[DDI-users] source attribute

Elizabeth Bennett ezb@Princeton.EDU
Tue, 30 Jul 2002 09:49:55 -0400


Hello, all --

I'm looking for some guidance about the use of the source attribute.
Because CPANDA initially used MADDIE to create DDI codebooks, all of the
elements in our codebooks contain the attribute "source=producer". In a
few places, we've got two versions of an element, e.g. an abstract, and
need to use the source attribute to distinguish between them, but in
most cases it seems to me that the source attribute is meaningless and
should be removed. Or perhaps we should use source=archive as our
default, since none of the data producers sent us a DDI-compliant
codebook (or any codebook at all, in some cases). 

I'd appreciate some illustrations of actual practice, and the rationale
for why you're doing it that way. 

I've read the Elements and Attributes documentation page, but it didn't
answer my question. 

Thanks very much for your help -- and thanks to ICPSR for setting up
this list.

--Elizabeth
--
Elizabeth Z. Bennett
Project Manager/Associate Director
Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive
609-258-7357
ezb@princeton.edu