DISC Services
Circulation:
The materials held by DISC may be used free of charge by all students,
staff and faculty of the UW-Madison. Certain categories of materials
may also be used by the general public. Persons wishing to gain access
to data that are held by the library may contact the staff in person
during hours of operation, by telephone at (608) 262-0750, or electronically
via email (disc@mailplus.wisc.edu).
Codebooks may be checked out to campus users for one week. Reference
materials may only be used in the library.
CD-ROMs at DISC may only be used in the library as well.
DISC provides two user workstations for this purpose.
Archive Your Data:
DISC is always happy to accept data for inclusion into the library
that have been purchased or collected by researchers who wish to insure
preservation and provide wider access. Furthermore, DISC staff has a
long tradition of assisting investigators in the production and preservation
of public use files that will facilitate the dissemination and utilization
of their data by others. If you are interested archiving your data with
DISC, contact our library staff as early in the collection stage as
possible. Even if you do not wish to publicly distribute your data until
later, library staff can help you set up documentation procedures that
will ensure the data are useable by others. Other considerations include
ensuring confidentiality, documenting sampling and coding procedures,
and deciding on a useful format. Please visit our Online
Data Archive to view some classic archival datasets that have enjoyed
renewed attention since being placed on our website.
Special Facilities and Services
As a local clearinghouse for machine-readable data files, DISC engages
in the acquisition, documentation, storage and preservation of data
files for use in secondary analysis by students, staff and faculty.
Librarians provide access to the collection and outside sources through
reference and referral service. Users can obtain computer and statistical
support for their use of data from the staff of the Social
Science Computing Cooperative (SSCC) and the Division
of Information Technology (DoIT).
Data are stored on various media and users obtain access to the data
in a variety of ways. The library staff may assist users in accessing
and extracting data from disk
or from CD-ROM format. Two PC workstations are available on a sign-up
basis in the library for users to extract their data. A computing lab
in the building has hardware, software, and consulting support for statistical
analysis of data.
Some of our files may be available for use by the general public, subject
to the following limitations: many of our files are restricted to UW-Madison
users; we do not fill requests that seek our data for commercial purposes;
and responses are contingent upon staff availability.
For the past several years, the library has awarded a travel stipend from
ICPSR for their Summer Program to a UW-Madison affiliate. The recipient
is chosen randomly from a list of applicants. The only stipulations
are that previous recipients are not eligible and no participant may
be "double funded" by ICPSR.
DISC Outreach:
DISC librarians are available to teach classes about social science
data resources and practices. Class sessions are tailored to the data
needs and interests of the particular class. Past
sessions have included classes in economics, political science,
library science, and public affairs.
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