VL

Social Sciences Virtual Library

 This icon courtesy of the Tech-Impressionist Museum

Social Sciences Directories and Data Archives

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Sites particularly recommended =

Asia, Australia, New Zealand

  • Asian Studies World-Wide Web Virtual Library (Australian National U., Australia)
    http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-AsianStudies.html
    [A major directory for information about Asia, designed and managed by T. Matthew Ciolek.]
  • Australian Social Science Data Archive - ASSDA (Australian National U., Australia)
    http://assda.anu.edu.au/
    [ASSDA is a member of the International Federation of Data Organisations (IFDO) through which it maintains contacts with data organisations abroad actively engaged in providing the social science community with computerised data and documentation. Links to other data archives.]
  • Coombsweb - ANU Social Sciences Server (Australian National U., Australia)
    http://coombs.anu.edu.au/CoombsHome.html
    [Social Sciences and Asian Studies networked research facility built around ftp, wais, e-mail and WWW technologies. Another pioneering site created and maintained by T. Matthew Ciolek.]
  • Humanities HUB
    http://www.spaceless.com/hub/
    [Keyword searchable data-base and links to resources for Social Sciences and Humanities research.]
  • HUMANUM - Research Institute for the Humanities (Chinese U. of Hong Kong, PRC)
    http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/
    [A topical directory of web links in various humanities fields: languages and literatures, history, philosophy, religious studies, fine and performing arts, computers and the humanities, etc.]
  • NetEc - Research in Economics (Hitotsubashi U., Japan)
    http://netec.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/NetEc.html
    mirrored at http://netec.mcc.ac.uk/NetEc.html (Manchester U., UK)
    mirrored at http://netec.wustl.edu/NetEc.html (Washington U. at St. Louis, USA)
    [Site offers printed working papers (BibEc), data about electronic working papers (WoPEc), code for Economics and Econometrics (CodEc), WWW resources in Economics (WebEc), select resources in Business Administration (BizEc), and Home Page Papers in Economics (HoPEc).]
  • Public Policy Assessment Society, Inc. (Australia)
    http://www.mpx.com.au/~polsoc/
    [A public-interest organization offering policy analysis and statements on topics affecting Australians.]
  • Qualitative Research in Information Systems (Auckland U., Australia)
    http://www.auckland.ac.nz/msis/isworld/
    [The site offers information on the conduct, evaluation and publication of qualitative research.]

European Union

North America

  • Center for World Indigenous Studies (USA)
    http://www.cwis.org/
    [Part of the Fourth World Documentation Project, an online library of texts which record and preserve the struggle of native peoples to regain a place in the international community. A site that complements this one with regard to North America data is Native Web.]
  • CHASS - Computing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (U. Toronto, Canada)
    http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/
    [A good example of a general resource facility for academic students and faculty at the University of Toronto. Includes a limited set of topically organized but non-annotated links to internet resources.]
  • CIA World Factbook (U.S. Govt., USA)
    http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
    [Annually updated reference work on nations and regions prepared by US "intelligence" agency.]
  • Data on the Net (U. California at San Diego, USA)
    http://odwin.ucsd.edu/idata/
    [Searchable or browseable collection of 772 Internet sites of numeric Social Science statistical data, data catalogs, data libraries, social science gateways, and addresses. See also the glossary.]
  • GEOSTAT - Geospatial & Statistical Data Center (U. Virginia, USA)
    http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/
    [Numeric data distributed through the US Depository Library Program, ICPSR, and various governmental organizations, as well as data from non-governmental surveys such as the National Health and Social Life Survey. Also links.]
  • H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online (NEH and Michigan State U., USA)
    http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/
    [A megasite that seeks to enlist participation from academics, students, and scholars. Sponsors e-mail discussion networks, provides employment information, announcements of conferences and similar activities and events, reviews of scholarly studies, and a good deal more.]
  • Internet Crossroads in the Social Sciences (U. Wisconsin, USA)
    http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/newcrossroads/index.asp
    [Includes a keyword searchable Online Data Archive. A guide to Social Science data available on the Internet. Hyperlinks with careful annotations denoting content, quality, and other relevant cues are arranged by subject area and type of resource. Intended for Social Science researchers seeking data upon which to conduct secondary analysis.]
  • Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research - ICPSR (U. Michigan, USA)
    http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/
    [A membership-based organization serving member colleges and universities that provides access to a data archive and training in quantitative analysis techniques.]
  • Library of Congress (U.S. Govt., USA)
    http://www.loc.gov/
    [Topical and limited keyword searchable site of the main USA publication depository.]
  • National Archives and Records Administration - NARA (U.S. Govt., USA)
    http://www.nara.gov/
    [Records of the US federal government and exhibits based on them.]
  • Panel Study of Income Dynamics (U. Michigan, USA)
    http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/
    [A longitudinal survey of a representative sample of US individuals and families. The data are collected annually, and the data files contain the full span of information collected over the course of the study. PSID data can be used for cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intergenerational analysis.]
  • Perry-Castaņeda Library Map Collection (U. Texas, USA)
    http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html
    [A major map collection that makes available maps of many world areas online.]
  • Research Resources for the Social Sciences (Canada)
    http://www.socsciresearch.com/
    [Mega-site of links organized by various social sciences disciplines and topics. Maintained (with commercial support from McGraw-Hill Ryerson publishers) by Craig McKie of Carleton U. in Ottawa.]
  • Scout Report (U. Wisconsin, USA)
    http://wwwscout.cs.wisc.edu/
    [Includes reports published every Friday on the web and by email to provide information about new resources on the Internet. Professional librarians and subject matter experts select, research, and annotate each resource.]
  • Social Science Research Network - SSRN (Austin, Texas, USA)
    http://www.ssrn.com/
    [Four networks: accounting, economics, financial, and legal. Encourages early distribution of research results by reviewing and publishing submitted abstracts and by soliciting abstracts of top quality research papers from around the world.]
  • Social Sciences Data Collection - SSDC (U. California at San Diego, USA)
    http://ssdc.ucsd.edu/
    [Numeric datafiles as well as a set of computer programs that provide easy access to them through a menu interface. The web version includes a catalog of the entire collection and pointers to datasets made available through the internet. Some data is restricted to UCSD only, but all users can browse the catalog of holdings.]
  • Social Sciences, Humanities, General Reference - INFOMINE (U. California at Riverside, USA)
    http://infomine.ucr.edu
    [The file contains over 900 resources including e-text archives, e-journals, online subject guides, databases, and reference resources. Keyword searchable, browsable subject list.]
  • Social Sciences Internet Resources (Western Connecticut State U., USA)
    http://www.wcsu.ctstateu.edu/socialsci/socscres.html
    [Interdisciplinary links and disciplinary ones for Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Political Science, and Sociology.]
  • SocioWeb (USA)
    http://www.socioweb.com/~markbl/socioweb/
    [Topically-organized and keyword-searchable set of links and resources, mainly for sociology.]
  • Survey Research Resources (USA)
    http://members.bellatlantic.net/~abelson/
    [Links to resources for survey methods as applied to the study of social issues, consumer research, policy analysis.]
  • United Nations (United Nations, USA)
    http://www.un.org/
    [Main server for UN information See also UN Development Programme and UNESCO.]
  • United States Census Bureau (U. S. Govt., USA)
    http://www.census.gov/
    [Offical statistics, databases, publications.]
  • United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economics and Statistics System (Cornell U., USA)
    http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/usda.html
    [Nearly 300 reports and datasets from the economics agencies of the USDA. These materials cover US and international agriculture and related topics. Most reports are text files that contain time-sensitive information. Most data sets are in spreadsheet format and include time-series data that are updated yearly.]
  • Voice of the Shuttle (U. California at Santa Barbara, USA)
    http://vos.ucsb.edu/
    [Alan Liu's hyperlinked web directory, although called a Web Page for Humanities Research, includes categories and pointers to sites equally relevant to the Social Sciences. For "culture theory" and popular culture, see also the PopCultures originated by Sara Zupko.]
  • Yahoo! - Social Science Index
    http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/
    [Links, most of them not annotated, from the main site of a major commercial subject-index of the WWW in California, USA. See also the Open Directory Project's Social Sciences links page.]
Social Sciences Courtesy of the Techno-Impressionist Museum Index Page