William Frey of the University of Michigan announces that his SSDAN (Social Science Data Analyis Network) has received new NSF and Department of Education FIPSE funding to support Internet access and summer workshops to help college teachers introduce "userfriendly" analysis of ensus data in their classes. Tailormade data sets, from the 19501990 censuses, can be used in a variety of social science classes dealing with raceethnicity, immigration, gender studies, marriage, households and poverty, U.S. income inequality, the elderly, etc. SSDAN staff will help instructors tailor exercises for their own classes, and make them available to other professors in the network. Interested faculty can participate in the following ways:
WEB ACCESS. The project maintains a homepage ( http://www.psc.lsa.umich.edu/SSDAN/ ) which describes the project, available data sets and exercises, and permits downloading of census data sets, that can be accessed with Chipendale software in both IBM and MAC formats. Request a "startup" package, free of charge, by registering thru the homepage, making an email request to William.Frey@umich.edu , or writing to the address below.
SUMMER WORKSHOP. A sixday workshop will be held in Ann Arbor, June 1621, for instructors interested in adopting census data analysis exercises in their classes. For an application, contact SSDANSTAFF@umich.edu , or write to: William Frey, Director SSDAN, Populaton Studies Center, 1225 South University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104.
The Syracuse University Center for Policy Research has a new home page address: http://wwwcpr.maxwell.syr.edu This also affects the Maxwell Center for Demography and Economics of Aging (Doug Wolf), the CrossNational Studies in Aging Project (Rich Burkhauser), and the Luxembourg Income Study (Tim Smeeding) home page addresses. The paths to those home pages are the same, except for substituting WWWCPR.MAXWELL for GEROSUN. Questions can be directed to: Martha W. Bonney, Publications and Events Coordinator, Center for Policy Research, and Assistant to the Director, AllUniversity Gerontology Center, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 132441090. Phone: 315-4432703; Fax: 315-4431081.
NSFG Email Network Forming. The 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) continues its time series on contraception, fecundity, fertility, and marriage, but it also has many significant innovations in both methodology and content. Improvements in methodology include: an increase in sample size from 8,450 in 1988 to 10,800 in 1995, including the first oversample of Hispanic women; use of computer- assisted interviewing; and use of a self- administered segment to enhance the reporting of selected items. Content improvements are equally significant: new event histories of work, education, family background, and cohabitation; more depth on intended and unintended pregnancy, contraceptive use, and many other topics. Interviews were conducted between January and October of 1995 with women 15-44 years of age, and averaged 105 minutes. A public-use tape will be released around the end of 1996. A contextual data file is also being developed.
NCHS anticipates forming an email network and/or mailing list to notify researchers when the data become available, and provide information that will be helpful to researchers using the data. If you would like to be put on the NSFG email network or mailing list, please send your email address and regular mailing address to the Family Growth Survey Branch, NCHS, Room 840, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782, or to LJP2@nch08a.em.cdc.gov .