencies
  often require this information. Just because
  registration is required doesnt mean that the
  data cant be archived. For example, Demographic
  and Health Survey data distributed by Macro
  International is part of PRIs archive. Quite a
  few researchers use the data and like to have the
  data in the archive so they do not have to have
  it sitting on their own hard drives. I have
  obtained permission to download all of the public
  data to maintain our archive. Our archived data
  is on a Unix platform, so I have the data
  protected by restricted group and by Access
  Control List to enforce user registration.
  Anyone who wants to use the data registers on the
  site and sends their approval to me. Once I
  receive the approval, I add them to the secure
  users group and give them access to the specific
  countries they have approval for by using the
  ACL. ACLs are also available on the NT platform
  as well. This may seem like overkill as
  researchers could still share data with those who
  havent registered, but it shows DHS that you are
  serious about maintaining their standards.

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• USER EDUCATION One of the most important
  aspects of my job is to educate our users on
  proper data use. We offer instruction on how to
  locate data on the web, search for data based
  upon variables needed, and most importantly how
  to follow restricted (and even public) data
  guidelines. Ive found that researchers can
  sometimes be stubborn about following security
  plan guidelines. Even though they have no
  intentions of using the data improperly, the do
  not understand the seriousness of following
  security plans to a T. The best thing that I
  can do as the data archivist as I am usually
  the custodian of the data or institutional
  liaison is to hold mandatory review workshops
  on the basics of using the data following the
  proper access procedure and to check in with
  researchers who have individual data licenses. I
  have found that you should never assume that your
  researchers are following proper protocol. You
  need to make sure that they understand that if
  they break the rules, they may end up paying
  harsh consequences. Some of these consequences
  can include large fines and even possible jail
  time. Aside from personal consequences, if we
  break research respondents trust (which is the
  general population), people will not participate
  in surveys and will not allow personal data
  collected about them. Without participants,
  there will be no data which would make social
  science research (or any research using human
  participants for that matter) pretty weak.KEEP
  UP WITH CHANGING TECHNOLOGY Keeping up with
  technology is one of the most important things an
  archivist can do, in my opinion. We need to stay
  on top of the changes in secure technology in
  order to work with restricted data agencies.
  There isnt a lot of trust, that I have noticed,
  in agencies the distribute restricted data. If
  we learn more, we can demonstrate technology that
  may help us to avoid stand alone computer
  set-ups, and have a computing environment that is
  secure, but user friendly.

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• CAN WE SIMPLIFY THE PROCESS OF OBTAINING
  RESTRICTED DATA? This is a tough question, and
  a really good one. I think there are some things
  that we can simplify, but I dont think there
  will be a time where we will be able to share
  licenses across institutions. The only time I
  have ever found where that is allowed is in the
  case of collaborative efforts between
  institutions. That usually only happens under
  special situations however, and with agencies
  that dont make you sign your life away.
  Although we may not be permitted to share our
  licenses and contracts across institutions, we
  can help one another. Perhaps we could create a
  web page that contains mock-ups of how contracts
  are filled out for notoriously difficult data? I
  think we could benefit from one anothers
  expertise. Lisa Neidert will be talking about
  the Demographic Data Cooperative, and perhaps a
  shared FAQ for restricted data would be a
  beneficial addition to that effort.

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Where is Archiving Headed?

• Data Enclaves More Prevalent
• More Web Available Data More Errata
• Historic Data Must Be Preserved
• Less Human Interaction More Automation
• The Cost of Obtaining Data Will Continue to
  Decrease
• More Users Relying on PC Based Applications

Authors Notes
11

• For one, I think were going to see more data
  enclaves aka restricted data rooms. The reason
  why I believe this is due to the fact that as
  technology grows, agencies are going to have to
  learn to trust it. Learning to trust technology
  can sometimes be a lengthy process. At the
  project I was working on prior to coming here the
  PIs were so mistrusting of the internet that all
  personnel had stand alone PCs. It is true as
  well that as technology advances, so do hackers
  knowledge of said technology. I think were
  going to see more enclaves as an answer to the
  increased fear of hackers. Whether hackers are a
  legitimate fear in most cases is debatable.
• I think it is pretty obvious that more and more
  data is going to be available on the web. I
  believe that this is a positive advancement in
  the sense that it can simplify access to
  obtaining data, but the easier it is to put data
  on the web, data may not be checked as thoroughly
  as it should before it is released. I think
  there will end up being more errata, and
  archivists and users are going to have to get
  used to checking data sites often to check for
  updates. Sometimes data isnt always re-released
  with fixes either which can potentially make the
  data less user friendly to those who may not know
  how to go in an change variables.

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• With more web data being available, I think it is
  going to become more important to archive older
  data. When Ive obtained data from yearly
  studies, such as the National Health Interview
  Survey only the past five waves are usually
  available. What happens if someone wants data
  from the early eighties? Fortunately, NCHS is
  releasing older data on CD-ROM. I hope more
  organizations take their lead. In some cases
  when Ive noticed more and more often that if you
  want something that isnt current or is an
  earlier installment in a cumulative data set,
  its not available on the web and you often have
  to go through a lot of people before you can find
  out if the old data even exists.
• Also with web available data and extraction tools
  I think were going to see the following Less
  human interaction, web extraction rather than
  full data files available, more registration
  (hoops to jump through), and less variables being
  considered public because there is more fear of
  disclosure when data is out there for anyone in
  the whole wide world to get a hold of.
• I also believe that users are moving away from
  command driven platforms and more towards PC
  based software. Secure technology is going to
  need to be understood by many levels of users. I
  believe more education is going to be needed on
  all levels producer analysts and archivists
  and end users.

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• Everyone is going to have to keep up to speed
  with technology archivists, users, data
  agencies. In order to facilitate wide data use,
  everyone is going to need to learn more about
  technology in order to ensure that security isnt
  compromised.
• WRAP UP Even though I havent been around to
  see how things have been done for years, I feel
  that we are moving in a positive direction. We
  are going to be faced with many new challenges as
  research and technology changes. I believe
  archivists/data librarians need to be dynamic and
  flexible. My core director, who is a librarian
  (I am not), talked to me at length about the
  changes that have arisen due to the infiltration
  of electronic resources. She also believes the
  changes are positive and that saying we are
  moving away from the traditional is almost like
  saying a dirty word. Just because journals are
  available online does not mean that people will
  have all their questions answered. We will
  always be necessary. We guide, we enforce, we
  adapt. Change can always be somewhat
  frightening, but you have to find the excitement
  in change and learn to roll with the punches.

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