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Information Core

MPRC -> Core Services -> Information

In response to the rapid changes in computing and information technology, our faculty associates' research needs have changed since the center began. To meet these needs, MPRC has evolved to increasing use of web-based tools to support research and collaborations, encourage information-sharing, and dissemination of research data. The overall objective of the Information Core is to provide services to facilitate and enhance the various aspects of the research enterprise of MPRC associates and staff, dealing especially with the organization and dissemination of information. In this sense, many of the activities performed by MPRC researchers have an information component. Staff from the Information Core work with the client (researcher or staff) to identify the needs of each project or activity, and develop the front-end of the web tools to organize and disseminate information; the Computing Core provides the back-end programming needed to develop and maintain these tools.The Information Core currently performs five main types of activities: 1) support to the Administrative and Development Cores, 2) conference organization and support, 3) support to MPRC work groups, 4) data dissemination, and 5) support to data users. All activities are meant to increase the efficiency of researchers and staff at MPRC, and are currently supported by the staff in both the Information and the Computing Cores.

Support to Administrative and Development Cores

The day-to-day operations of the Administrative and Development Cores involve staff members and faculty researchers interacting and sharing information. The Information Core has facilitated this process. For example, working closely with the Administrative Core staff, the IC developed a web-based database that includes all grant activities by MPRC associates. This database gets updated regularly, and the administrators of MPRC may access the database and request information for multiple purposes, including our annual progress reports, budget projections for individual faculty research projects and much more. The extraction engine facilitates the process of producing fast summaries of grant activities by period of time, faculty PI, department, college, or funding agency. This tool has made the work of the Administrative Core more efficient, as it greatly reduces the amount of time needed to address all of the many requests for grant information from the MPRC leadership and other sources outside and within the University.

Conference Organization and Support

The Information Core has supported the Administrative Core through implementation of specialized software for conference planning and organization. These conference websites include interactive tools that allow participants to register and upload-download papers. For example, the successful American Time Use Survey Early Results Conference was organized and hosted by MPRC researchers in December 2005, in collaboration with several government agencies. The IC provided a website tool to support online registration for participants and to disseminate conference information. The site also contains conference papers, posters, and materials such as the conference executive summary. These interactive tools will be extended to support the International Association for Time Use Research 2007 Annual Conference to be held in Washington, DC and organized by MPRC in October 2007. We have found these tools to be vital for organizing conferences where participants are spread worldwide. In September 2003, MPRC held its first International Conference using website tools for organization, registration and dissemination, a conference entitled “Improving Social Insurance Programs.” This conference, co-sponsored by MPRC, SSA and the Michigan Center on Demography and Aging, invited submissions and registration from scholars worldwide to discuss state of the art research and best practices on Social Security reform worldwide. To date, we have disseminated conference papers and photographs from conferences. The software can also distribute streaming video that will allow the research community to see paper presentations, discussant comments and audience participation.

Support to MPRC Work Groups

Increasingly, MPRC researchers are involved in activities for which a website is part of standard operating procedures. This includes sites to disseminate the objectives and products of particular projects, as well as the organization of conferences that use websites to share information. An example is the American Time Use Survey website that was developed for the national conference and will be used for the forthcoming international conference in 2007. In addition to serving the purposes of information dissemination and registration for the conferences, this site provides a link to Bureau of Labor Statistics information, documentation and codebooks for using the data. Another example is the Crime and Population Work Group, website created by the IC for MPRC associates who participate in the group at MPRC. The site contains faculty profiles, as well as information for past and future workshops, resources and publications and working papers. Another web tool that was created for researchers is the one for the Network for Research on Aging in Latin America (REALCE), which is hosted and maintained by the IC. This site provides information on active projects on population aging in the region and their respective links, as well as information on data sets and how to obtain access to them, upcoming conferences, and opportunities for training.

Data Dissemination

MPRC staff members in the Computing Core and the Information Core have developed extraction programs and web-based tools to facilitate the use of demographic data. This has been a central activity of a data sharing project with Penn State University. MPRC researchers and students can have easy access to frequently-used, non-confidential, non-restricted data such as the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), and many more. The list includes well over 20 such survey studies.

Data Users Support

Information Core staff members have developed tools to support the users of particular datasets with which MPRC researchers have a comparative advantage or experience. The goal of this activity is to create useful, practical advice (tips-and-tricks) for users of certain databases, based on hands-on experience of MPRC researchers, personnel, and students. We believe that this is helpful to the research community, but most importantly, frees the researchers from having to address each request for information individually. Two projects that have received this kind of support are the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), which now includes frequently-asked-questions, common codes and derived data sets.