CONZUL –Council of New Zealand University Librarians (Committee of Universities New Zealand) and Statistics NZ have in place an agreement that allows New Zealand University students and staff access to certain NZ and Australian Statistics. See Unistats for more detail.
Each University has a contact officer who liaises with Stats NZ and is the person that researchers must apply to in order to obtain data not available in the public arena. For Massey that person is me, Noelene White (NZP Librarian Turitea Library).

All contact officers meet with Stats NZ representatives twice a year via the Access Grid. Below are the main points of the most recent meeting, held this month.

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Statistics New Zealand has data available exclusively to NZ universities, some very useful publicly available tools, and a free phone service which we've found to be incredibly helpful.

Their staff ran a workshop at Turitea Library last week outlining these services. Here are some of the highlights:

- Some data is available exclusively to universities. The URL for this data is available from Noelene White, New Zealand & Pacific Librarian, email n.b.white@massey.ac.nz or phone ex. 4878

- Infoshare, Table Builder, Business Toolbox and the Interactive Boundary Maps (all available from Statistics New Zealand home page) give access to a huge range of data, which you can compile into customised tables, graphs or maps.

- One thing we discovered in the workshop is that the search tool may not find statistics that are there somewhere. It is possible to drill down through categories to find what you are after - if you are very familiar with the website. Statistics New Zealand are working on this - we look forward to the results!

- We have found that the free phone service at Statistics New Zealand is great - they welcome calls from anyone. So if you're stuck, phone 0508 525 525.

We can help you with statistics at the Information Desk. If you have queries about the university-only statistics, please contact Noelene White, NZ & Pacific Librarian, at n.b.white@massey.ac.nz or ex. 4878

Update 22/04/10: Sorry, due to high demand registrations are now closed for the 1-3pm workshop (using CURFs data), and it has been postponed. Those already registered will be advised by email when the workshop has a new date and venue. For those interested in the morning session, 10.30am – 12noon (please note the earlier start time), this is still going ahead in the Library Training Room. Thanks, Noelene White, New Zealand & Pacific Librarian.

Statistics New Zealand staff will be presenting two workshops at Turitea Library on 26 April, covering data sets available to all, and to provide training on using CURFs – Confidentialised Unit Record Files. Real data from the New Zealand General Social Survey: 2008 (NZGSS) will be used in the workshop. If NZ and/or Australian statistics are part of your research brief, you should seriously consider registering for this workshop.

Massey University Library – Turitea
Library Training Room
Monday 26 April 2010, 11am – 12 noon and 1pm – 3pm

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Statistics New Zealand have changed their web site. Unfortunately this means that links to Statistics NZ material from our own web site and Library Catalogue will no longer work. Library staff will be updating these links as soon as possible. Some commonly used pages that you might need are: Statistics NZ home page; Infoshare; and Table Builder. Please contact us if you need assistance in locating any information from their site via our catalogue. You can also give feedback or ask for help from Statistics New Zealand.

Statistics New Zealand has announced that Infoshare stage 2 is now available for free on their website. You can also access it from our Library catalogue.

In addition to the vast array of information already available, you can now:
** find and download detailed exports and imports data (by HS code and country)
** save queries for reuse
** use time-series identifiers to find specific data.

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