DEVELOPMENT OF A MICROCOMPUTER ARCHIVE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH ON AGING

AN ARCHIVE OF MACHINE-READABLE DATA FROM U.S. STUDIES DEALING WITH SOCIAL RESEARCH ON AGING WILL BE ESTABLISHED. FOR EACH DATA SET IN THE ARCHIVE, THREE MACHINE-READABLE FILES WILL BE DISSEMINATED: THE RAW DATA, SPSS PROGRAM STATEMENTS TO TRANSFORM THE RAW DATA TO AN SPSS ANALYSIS FILE, AND SAS PROGRAM STATEMENTS TO TRANSFORM THE RAW DATA TO A SAS ANALYSIS FILE. FILES WILL BE DISSEMINATED IN A VARIETY OF MEDIA, INCLUDING CD-ROM, FLOPPY DISKETTE, BERNOULLI BOX CARTRIDGE, AND MAINFRAME TAPE, AND A USER'S GUIDE WILL BE PROVIDED. THE ARCHIVE WILL INCLUDE: (1) SEARCH AND RETRIEVAL SOFTWARE CAPABLE OF RETRIEVING INFORMATION ACROSS DATA SETS AT BOTH THE INDIVIDUAL VARIABLE AND STUDY LEVELS, AND (2) MODULAR COURSE MATERIAL TO FACILITATE USE OF THE ARCHIVE. THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THE ARCHIVE WILL BE ASSEMBLED INTO A SINGLE CD-ROM MICROCOMPUTER PRODUCT IN PHASE II. PHASE I WILL BE DEVOTED TO PRODUCING PROTOTYPES FOR ALL NEW PRODUCTS, TO CONDUCTING A NEEDS SURVEY OF POTENTIAL CLIENTS,AND TO LINING UP A NATIONAL ADVISORY PANEL AND PRODUCT TEST SITES FOR PHASE II. IN PHASE II, ALL PRODUCTS WILL BE FINISHED AND PACKAGED INTO INDIVIDUAL DATA SETS, THE CD-ROM,OR A COMPLETE AGING SOCIAL RESEARCH LABORATORY PROVIDING THEMICROCOMPUTER HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, INSTALLATION, AND TRAININGSERVICES REQUIRED TO USE THE ARCHIVE.