2010 May, Lithuanian data archive for Humanities and Social Sciences (LiDA) provides access to European Social Survey (ESS) Round 4 Lithuanian data with descriptions in English.

December 10, 2009. Project seminar and discussion "LiDA : new opportunities for quantitative data analysis". The seminar has introduced the continuity and new activity trends of LiDA project. Seminar also covered the discussion on data collections available at LiDA, access to ICPSR, new training seminars in early 2010 in Kaunas, Vilnius, Klaipeda and Siauliai.

We are pleased to announce the next European Social Survey (ESS) Training Course:

7th ESSTrain: " Socio-Demographic Background Variables for Cross-National Comparative Survey Research in Europe" to be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 12th-13th October, 2009.

Instructors: 
Jürgen H. P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, GESIS - Leibniz-Institute for Social
Sciences, Mannheim;
Uwe Warner, CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange

The 7th course can be attended by 60 participants, for outstanding applications there is a limited number of ESSTrain grants available that cover travel costs and accommodation. All participants will be provided with lunch for all course days and a common dinner at the first course day evening.

Deadline for applications is May 4th, 2009.

For detailed information on the ESS Training Courses, the application procedure, and the ESSTrain grant please visit the ESS homepage:
http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=243&Itemid=341

March 10, 2009. CESSDA President  prof. Kevin Schürer (Essex University, UK Data Archive) and dr. Brigitte Hausstein (GESIS Service Agency Eastern Europe Zentralarchiv) visited LiDA. Visitors discussed research infrastructure issues with LiDA staff and partners, representatives of Ministry of Education and Science as well as administrative authorities  of Kaunas University of Technology.

January 13, 2009. LiDA has been recognized as a relevant infrastructure in Lithuanian scientific research field,  and acepted to European portal on research infrastructures (http://www.riportal.eu) that covers facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct top-level research in their respective fields.

"Tutorial Digital Preservation Management Resources"
The tutorial was developed by Cornell University Library and is now hosted and maintained by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). It was developed together with a workshop of the same name to address the establishment of a viable digital preservation program. At the core of the tutorial and workshop is an integrated model that combines the organizational context, technological implementation, and requisite resources. http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/dpm/index.html.

November 22, 2008. Methodological training seminar Qualitative comparative analysis: principles and software applications". Organizers: Lithuanian Data Archive for Humanities and Social Sciences (Kaunas University of Technology). Lecturer: dr. Vaidas Morkevièius. Target group: academic staff, scholars, PhD students, post-doctorates and other researchers.

The workshop on “Extending the CESSDA Research Infrastructure: 
Potentials and Possibilities”  will take place in Bucharest on 16-17 July 2008.  The workshop is organised within the framework of the CESSDAppp project which is funded by the EU. The local organiser is the Romanian Social Data Archive (RODA) in Bucharest. Lithuanian Human and Social Data Archive (LiDA) is invited to take part in the seminar and will be represented by the coordinator of LiDA public relations dr. Egle Vaidelyte.

18 June 2008:  Project seminar and discussion „ Lithuanian Humanities and Social Science Data Archive  LiDA. The aim of the seminar: to introduce LiDA archive, it's historical roots and structure, available and possible datasets, study catalogue LiDAKAT, etc. Place: Reval Hotel Neris (Donelaicio 27, Kaunas).  Participants: LiDA experts, project partners, scholars and students from Kaunas University of Technology, Vytautas Magnus University, Mykolas Romeris University, Ðiauliai University, Institute for Social Research.

Lithuanian researchers in social sciences face a new possibility for empirical data access. In April, 2008 Kaunas University of Technology together with the project „Storage and administration of empirical data and information: Lithuanian humanities and social science data archive (LiDA)“ partners Vilnius University and Institute for Social Research have become member institutions of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) representing Lithuanian national membership. Individuals at ICPSR national member institutions have direct, free access to all of ICPSR's data resources and user support.

7-25 April 2008: training courses for the data users. Organizers: 
Lithuanian Data Archive for Humanities and Social Sciences (Kaunas University of Technology). Location: Kaunas and Vilnius.  The target
group: academic staff, scholars, PhD students, post-doctorates and other researchers.

March 2008: Lithuanian Data Archive for Humanities and Social Sciences (Kaunas University of Technology) has joined the 4th Round of the European Social Survey as an institution responsible for conducting the survey in Lithuania.
The European Social Survey (the ESS, see http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org) is an academically-driven social survey designed to chart and explain the interaction between Europe's changing institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of its diverse populations. Now moving into its fourth round, the survey covers over 30 nations and employs the most rigorous methodologies. As a result, the ESS was awarded Europe's top annual science award,the Descartes prize in 2005.
The LiDA project will be adopting the ESS questionaire in Lithuania. Conducting the ESS in Lithuania will produce fresh and authentic data which will be exemplar in terms of methodology and comparative generalizations. It will also be instrumental in providing Lithuanian students, scientists and academia with data of outstanding quality.

27 February 2008: Workshop of the project experts (project „Storage and administration of empirical data  and information: Lithuanian humanities and  social science data archive (LiDA)“). Location: Kaunas University of Technology, Policy and Public Administration Institute (Kestucio st.  8-206). Agenda: Discussion on technical aspects of data archiving standards and organization of training courses that will be held on 7-25 of April.

February 2008: Qualitative Data Analysis Workshop
Location: The Institute of Historical Research, London

19 December 2007: Project Council meeting (project „Storage and administration of empirical data  and information: Lithuanian humanities and  social science data archive (LiDA)“): . Location: Kaunas University of Technology, Policy and Public Administration Institute ( Kestucio st.  8-206).

19 November 2007:  Project seminar and discussion „Humanities and Social Science Data Archive in Lithuania: Establishment and Organisation“. Location: Hotel Daniela (Mickeviciaus st. 28). Participants: LiDA experts, project work group, scholars and students from Kaunas University of Technology, Vytautas Magnus University, Mykolas Romeris University, European Humanities University, Institute for Social Research.

14 - 18 November 2007:  training visit  and seminar at  GESIS-ZA Central Archive for Empirical Social Research. Location: GESIS-ZA Cologne, Germany. Participants:  ZA-GESIS work group, LiDA work group and  project „Storage and administration of empirical data  and information: Lithuanian humanities and  social science data archive (LiDA)“  experts.

16 - 17 November 2007: training seminar „Nesstar –unlocking data, creating knowledge“. In October 2007 Margaret Ward visited Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania, to deliver a two day Nesstar training seminar.  Kaunas University’s Policy and Public administration Institute, in partnership with Vilnius University, the Institute for Social Research and the Republic of Lithuania Ministry of Education and Science are currently working on a national level project to create a Lithuanian humanities and social science data archive (LiDA). The aim of LiDA is to provide access to empirical data for students and researchers, and to promote data preservation and exchange. The Nesstar products will enable the archive to publish data to their own Nesstar system which will then be accessible by LiDA users via the internet.
Participants: The seminar was attended by representatives from all the partner organisations and provided an introduction to the Nesstar system and an overview of the Nesstar products. There were also practical sessions covering Nesstar WebView, using Nesstar Publisher and how to prepare a survey dataset for publication to a Nesstar Server.