About the Access to Better Community Data Project

Mission

Limitations of Coverage

History of the Project

Mission

The mission of this project is to provide easy Access to Better Community Data (ABCD) through links between materials on the website of the University of Central Florida's Library and the website of the College of Health and Public Affairs Center for Community Partnerships. These sites will strive to meet the following objectives:

• Maintain websites providing easy access to timely and relevant information for the Central Florida community in the form of research and reports
• Create an ongoing opportunity for exchange of relevant community information regarding data sources and data needs

Limitations of Coverage

• Storage of Raw Data - The ABCD Project does not plan to provide electronic storage space for archiving raw data sets about the local community. Instead, social science researchers are directed to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), which "encourages researchers to deposit their own computer-readable data in the archive for long-term preservation and for use in secondary analysis by other social science researchers." ICPSR Instructions are available on how to Prepare and Deposit Data.

History of the Project

Following a July 2002 workshop about using Census 2000 data, three attendees began discussing other local data sources. Out of these discussions grew the idea to develop a directory to help common data users -- community planners, students, faculty, grant writers, etc. -- locate and make use of various resources. The intent would not be to house data, as such, but to keep current records / information on what data is available and from whom / where. This would include national, state, regional, and local data sources and would be internet accessible to UCF and the community at large.

The focus in identifying and gathering resources has been on general demographics and health data, but other subject areas have been included as time allows. To be considered for inclusion in the ABCD Project, the resource must provide meaningful, free data about the local community at geographic units of county or smaller. The initial geographic focus for the project has been the following four Florida counties:

• Brevard
• Orange
• Osceola
• Seminole

Return to the homepage of the Access to Better Community Data Project.

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Prepared by: Rich Gause, UCF Government Documents Librarian
For additional information about the project, data resources, etc., please e-mail the ABCD Project.
URL of this page: http://library.ucf.edu/abcd/about.asp

Last update:01/05/07 09:08:39 AM