Research Resources: Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) Openly Release Over Seven Decades of Historical Public Opinion Polls and Guide
From OCUL:
In advancement of library open access and collaborative stewardship of digital data in Canada, Ontario university libraries are pleased to announce the release of over seven decades of important public opinion data to the broader academic community and the public.
Included in the collection are the historical Canadian Gallup polls, covering the years 1945 to 2000, held at the Carleton University MacOdrum Library, and now available for open research reuse via the ODESI data portal.
Additional polling collections that have been made available include the Canadian Opinion Research Archive (CORA) at Queen’s University, Angus Reid, IPSOS Reid, Leger Marketing, and IPSOS Canada at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Together these opinion polls provide a rich historical resource for researchers across Canada and the world, covering topics such as Canadian politics, government, elections, culture, sports, the environment, health care, social and economic policy, education, and much more. Geographic coverage of the collection spans every Province and Territory, supporting national research, regional, and international comparisons.
The Guide
Supporting access to the collections, the Ontario Data Community (a group of academic libraries in Ontario that coalesces initiatives and activities related to digital research data), has put together an informative Guide toPublic Opinion Polls for polls held at Ontario Council of University (OCUL) libraries and available in ODESI.
The guide introduces users to this collection by highlighting popular topics and innovative data visualizations of research use cases, and provides instructions on how to access these polls.
Filed under: Academic Libraries, Data Files, Libraries, News, Open Access, Patrons and Users
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.