2017 MLA Annual Conference

Questions about locating hard-to-find data, including international data, historical and time series data, and microdata, are on the rise. These questions range across subject areas, including economics, politics, health, business, and agriculture, and in addition to the challenge of merely finding this data, users often lack general data literacy skills when first asking their research questions. When fielding these questions from students, researchers, and community members, it is apparent that no one-stop shop exists for finding this data regardless of topic. In this session, participants will learn about common questions and themes that users are researching, along with problem-solving strategies, tips, and techniques for how to approach these difficult data-related questions. These strategies are informed by the presenters' frequent collaborations in their roles as economics and data services liaisons, as well as their initial research into the complicated world of freely available international data aggregators and databases.