Australian Social Science Data Archive (ASSDA) Melbourne Node
The Australian Social Science Data Archive (ASSDA) Melbourne Node was established at the eScholarship Research Centre (ESRC) at the University of Melbourne in 2008. It is one of a group of nodes located in each state in Australia that provide stewardship and outreach services to local communities in data curation. It's major roles and responsibilities include:-
- To provide data ingest services for researchers and institutions based in Victoria;
- To provide specialist expertise on humanities data and the development of protocols and metadata standards for these data;
- To provide assistance and services to all ASSDA nodes in the curation and digitisation of databases and text based collections.
ESRC Staff working on the project include Gavan McCarthy (ARC Chief Investigator, member of the ASSDA Executive and Director of the Melbourne node of the project); Rachel Tropea (Coordinator, archivist and primary contact), Ailie Smith (informatic systems) and Michael Jones (archivist).
Find out more about the people, organisations, events and projects associated with ASSDA Melbourne, and its national ASSDA and international network on the Compendium of Social Science Research at the University of Melbourne website. (Updated : September 2009)
NOTE: The information on this page outlines the project to date, and will be updated and added to as work progresses.
Background
The Australian Social Science Data Archive (ASSDA) is a consortium of leading national Australian universities, managed by the Australian National University (ANU). ASSDA was established at the ANU in 1981 with a brief to provide a national service for the collection and preservation of computer readable data relating to social, political and economic affairs and to make these data available for further analysis. ASSDA provides the only comprehensive social science data collection in Australia, with a catalogue of around 2500 data sets, including Australian surveys, opinion polls and censuses and includes data from other countries within the Asia Pacific region.
ASSDA is continually expanding and diversifying its collection and provides specialist services within specific subject areas, including Indigenous studies, electoral behaviour, criminology and some humanities disciplines, and within specific data types, including, quantitative, qualitative, time series and panel data, and historical statistics. As well as the central management at the ANU, archive nodes have been progressively established across the country. These currently include The University of Queensland, The University of Western Australia, the University of Technology, Sydney and The University of Melbourne. These nodes provide a national coverage of specialist services and thematic archives with particular foci. The ANU Supercomputer Facility provides the online data services and supporting infrastructure, and develops this cyberinfrastructure for the needs of the consortium. For more about ASSDA, see http://assda.anu.edu.au/about.html.
Project Calendar
Prepared by Rachel Tropea