Overview of the Project
The Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS) is a broad-based partnership devoted to identifying, acquiring and preserving data at-risk of being lost to the social science research community. Examples of at-risk data include opinion polls, voting records, large-scale surveys on family growth and income, and many other social science studies.
Data-PASS is led by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut, the Howard W. Odum Institute at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the Henry A. Murray Research Archive, a member of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Harvard-MIT Data Center, also a member of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University.
The project is supported by an award from the Library of Congress through its National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP).
Project Phases
Data-PASS efforts are organized into the following two areas:
Content Identification and Acquisition
The partners will survey important research in the social sciences, as well as other sources of information about potential acquisitions, and identify content that should be preserved. This will include publicly and privately produced digital content. The partners have developed archival appraisal standards that will be used to appraise and classify the content identified, and select the most appropriate items for acquisition. Suggestions regarding potential data sources are also being accepted from members of the research community.
The partners also intend to create forward-looking procedures and mechanisms that enable a pro-active approach to identification and acquisition (preserving data from projects as they reach completion) in addition to the retrospective approach (preserving data from projects that have been completed in the past). These procedures will include a system of communication with researchers that will make them aware of our strategies for acquisition and preservation. The partners also intend to create a prototype of a tool for regular harvesting of new award information from national agencies that fund social science research.
Syndicated Replication of Digital Holdings
The partners will build a prototype syndicated storage platform for redundant backup of digital holdings. The majority of these efforts will be devoted to researching, deploying, testing, and reporting alternative existing systems, focusing on LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) technology and building on the experience within the NDIIPP network of partners with forming private LOCKSS networks
Organizational Structure
Steering Committee
Composed of the Principal Investigator from each of the partners, and other representatives, the Steering Committee manages the day-to-day operations of the partnership.
- Myron Gutmann, ICPSR
- Amy Pienta, ICPSR
- Mark Abrahamson, Roper Center
- Gary King, Harvard
- Micah Altman, Harvard
- Ken Bollen, Odum Institute
- Michael Carlson, NARA
- William LeFurgy, Library of Congress
Operations Committee
Composed of operations staff from the partnering archives, the Operations Committee focuses on the identification tasks, as well as the acquisition, standards, and common catalog tasks. It oversees technical issues and identifies potential problems and solutions that affect data selection, acquisition, and dissemination.
- Amy Pienta, ICPSR
- Jared Lyle, ICPSR
- Marc Maynard, Roper Center
- Lois Timms-Ferrara, Roper Center
- Micah Altman, Harvard-MIT Data Center
- Jon Crabtree, Odum Institute
- David Sheaves, Odum Institute
- Margaret O. Adams, NARA
- William LeFurgy, Library of Congress
