Metadata Portal Project: Using DDI to Enhance Data Access and Dissemination

Abstract

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), NORC at the University of Chicago, and the American National Election Studies program in the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research are currently engaged in a new collaborative effort to create a common metadata portal for two of the most important data collections in the U.S. – the American National Election Studies (ANES) and the General Social Survey (GSS). Technical support is provided by Metadata Technology and Integrated Data Management Services. This pilot project, funded by the National Science Foundation, will produce a combined library of machine-actionable DDI metadata for these collections, and demonstrate DDI-based tools for advanced searching, dynamic metadata presentation, and other functions intended to facilitate discovery and analysis of these data. The project will also lay a foundation for developing new metadata-driven workflows for both ANES and GSS. This presentation describes the major phases and deliverables of the project and presents a plan of action, with an emphasis on how the project will benefit the wider community.