The Data-PASS Partnership:Collaboration, Agreements,and More

Myron GutmannICPSRUniversity of Michigan

My Story

• One overall partnership• One Collaboration Agreement (for now)• Effective partnership activities• Multi-faceted set of collaborations:

– Some involve all the partners– Others are partner-to-partner and involve

subsets of the partners

• Question: how to ensure future activities given funding and diverse goals

The Data-PASS Partnership

• ICPSR (Michigan)• Howard W. Odum Institute for Research

in Social Science (North Carolina)• Roper Center for Public Opinion

Research (Connecticut)• Murray Archive/Institute for Quantitative

Social Science (Harvard)• National Archives and Records

Administration (US Government)

Partnership Goals Overview

• Shared Collection Development– Identification– Appraisal– Best location for content– Ingest processing

• Shared Technology– Common catalog– Archive tools

• Long-term preservation– Replication

Articles of Collaboration(Concluded fall ‘05)1. Membership2. Management Structure3. Addition/Withdrawal of Membership4. Subcontracting5. Reporting6. Cost Sharing7. Funding & Accounting Requirements8. Technology

Articles, continued

9. Data & Intellectual Rights10. Transfer Protocols11. Disputes12. Term (Duration)13. Post-Contract Commitments14. Amendments

Now, how it really works…• Operations & Steering Committees

function very well• Lots of informal discussion, with little

reference to the formal agreement• Much all-partner activity & discussion• Much partner-to-partner collaboration• Why?

– Well-developed field with long-standing contacts

– Rapid change requires flexible approaches

All-Partner Activities Follow Original Outline• Collection Development as Core

– Identification, appraisal, best ingest– Gradual progress from past to future

• Technology investment through Harvard’s VDC and Dataverse– Tools– Common Catalog

• Shared replication as critical future activity

Partner-to-Partner Ties have Exceeded Expectations• Roper – NARA USIA Data Project• Roper – Odum – ICPSR work on Private

Research Organizations• Harvard – Odum Technology testing

partnership• Roper – ICPSR Joint Poll Processing

Activities

Challenges for the Future

• How to sustain the future without Library of Congress funding as motive

• Does everything need to be written?• Are we the “Three Musketeers” ?

– Is it “all for one and one for all” all the time?– Or do two-way and three-way collaborations

arise and develop within a broader framework over time?

• In this context, how do we add partners?