SodaPop

WHAT IS IT FOR?

The Simple Online Data Archive for Population Studies is a Web accessible data archive of analysis-ready primary and secondary data files. Datasets are arranged in collections by dataset title. Collection size varies from as little as one or two data files to over 100 data files per collection.  Within each collection, users may view descriptive information often including links to abstracts and originating agencies or investigators; search the content of each collection for relevant variables; search across collections for variables; view accompanying electronic documentation; and finally, extract for download a personally tailored analysis-ready subset of a data collection in a format of their choosing -  SAS, Stata, or SPSS dataset and comma or tab delimited format.

WHY WAS IT DEVELOPED AND HOW IS IT MAINTAINED?

The Population Research Institute (PRI) has an existing library of data both on their UNIX network and in hardcopy (CD-ROMS).  Population data sources are often extremely large and cumbersome to use, some are bound by obsolete proprietary software, and many are released without the associated programs needed to read the data into a statistical package such as SPSS/SAS/Stata.  The programming team at PRI developed the SodaPop system as a means to prepare popular datasets from the PRI Data Archive in an analyses-ready format to better facilitate their use. SodaPop alleviates the need for advanced programming and UNIX navigation skills.  As the archive is Web-enabled, PRI's data resources in SodaPop are accessible to any social science researcher at Penn State, from any location, at any time.  Many SodaPop collections are even available to researchers outside the Penn State community.  SodaPop has grown rapidly over the last few years due to the collaborative efforts of both the PRI data archivist and programming team to ensure that existing data collections are current, and that relevant new collections are added.

HOW CAN THIS RESOURCE BE ACCESSED OUTSIDE PENN STATE?

The University Libraries have cataloged the datasets within SodaPop and have added the main SodaPop gateway page to the Electronic A-Z list.  Prior to this arrangement, any user connecting to the Internet without going through Penn State (DSL, cable, AOL, etc.) a download account for datasets of interest had to be requested via email.  By adding the SodaPop data holdings to both the CAT and A-Z list, Penn State users avoid the lag time of account request and generation by using the University Libraries authentication capabilities.