The Minority Data Resource Center (MDRC) is a new initiative of ICPSR at the University of Michigan whose goal is to provide educators, researchers and students with data resources that can be used in the analysis of issues affecting racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States.

MDRC provides access and analytic tools intended to enhance the usability of the vast array of data available for comparative research. These data include large on-going national surveys and administrative records that allow researchers to track changes in outcomes for members of minority populations. A selection of MDRC data collections is available for online data analysis. This means that users can perform certain statistical procedures on the data, create custom subsets, or browse the codebook on the Internet, without downloading the entire collection and importing the data into a statistical package. For more information, see http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/MDRC/das.html

ICPSR is pleased to announce the launch of MyClass ? a mass registration process where faculty and librarians are able to reserve temporary user accounts for a class or training group who will be working with ICPSR data and resources.

Users of MyClass accounts can download and manipulate data without going through the process of establishing permanent MyData accounts. The benefit is that MyClass enables instructors to focus very little classroom time on the registration process and proceed directly to working with data.

To create MyClass accounts, you must have a valid MyData account. As an affiliate of NCSU, which is an ICPSR member institution, you may create your personal MyData account at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ticketlogin.

MyClass account creation can be found at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cgi-bin/bob/myclass (you will need to log in to your MyData account to create a MyClass account). Data access is available immediately after creation of MyClass accounts. After a period of time that instructors specify, the temporary accounts will cease to exist.

This is the first phase of what is expected to be multiple phases of MyClass development. Future phases of MyClass might provide temporary collaboration space that enables instructors to place ICPSR resources materials and links into predefined folders, has import/export capabilities, and enables users to create, extract, and save online analysis code, variables, and output into the space. We encourage your input on its development. Please send suggestions to the NC State University Official Representative, Michele Hayslett, at Michele_Hayslett@ncsu.edu.