Statistical Metadata Needs during Integration Tasks

Abstract

As part of an NSF-funded effort to work toward a national statistical knowledge network, we have been working to determine what elements of statistical metadata are most crucial for end users as they attempt to find and use data from US Federal statistical websites. We report here preliminary findings from a study conducted to compare how experts and end users interact with statistical data and discuss the implications of these findings on the construction of architectures and interfaces designed to integrate statistical data across agencies.