UVic Libraries manages both licensed and open data resources. We also manage data and statistics packaged specifically for researchers as well as data independently produced by colleagues during the research process. Both types of data can be public or restricted.
If you're looking for historical data, remember that our Special Collections & University Archives steward "data" from generations of researchers across disciplines. Contact them directly to see what is available. Example: environmental & oceanic archives, field notes, etc.
Abacus holds UVic Libraries' collection of licensed datasets, including public use microdata (PUMFs) from StatCan censuses, other social and health surveys, public opinion polls, and spatial data for GIS. Access is restricted to UVic users.
Borealis (UVic Dataverse Collection)
Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository is a national data repository for research data. The service, supported by UVic Libraries, is free for UVic researchers to deposit their datasets, which are registered with DOIs and are stored in a secure environment on Canadian servers. Researchers can choose to make their datasets available to the public, to specific individuals, or to keep it private.
With Borealis, researchers can search across research data from over 65 Canadian universities.
Lunaris provides a single point of search for research data held in Canadian data repositories, including academic institutions, departments at all levels of government, and research organizations. There are over 80,000 datasets from over 100 Canadian repositories and data collections currently indexed by Lunaris.
For access to confidential microdata from Statistics Canada census and surveys, contact the UVic Research Data Centre.
The UVic RDC provides access, for approved projects, to a growing variety of Statistics Canada confidential microdata household, population and workplace files. The microdata used by researchers come primarily from Statistics Canada Survey Master files. Increasingly, the Research Data Centres (RDCs) are repositories of administrative records from a variety of sources including tax, employment insurance, social assistance, and hospitalization records.
The UVic Libraries collects hundreds of websites as part of its web archiving efforts using Archive-It. UVic Libraries can help researchers access a variety of data related to these collections via the to Archive-It's Research Services, including:
WARC
WARC and their predecessor ARC files are the files into which data crawled using Archive-It is stored. Each file may contain multiple digital objects, including HTML, images, and videos. (Note that collection data can consist of both WARC and ARC files depending upon when they were archived through our service. Throughout these guides, the term “WARC files” refers to both WARC and ARC files.)
WAT
WAT stands for Web Archive Transformation, and are composed of key metadata such as provenance/capture information, essential text and link data, and other information. They are extracted from WARCs for every resource; because WAT files map one-to-one to WARC files, a collection's WARC files will have corresponding WAT files. WAT formats metadata into JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). The benefit is WATs are around 5%-20% the size of corresponding WARCs.
LGA
Longitudinal Graph Analysis files are archival web graph files that include a complete list of what URIs link to what URIs, along with a timestamp, from a collection’s origin through present. They are ~1% the size of a collection's aggregate WARC files, and deliver as a ZIP container of two files:
ID-Map:
ID-Graph:
WANE
Web Archive Named Entities are files that use named-entity recognition tools to generate a list of all the people, places, and organizations mentioned in each URI in a web archive, with a timestamp of when the URI was captured. The purpose is to link people, places, and organizations to time. A WANE dataset is generated using the Stanford Named Entity Recognizer software (http://nlp.stanford.edu/software/CRF-NER.shtml) to extract named entities from each textual resource in a collection. The analyzer uses an English model 3-class classifier to extract names that correspond to recognized Persons, Organizations, and Locations. WANE files are less than 1% the size of their corresponding WARC files, and are structured as a JSON object per line: URL ("url"), timestamp ("timestamp"), content digest ("digest") and the named entities ("named_entities") containing data arrays of "persons", "organizations", and "locations".
Please contact Corey Davis for more information.
UVic catalogues or has access to thousands of data sources. To specifically search for datasets in "Library Search" (Primo):
1. Enter a search term in the search box as you would for any other resource.
2. Once you are directed to the results page, use the "Refine Results" filter on the left-hand side of the page. Go to "Content Type" and then "Show More"
3. Now choose "Datasets" and then click "Apply Filters" (green button)
4. You will now see the datasets that have been added to our catalogue (note: not all datasets are catalogued).
See "Stats and Data for Business" guide for all resources
Comprehensive collection of Industry Market Research and Industry Risk Ratings.
Global market analysis software platform, which analyses the industry in countries around the world.
Global market and consumer statistics on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources.
Canadian imports, exports, and world trade data. Each table contains historical timeseries data
Research reports and data related to Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Trends, Industrial Trends and Public Policy and other topics.
Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
CIHI collects comparable, pan-Canadian data on different aspects of the health system. View a summary of all the data available by year and jurisdictional coverage (XLSX).
Population Data BC (PopData) provides academic researchers with access to a comprehensive collection of population health data, including health services, education, workplace and environmental data. These data sets include longitudinal, person-specific, de-identified data on BC's 5 million residents. Access is provided by following a data request process.
BCCDC's data dashboards and reports provide statistics on diseases in BC and on the health of our populations and communities.
Statistics Canada Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs)
Access to all microdata and documentation from the collection of available Statistics Canada public use microdata files (PUMF). Public use microdata files contain anonymized, non-aggregated data. Using statistical software, the end user can group and manipulate data variables in these files to suit data and research requirements.
Access via Abacus Search products on StatCan website
Statistics Canada RealTime Remote Access
Real Time Remote Access (RTRA) is an online tabulation tool allowing subscribers to run SAS programs in real time to extract results from masterfile subsets in the form of tables. RTRA system data users do not gain direct access to the microdata and cannot view the content of the microdata file. RTRA data users can calculate frequencies, means, percentiles, percent distribution, proportions, ratios and shares.
CANSIM (Canadian Socio-Economic Information Management System) is the Statistics Canada's computerized database of time series covering a wide variety of social and economic aspects of Canadian life. The use of CANSIM @ CHASS is restricted to current faculty, staff, and students.
The Canadian Census Analyser provides access to select Canadian demographic data from Statistics Canada's Census of Canada. Included are census aggregated profile tables and census microdata. This tool allows users to subset files and export data in varied formats including html, text, spreadsheet, and to statistical software such SAS and SPSS. Coverage: 1961 to 2021 censuses. The use of Canadian Census Analyzer @ CHASS is restricted to current faculty, staff, and students.
The BC Data Catalogue provides the easiest access to government's data holdings, as well as applications and web services. Thousands of the datasets discoverable in the Catalogue are available under the Open Government License - British Columbia.
Ipsos Canadian Public Affairs Database
The Ipsos Canadian Public Affairs Dataverse is a repository of over 60 Ipsos Canada surveys that shed light on Canadian elections, culture, politics, and society. All data is open access, supported by the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy
Data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. ICPSR collaborates with a number of funders, including U.S. statistical agencies and foundations.
See "Geospatial Data" guide for all resources
CanMap Content Suite contains over 100 unique and rich content layers. Each layer has a unique file and layer name with associated definitions, descriptions, attribution and metadata. All layers, with a few exceptions, are vector data consisting of polygon, polyline, or point geometry representation.
ICI Society Data Sharing Initiative
Dataset includes:
UVic Libraries
Greater Victoria
Satellite, air photo and other remote sensing images and data world
Our Maps collection contains over 68,000 paper maps on many themes/topics, including biology, culture, economic, geology, history, hydrography, military, streets, social, topography, and transportation.
Arts & Humanities data are as complex and varied as the disciplines that comprise these subjects. Below are three pieces that are useful in thinking about "data" in the Arts and Humanities
Our Data Management for Humanists website brings together training materials from recent SSHRC-funded workshops held across Canada to build foundational skills in research data management (RDM) for researchers in the Humanities.
Special Collections & University Archives contain resources from generations of UVic & local researchers; these include a seaweed inventory project (Alan Austin Fonds); underwater salmon research; B.C. Environmental associations (Mallard Fonds); Transgender archives; various scientific field notes; and more. Contact Special Collections or University Archives to learn more.
There is a difference between data that can be used FOR research, and data that are produced FROM the research process. Knowing what kind of data you are looking for ("for" or "during") will help you locate the resources you need.
Special Collections & University Archives contain resources from generations of UVic & local researchers; these include a seaweed inventory project (Alan Austin Fonds); underwater salmon research; B.C. Environmental associations (Mallard Fonds); various scientific field notes; and more. Contact Special Collections or University Archives to learn more.
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