In advancement of library open access and collaborative stewardship of digital data in Canada, Ontario university libraries are pleased to announce the release of over seven decades of important public opinion data to the broader academic community and the public.
Included in the collection are the historical Canadian Gallup polls, covering the years 1945 to 2000, held at the Carleton University MacOdrum Library, and now available for open research reuse via the ODESI data portal (http://odesi.ca). Additional polling collections that have been made available include the Canadian Opinion Research Archive (CORA) at Queen’s University, Angus Reid, IPSOS Reid, Leger Marketing, and IPSOS Canada at Wilfrid Laurier University. Together these opinion polls provide a rich historical resource for researchers across Canada and the world, covering topics such as Canadian politics, government, elections, culture, sports, the environment, health care, social and economic policy, education, and much more. Geographic coverage of the collection spans every Province and Territory, supporting national research, regional, and international comparisons.
The Guide
Supporting access to the collections, the Ontario Data Community (a group of academic libraries in Ontario that coalesces initiatives and activities related to digital research data), has put together an informative Guide to Canadian Public Opinion Polls for polls held at Ontario Council of University (OCUL) libraries and available in ODESI. The guide introduces users to this collection by highlighting popular topics and innovative data visualizations of research use cases, and provides instructions on how to access these polls.
About ODESI
ODESI is an open data repository for social science survey data built and developed by the Scholars Portal service of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL). Collections are contributed and curated by Ontario library staff and students, using best practices and standards including the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata standard for description of datasets.
A new release of the ODESI platform includes a section highlighting the Public Opinion Poll (POP) collection and guide.
More Information
An open informative webinar will be hosted by Scholars Portal and OCUL contributing institutions on October 26th at 10:00am EST to provide more information about the collections and how to access the data. No registration is required.
For more information about the collections and contributors please refer to the project information found on the Polls Guide.