Nesstar: A Web-based Data Extraction and Analysis System

1. Nesstar: A Web-based Data Extraction and Analysis System Richard Pinnell & Sandra Keys, University of Waterloo Libraries

2. Nesstar – Today’s Agenda • Introduction • EDS (UW’s Electronic Data Service) • Overview of Nesstar • Live Demo • Actual Teaching Instances of Nesstar at UW WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

3. Overview • EDS: Electronic Data Service • http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/uweds/uweds.html WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

4. Overview (cont’d) WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

5. Overview (cont’d) • Our “Partners” • TDR (Tri-University Data Resources) • University of Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier (and of course, UW!) • Nesstar • SWORDC (SouthWestern Ontario Research Data Centre) • Statistics Canada • OCUL (Ontario Council of University Libraries) • Data in Ontario Group (DINO) • ODESI (Ontario Data Documentation, Extraction Service and Infrastructure Initiative) WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

6. Overview (cont’d) WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

7. Overview (cont’d) • Consortia Participation • Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) • Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) • DMTI Spatial Geoconsortium • Etc. WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

8. Overview (cont’d) • Other sources of data on campus • Spatial Data Catalog (Faculty of Environmental Studies) • Population Health Data Repository • ...and we’d love to link to more! WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

9. Nesstar – What it is • Software: a web-based data extraction and analysis system • Over 700 datasets from Statistics Canada • …as well as access to other data resources • Dun & Bradstreet • International Monetary Fund • World Health Organization • Grouped by subject • Accessible from off-campus via Proxy Service WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

10. Nesstar – What it is WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

11. Nesstar – What it is • Raw data • StatsCan surveys • PUMFs (public use microdata files), synthetic files • Need to be downloaded to use (statistical software packages, Excel, etc.) • Low level/topical statistics • Census profiles, Topic-based Tabulations • Formats: B2020 files, Excel files WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

12. Nesstar – What it is (not) • For high level/summary statistics, use • the Statistics Canada website – free for the general public (http://www.statcan.ca/menu-en.htm) • E-STAT (access via EDS page) • CANSIM @ CHASS (access via EDS page) WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

13. Nesstar – What it is • Documentation • Abstracts • Codebooks and Record Layouts • Questionnaires • Etc. WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

14. Nesstar – What it is WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

15. Nesstar – What it is WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

16. Nesstar – What it is • Metadata • Marked up using DDI (Data Documentation Initiative) • Searching • Simple • Advanced • Searching specific fields • Specifying retrieval at dataset or variable level WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

17. Nesstar – What it is WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

18. Nesstar – What it is WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

19. Nesstar – What it is • Subsetting and Downloading • Download all or part of a dataset • Statistical Analysis • Frequency distribution, weighting, cross-tabulation, regression, etc. • Graphic representations, display of descriptive stats • Exporting Data • Various statistical packages (e.g., SPSS, SAS) • Spreadsheet (e.g., Excel, .csv) • Text file WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

20. Nesstar – What it is • Quirks • Browser: compatible with any stable version of IE or Netscape • Pop-up blockers: downloading • Password: what/where is it anyway? • Searching: “stop” words, phrases, etc. • Help • From Nesstar • From Guelph (Viewlets – animated tutorials) • Contact local data service (e.g., UW EDS) WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

21. Nesstar – What it is No!!! YES!!! WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

22. Nesstar – Live Demo • For those viewing this presentation after the conference, we have included screenshots of the main features of the demo at the end of this powerpoint WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

23. Nesstar - Actual Teaching Uses • REC 672 • Choose a dataset • Familiarize themselves with dataset by going through the documentation • Use the dataset to test the various statistical analysis topics discussed in class • Economics Research Papers • Use data from surveys WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

24. Questions?? WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

25. Thank You! • Richard Pinnell (rhpinnel@library.uwaterloo.ca) • Sandra Keys (skeys@library.uwaterloo.ca) • EDS Group (LibEDS@library.uwaterloo.ca) WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

26. Nesstar – Live Demo Slides WatITis | Life After 50 | December 4, 2007 | Nesstar

27. Library Homepagehttp://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/

28. Resources for Researchhttp://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/resources/

29. Connect from Home

30. UW Electronic Data Servicewww.lib.uwaterloo.ca/uweds/uweds.html

31. TriUniversity Data Resourceshttp://tdr.tug-libraries.on.ca/

32. Nesstar Splash Pagenesstar.tdr.uoguelph.ca/webview/index.jsp

33. Catalogue Resources

34. Metadata and Variables

35. Variable Descriptions

36. Searching for Variables 1

37. Searching for Variables 2

38. Variable Search Results

39. Data Download 1

40. Data Download 2

41. Nesstar Logon

42. Data Download 3

43. Data Subset

44. Data Subset: Cases 1

45. Data Subset: Cases 2

46. Data Subsetting: Variables

47. Data Subset: Download

48. Tabulation

49. Tabulation: Rows

50. Tabulation: Columns