The Evolving Role of the Official Representatives of the Inter-university

Consortium for Political and Social Research

Rui Wang, Social Science Librarian/OR

Central Michigan University

June 2008

Why has the OR been part of ICPSR for decades?

How has the OR role evolved?

What are the challenges and opportunities for librarians to fulfill the OR role and potentially to revitalize the system?

ICPSR1962-2008, over 50,000 datasets, 657 members, OR has been evolved: Faculty Librarians

OR historyOR history

Punch card and magnetic tapeAlternative mediaWeb

Era of punch card and magnetic Era of punch card and magnetic tapetape

Memorandum of Organization – the founding fathers’ document (First Annual Report (1962-1963)

“Each unit will designate one of its faculty members as the official representative to sit on a Committee of Representatives and take action on behalf of the participating unit”

The OR liaison role with three functions

ICPR brochure [1970?]

Era of punch card and magnetic Era of punch card and magnetic tapetape

Era of punch card and magnetic tape:Founding fathers’ culture – the OR legacy

The political power of governance and the disciplinary identity of political science of the OR group remained strong at that time. The 1975 OR survey concludes that: “the departmental affiliation of Official Representatives is overwhelming that of the Political Science department.” (ICPSR Bulletin, August 1976, p. 1).

““Alternative media” eraAlternative media” era

FTPCDROMDiskette

““Alternative media” eraAlternative media” era

A sharp increase of data librarians/professionals in the OR group:from 2.8% in 1975 to 12% in 1988

“Alternative media” era – the division of labor and alienation.

Data services traditionally provided by faculty ORs who were also data users was changed to data librarians/professionals who did not use data for their own research. When the disciplinary identity of the OR group started fading, the ownership and attachment to data were gone. The excitement and enthusiasm became less intense, compared to the heyday during the founding fathers period.

WebWeb

WebWeb

Web: challenges and Web: challenges and opportunitiesopportunitiesDon’t use ICPSR data

for research/teaching

A learning curve on technical skills and ICPSR organization

Only having financial responsibility – low motivation to play ORs’ role

Need a support network

More adapting to the service role

More visible and approachable

Devote time to learning and promoting ICPSR

Natural born promoters

A complementary strength of assisting users

ConclusionConclusion Founding fathers’ culture: ultimate political power –

Summit Meetings

Junior faculty ORs culture: a strong academic disciplinary identity – a combination of a data user and service provider

Data librarian/professional culture – the hub between data and researchers

OR meetings

Librarian culture – service role

ICPSR conference

The ORs’ apathy has appeared to The ORs’ apathy has appeared to increase.increase.

The 1975 OR survey reveals that “Regularized means of coordination and communication across departments appears to be the exception rather than the norm at most institutions. Cross campus communications remain predominantly in the hands of the Official Representative on an ad hoc basis.”

Only 1/6 of ORs attended the 2007 OR Biannual meeting

The 2008 OR survey indicates that most ORs (73%) spend 0% to 10% work time serving their institutions as OR.

Founding fathers’ Summit Meetings

OR meetings

ICPSR conference

ORs: low participation and “ad hoc” practice resulted ORs: low participation and “ad hoc” practice resulted from low usagefrom low usage

ICPSR should reform the “big show” of the OR meetings into an ICPSR conference to manifest the entire community of social sciences. All sectors would gather in the ICPSR convocation. Research work would be presented and recognized, disciplinary/interdisciplinary leaders would emerge, communication and collaborations between and within would be forged, scientific inquiries would be nurtured, and intellectual excitement would be generated. The “intellectual endeavor” and “collective enterprise” are the driving forces behind the evolution of the ORs’ role.

Philosophy and theory: an enterprise of social sciences, scholarly communication and publishing

Conference is still a major avenue of scholarly communication and publishing. Conference goers need validate their research and get feedback from their peers, junior faculty and grad students seek mentors and leaders, informal communication is still the most important and frequent communication among scientists in which research inquires, ideas, and collaborations are fostered

Practice and application: possibilities- a show case of ICPSR: recognition of research work, speeches of keynote speakers, proceedings etc.  

- conference goers are highly motivated because of their tenure and promotion requirements, and most likely their presentations and workshops are funded by their own institutions

- the unique identity of ICPSR conference - interdisciplinary of social sciences research which would be different from IASSIST. The ICPSR conference would more emphasize scholars' research and seed interdisciplinary leaders of quantitative social sciences research, bringing about teaching community and OR support community. ICPSR is a "strong and narrow" research domain. As long as the ICPSR conference attracts researchers, potential disciplinary/interdisciplinary leaders, teaching community, OR community, the conference should be able to generate enough discussions and enthusiasm for

attention. The conference is the convergent point for all.

An enterprise of social sciences

Research Education/training Teaching

Membership dues members

When celebrating ICPSR’s 25th anniversary in 1987, Ivor Crewe, Professor and Chair of the Department of government at the University of Essex, characterized ICPSR as an “intellectual endeavor and a collective enterprise.”(1989, p. 161)

THANK YOUTHANK YOU

Contact: Rui WangEmail: wang1r@cmich.edu