ICPSR will be responsible for the following set of tasks as part of the Child Care and Early Education Research Connections cooperative agreement:
Web site infrastructure (IWS & RDB): ICPSR will be responsible for housing, installing, configuring, maintaining, evaluating, and planning the enhancement of the Web site infrastructure on which the Interactive Web Site (IWS) and Research Data Base (RDB) rely. This will include hardware, network, system software (Linux), Web server applications (Apache, Cocoon, Tomcat), and the relational database (Oracle) infrastructure. ICPSR will be responsible for infrastructure supporting two broad functions, the Manage function through which project staff manage content for the Web site, and the Discover function through which users find the information they need.
Web site design (IWS & RDB): ICPSR will be responsible for maintaining and enhancing the reliability and usability of the Research Connections Web site. Enhancements will include Web design features such as the appearance, navigation, search/browse, and rich linkage elements of the site. These will require changes to both the Interactive Web Site (IWS) and the underlying Research Data Base (RDB).
ICPSR will also work on developing and implementing enhancements that increase the ease of use and the overall functional appeal of the IWS such as the ability to browse the collection through a topical classification system and better use of the thesaurus in searching. ICPSR will also support the project?s increased use of social media.
The exact feature list and task priorities will be set in consultation with NCCP and the project Steering Committee.
Archive of Datasets (AD): ICPSR will acquire, process, document, archive, and disseminate research data relevant to child care and early education policy for use in secondary data analysis. Research Connections will continue to maintain a list of large-scale surveys and key administrative data that should be considered for inclusion in the AD. This list will continue to be reviewed and revised. Priorities for acquiring data and the level of processing that datasets will receive will be set in conjunction with NCCP, OPRE and the appropriate committee of the project?s Advisory Council.
ICPSR will generate high-quality metadata that will be used to describe, index and search the holdings. Data holdings will be formatted for easy download and subsetting. Many collections will be setup for on-line analysis and quick reporting. New processes methods of providing access to restricted-use data, audio and video material are in place and will be further refined based on feedback from users and the relevant stake holders, and considered for use as appropriate.
ICPSR will also implement secondary analysis data tools currently under development (e.g., complex variable search), as project funds permit, and in consultation with the OPRE and the RC advisory committee.
Technical Assistance and Training (TAT): The IWS already contains a number of elements supporting the TAT objective: email links for users to ask questions, report problems, or give feedback, tutorials explaining key concepts of understanding research, data preparation, and data usage, user guides explaining key aspects of complex data collections, sample setups for loading and using data in statistical packages, listservs and bulletin boards to allow theme or dataset oriented collaboration. Where indicated these tools will be refined. Additional tutorials and user guides are planned.
ICPSR will also contribute to the TAT component by responding to electronic and telephone questions related to the use and preparation of datasets, through participation in webinars hosted by Research Connections, through in-person activities such as attending conferences, and planning and presenting mini workshops on relevant datasets at conferences. ICPSR will continue to plan and host a multi-day, intensive worksh