Grinnell College has a growing collection of data sets for secondary analysis in teaching or research. Unless indicated otherwise data sets are available for download through this website. To browse the collection, follow the links to the disciplines. There you will find a list of data sets available. Generally, each data set will include an electronic codebook and an SPSS saveset that can be opened with SPSS 10.0 for Windows or Macintosh. Some data sets come in other formats, or lack full codebooks. A few only have hard copies of the codebook. In these cases the codebooks are available through ITS.

Most of these data sets can also be accessed directly from Windows computers by mapping the Statistics volume of the Storage server. There you will find a folder called SocialStudiesData. While you can read and analyze data directly from the server, you will not be able to save changes such as new or recoded variables. For this reason we recommend that you make a copy of the data set you wish to use on your own computer or in your personal folder on the Storage server. Keep in mind, however, that many of these data sets are quite large.

If you do not find what you are looking for you may wish to check the ICPSR website where many data sets are available free of charge to faculty, staff, and students of Grinnell College.

In any case, if you have questions about data at Grinnell, or need help locating a data set, please contact Katie Dunn, Reference and Instruction Librarian (dunnkath@grinnell.edu, or x4234).