In the Archive: “25 Years of IPUMS Data”

“25 Years of IPUMS Data,” the current IPUMS/MPC archive exhibit, highlights a dynamic quarter center history of data innovation at the University of Minnesota. In the late 1980s, the Social History Research Laboratory at the University of Minnesota’s History Department proposed “the creation of a single integrated microdata series composed of public use samples for every year … with the exception of the 1890 census, which was destroyed by fire.”  The primary aim was to make the U.S. census microdata “as compatible over time as possible while losing little, if any, of the detail in the original datasets” (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: A Prospectus).

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IPUMS and MPC Partnership with DFRACS Program

Spring semester recently came to a close here at the University of Minnesota, which means IPUMS and the Minnesota Population Center (MPC) had to bid farewell to another cohort of students from the Dean’s First-Year Research and Creative Scholars (DFRACS) program through the College of Liberal Arts (CLA).

Each year during spring semester, the DFRACS program pairs up to 150 first-year undergraduate students with faculty and research staff who are interested in help on their research or creative projects. These highly talented students get to engage in scholarly work early in their academic careers, form relationships with faculty and staff, and potentially motivate their studies. This year, IPUMS staff and MPC-affiliated faculty had the pleasure of working with 26 of these students. Since our partnership with the program began in 2008, IPUMS and MPC have been matched with a total of 174 students.

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