Indiana State Data Center: Access to the Data You Need

Editor's Notes

• #2: Indiana’s State Data Center: Access the Data You Need! Welcome and Overview Hello – Welcome to “Indiana’s State Data Center: Access to the Data You Need.” My name is Katie Springer. I’m a Reference Librarian here at the Indiana State Library and I also serve as Coordinator for Indiana’s State Data Center Program, a federal-state cooperative program between the U.S. Census Bureau and the State of Indiana, which helps establish collaborations for locating, sharing, and using data between academics, economists, government agencies, libraries, and other community-minded organizations in Indiana. Today, I’ll be talking to you about the Program and what it can do for you.
• #3: The State of Indiana has had a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Census Bureau officially since 1978 to provide data access and training to the state agencies, academics, nonprofits, non-government organizations, and the public. As a part of this agreement, we use historical and current sources to answer data requests from around the world and provide training on site and online. In 1988, the Business and Industry Data Center portion of the program was added. In addition to the general public, it provides businesses with education and access to Census Bureau data and other statistical resources. The Data Center program is part of a national network of economists, government agencies, educators, community leaders, and other professionals in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the island areas.
• #4: We collaborate with several other agencies to help coordinate the program in Indiana: The Indiana Business Research Center, of IU’s Kelley School of Business, as the Lead Business and Industry Data Center (or BIDC). Our other main affiliates are the Department of Workforce Development and the Indiana Geographic Information Council. We also work with IUPUI’s Polis Center. Our state has a network of current and former State Data Center Affiliate agencies and organizations. Affiliate agencies help the public find answers to statistical and data requests. We are all here to support you in your efforts to locate good data and enhance data access for everyone. We’re a statewide network of professionals. If you’re stuck on someone’s request for information, pick up the phone or email me. That’s what we’re here for. The map on the right shows our current network of Affiliates.
• #5: The Indiana State Library is staffed with many librarians with expertise in various subject areas. We act as a team to help you obtain data on a variety of topics. You can walk in, call us, or use Ask-a-Librarian for data requests.
• #6: You can also use the State Data Center’s Statistics by Topic guide, which lets you choose from hundreds of links to government and non-government resources for local, national, and state-level data. It is organized by topic for easy use. New links include Data.gov - the federal portal to federal and state statistical files, the Kids Count in Indiana database, Mapping Application for Public Safety from INDYGOV, Maternal and Child Health Reports from the Indiana State Department of Health, and much more.
• #7: The State Data Center is active on social media. We have Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts. Please visit these pages for more information on data literacy, big data, and data visualization.
• #8: Now, I’m going to take you through a few of the public portals for Indiana data that are available online through partnerships with the State Data Center program. We’ll start with the Indiana Business Research Center – through IU’s Kelley School of Business. The Data Center partners closely with the IBRC to provide the public with immediate access to federal and state data as it is released to the public. The organization itself has served Indiana since 1925 and provides economic information needed by Indiana's businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations, as well as data users like us.
• #9: The IBRC maintains the Stats Indiana website, which is the main website we direct the public to. Here, you can find Indiana information by topic – across the top or via an alphabetical list. This includes population numbers, figures on employment & earnings, and direct access to Census Bureau data. Special features of this site include county-level demographic profiles of all 92 counties, a cost of Living calculator which creates salary comparisons between Indiana communities and metro areas throughout the country, and the Indiana Dashboard: A Summary of Key Economic Indicators which presents key variables from the STATS Indiana databases in graphic form.
• #10: The IBRC also helps maintain the new Gateway to Government Information – through the Department of Local Government Finance. This multi-agency effort lets tax payers know where their tax dollars go. You can learn here about local government budgets, build your own reports, and download current and historical data directly from the website. It allows you to search by address – with results showing you the total adopted budget for your community. It also has a “Contact Officials” feature which allows you to view addresses, emails, and phone numbers for government offices.
• #11: For additional demographic, economic, and workforce news from the IBRC, you can use the websites here to look at the Indiana Economic Digest and the online monthly publication, InContext. The Economic Digest is a collaboration between the Realtors of Indiana, the Indiana Business Research Center, and the Hoosier State Press Association. It collects business and economic news from news outlets throughout the state and also organizes stories by topic for easy searching. InContext contains analytic articles which look at current events and trends in Indiana business and industry.
• #12: Hoosiers by the Numbers, from the Indiana Dept. of Workforce Development, strives for accuracy and timeliness in providing data about workforce and employment and developing new products to meet data user demand. On the left side bar, you’ll find Economic Indicators, Income & Wage data, Occupation data, Unemployment data, and more, for Indiana. You can also view data by Indiana Economic Growth Region and use the new Radius Tools for population data within a selected amount of miles from a center point within the state. Under the green “Other Resources” bar, you’ll find a link to articles and publications. There, you can select print resources by topic such as Consumer Price Index, Industry Projections, Jobs by Industry, and Race & Ethnicity.
• #13: The Data Center works closely with the Indiana Geographic Information Council – or IGIC. I sit on the Board of Directors and attend meetings to stay updated on the status of geo-information in Indiana. The IGIC is a membership organization of Geographic Information Systems users, professionals, and educators. It is recognized as the official statewide coordinating body for Indiana geographic information.
• #14: One of the services of IGIC is IndianaMap – a statewide map for Indiana that includes geographic information in an easy to use format - accessible to both expert GIS users and the general public. *We’re currently working on webinars that will be available for free. (Kathy is working on this too.)
• #15: The Indiana State Department of Health website holds statistics and reports on a number of different subjects including Statewide health needs, the Behavior Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS), injury reports, birth-marriage-&-death data, and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. They have a very helpful Data Users’ Guide which tells users about the importance of interpreting data within the decision making process. It describes different types of rates used in health information – age or race-specific rates, age-adjusted rates, and incidence & prevalence rates. It also teaches users how to calculate rates and percent changes. http://www.in.gov/isdh/
• #16: The Indiana Department of Education website is full of good data as well. You can use the DOE Compass to find profiles for particular school or corporation in the state. You can create customized student data reports, view school calendars, or look at school performance indicators like the ISTEP. You may look up specific educators, search for licenses, and search for school board members.
• #17: IUPUI has become a huge supporter of data access via the its Polis Center - a self-funded research unit of the IU School of Liberal Arts. They work with professional and scholarly communities, especially through application of digital technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other geospatial tools. Some of their major efforts include projects with national and state departments of homeland security, helping communities with hazard mitigation and planning. It also has partnerships in health geoinformatics, linking clinical and community information to understand issues relating to public health.
• #18: The Polis Center has also become an excellent resource for locating data about Central Indiana. Their public interface is called SAVI.org – SAVI stands for Social Assets and Vulnerabilities Indicators. http://www.savi.org/sa The Polis Center calls this the nation’s largest community information system – it is notable for the availability of neighborhood-level information for 10 counties in central Indiana.
• #19: Federal Depository libraries
• #20: Census Bureau website Key Census Bureau surveys Key Census Bureau resources Terminology/Geographies
• #21: Questions?