About the Partners
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/
Founded in 1962, ICPSR, at the University of Michigan, is the largest non-governmental social science data archive in the world. ICPSR has special expertise in on-line dissemination of data, the development of metadata standards, and training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use. While it has grown in forty years and now has world-class holdings in many fields, ICPSR remains dedicated to its original mission to collect and disseminate data related to the political process.
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/
Founded in 1947, the Roper Center, at the University of Connecticut, is the leading educational facility in the field of public opinion, with the most complete collection of public information in the world. With its origins in the archives of the pollster Elmo Roper, the Center has strong relationships with commercial survey organizations, especially the Gallup Organization. These firms have deposited many surveys with the Center and provide a rich resource for the future.
The Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science
http://www.odum.unc.edu/
Founded in 1924, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for the "cooperative study of problems in the general field of social science," the Odum Institute is the oldest university-based social science research institute in the United States. The Institute specializes in data on the U.S. South, and in state and regional public opinion polls of all types.
The Henry A. Murray Research Archive
http://www.murray.harvard.edu/
Founded in 1976 at Radcliffe, the Henry A. Murray Research Archive is the endowed, permanent repository for quantitative and qualitative research data at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, in Harvard University. The Murray preserves in perpetuity all types of data of interest to the research community, including numerical, video, audio, interview notes, and other types. The Center is unique among data archives in the United States in the extent of its holdings in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed quantitative-qualitative research.
Electronic and Special Media Records Service Division, National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.archives.gov/research/electronic-records/
Established in 1968, the Division preserves and provides access to permanent electronic records created or received by agencies of the U.S. Federal Government. Providing access to electronic data according to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, NARA serves a research clientele that represents all segments of society worldwide.
Harvard-MIT Data Center
http://www.hmdc.harvard.edu/
As a unit of IQSS the Harvard-MIT Data Center (HMDC) is the principal distributor of quantitative social science data from major international data consortia for Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a world leader in research in digital libraries and statistical methodology. HMDC manages technology platforms for the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) on informatics and data sharing, statistical computing, and information technology. HMDC has been responsible for advances in the development of social science infrastructure through its Dataverse Network (DVN) project (and past Virtual Data Center project, which is the predecessor to DVN) and its work on developing unique and permanent means for identifying social science data sets; this work will serve as the core of the technical infrastructure of this project.
The Library of Congress
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/
Established by an act of Congress in 1800, the Library of Congress has the mission to "sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations." In recognition of the importance of preserving digital content for future generations, Congress passed special legislation (Public Law 106-554) in December 2000, asking the Library of Congress to lead a collaborative project, called the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). Data-PASS is a preservation partnership supported through this program of the Library of Congress.
Joining the Partnership
Our partners recognize the need to acquire and preserve research that is at risk of becoming lost to the research community. We hope to expand our partnership to include social science data archives that share our concern. For additional information on joining the partnership, please contact us.
