UMass Donahue Institute to manage State Data Center
The University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute -- the public service, outreach, and economic development unit of the University of Massachusetts President's Office -- will become the Commonwealth's official source of demographic, economic, and social statistics produced by the United States Census Bureau, UMass President Jack M. Wilson announced today.
Under a cooperative agreement with the Census Bureau, the UMass Donahue Institute will become the new home to the Massachusetts State Data Center, which maintains an extensive collection of census data on population, housing, education, business, manufacturing, trade, services, government, and agriculture in Massachusetts, New England, and the United States. The Center was previously housed at the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research in the UMass Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
"The State Data Center helps to provide a critical roadmap for the shaping of public policy affecting the lives of Massachusetts citizens and communities," Wilson said. "This is an exciting opportunity to advance the analysis of vital information about who we are as a Commonwealth and what we have the potential to become."
Dr. J. Lynn Griesemer, Executive Director of the UMass Donahue Institute, said, "We are delighted to provide a new home for the Massachusetts State Data Center. We look forward to adding this to the complement of services we offer to faculty, staff, and students across the UMass system and to policy makers, communities and citizens across the Commonwealth." Locating the Massachusetts State Data Center within the UMass Donahue Institute will complement the social, economic and public policy research capabilities of the Institute, a leading provider of timely economic analysis and public policy research.
The Donahue Institute publishes MassBenchmarks, a quarterly journal that presents timely information concerning the performance of the Massachusetts economy, including periodic economic analyses of major geographic regions within the Commonwealth.
The Donahue Institute also publishes the monthly Massachusetts Current and Leading Economic Indexes that are widely used by policymakers to track the status of the state economy, and the Institute analyzes key industries that make up the economic base of the state.
Integrating the State Data Center into the Institute's ongoing applied social science research program will enhance access to essential data resources for faculty across the UMass system as well as the Institute's network of affiliates and the general public.
The Center will be housed in the Donahue Institute's Economic and Public Policy Research Unit under the direction of Dr. Michael Goodman. The day-to-day activities of the Center will continue to be managed by current State Data Center Manager John Gaviglio.
The State Data Center program was established in 1978 by the U.S. Census Bureau to make statistical information more readily available to the public. The Census Bureau provides data products, training, technical assistance, and consultation to state data centers across the country, which then offer products and assistance to local community leaders, planners, businesses, researchers, and the general public.
March 18, 2004
