You will be aware that under a CONZUL agreement, the University of Canterbury pre-pays for customised requests for NZ Statistical data. This allows researchers to access a range of statistical data sources and request customised data sets where necessary. Since I took over from Heather Jenks as the Contact Officer we have received 5 requests for customised data sets and are well on the way to using up our allocated hours for the year. If you receive any requests for NZ statistical data do outline the service.

Yesterday I participated in a video conference call with NZ Stats and other NZ Universities using the Access Grid. The main items to report are:

Digitized versions of various materials including Official Yearbooks 1893-2008 and some information on early Maori tribes will be launched in March. These will allow importation into Excel.
NZ Stats will be delivering presentations on CURFs (Confidentialised Unit Record Files). These presentations will be of interest to many researchers in Geography, Economics, Health Sciences and other areas which use this sort of statistical data. The Canterbury presentation will take place at the University of Lincoln. I’ll promote this event when the date is finalised. These on site seminars are expensive to deliver and may be reviewed when the CONZUL contract for 2012-2015 is negotiated.