History

The Institute for Policy & Social Research (IPSR) at the University of Kansas became the lead agency in the Kansas SDC network in November 2018. IPSR has been a coordinating agency of the Kansas State Data Center (SDC) since the program started in Kansas in 1982 and was designated the Business & Industry Data Center (BIDC) for the State of Kansas in March 2009.

The State Data Center (SDC) Program is one of the Census Bureau's longest and most successful partnerships. It is a cooperative program between the states and the Census Bureau that was created in 1978 to make data available locally to the public through a network of state agencies, universities, libraries, and regional and local governments.

Mission

The mission of the SDC network is to provide training and technical assistance in the use of Census Bureau data for research, administration, planning, and decision making to local governments, the business community, researchers, and other interested data users. The national SDC network is a valuable source of feedback to the Census Bureau on data use, the operational aspects of decennial and economic census and survey programs, and the various federal-state-local partnership programs that support Census activities.

As the SDC lead agency, IPSR will:

  • •  Identify, recruit, and manage an affiliate network of nonprofit stakeholders in the state of Kansas who have a role in economic development efforts or otherwise use diverse economic and demographic data in their efforts.
  • •  Identify data and training needs.
  • •  Assist in training data users and affiliates.
  • •  Provide feedback to the U.S. Census Bureau on products and data.
  • •  Encourage participation by businesses, local governments, and the public in data collection efforts by the Census Bureau.
  • •  Reprint, extract, reformat, analyze, or otherwise prepare appropriate subsets of Census data for redistribution to data users and affiliates.

If you are interested in participating as an SDC affiliate or would like more information, please contact:
Xan Wedel
Institute for Policy & Social Research
The University of Kansas
1541 Lilac Lane, 607 Blake Hall
Lawrence, Kansas 66044
email: KansasSDC@ku.edu