NCJ Number
58724
Date Published
1979
Length
15 pages
Annotation
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DATA SUPPLIED TO LEAA UNDER GRANTS, CONTRACTS, AND INTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS REGARDING CRIMINAL JUSTICE MACHINE-READABLE DATA ARE SPECIFIED.
Abstract
THE NATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE DATA ARCHIVE WAS ESTABLISHED BY LEAA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. THE ARCHIVE IS DESIGNED TO PROMOTE THE ANALYSIS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE DATA BY MAKING INEXPENSIVE DATA TAPES AVAILABLE IN AN EASILY USED FORM. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DATA SUPPLIED TO THE ARCHIVE CONCERN TAPE RECORDINGS, DATA TYPES, FILE ORGANIZATION, DATA CODES, AND DOCUMENTATION. DATA PROVIDED TO LEAA SHOULD BE ON 9-TRACK MAGNETIC TAPE WRITTEN AT A DENSITY OF 800, 1,600, OR 6,250 BYTES (CHARCTERS) PER INCH. ALL MACHINE-READABLE DATA RECORDS SHOULD CONSIST ENTIRELY OF ALPHANUMERIC, EBCDIC, OR ASCII CHARACTERS. DATA ITEMS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED EITHER COMPUTATIONAL OR NONCOMPUTATIONAL. NONCOMPUTATIONAL ITEMS CONTAIN INFORMATION SUCH AS NAMES AND LABELS THAT ARE NOT USED IN ARITHMETIC OR NUMERICAL OPERATION. DATA ITEMS FOR WHICH THERE MAY BE MISSING DATA SHOULD HAVE EXPLICIT MISSING DATA VALUES. RECORDS TRANSMITTED TO LEAA SHOULD NOT CONTAIN UNDOCUMENTED OR IRRELEVANT FIELDS. EACH RECORD IN A FILE CONTAINING MORE THAN ONE RECORD TYPE, FOR EXAMPLE, A HIERARCHICAL FILE, SHOULD CARRY A DATA ITEM TO IDENTIFY THE RECORD TYPE. FILE RECORDS SHOULD CARRY AN IDENTIFICATION NUMBER THAT IS UNIQUE TO THE PARTICULAR DATA FILE. WHERE POSSIBLE, STANDARDIZED DATA CODES SHOULD BE USED. TAPES SUBMITTED TO LEAA SHOULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY DOCUMENTATION INDICATING PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TAPES AND THE LOGICAL COMPOSITION OF RECORD TYPES. A SAMPLE TAPE VOLUME TABLE OF CONTENTS IS INCLUDED. (DEP)