National Crosswalk

Service Center

Annual Report

July 1, 2001-June 30, 2002

National Crosswalk Service Center

Center for Career and Occupational Resources

Department of Education

Grimes State Office Building

Des Moines, Iowa 50319

Telephone: 515-242-5034

http://www.xwalkcenter.org

September 16, 2002

National Crosswalk Service Center

Annual Report

July 1, 2001-June 30, 2002

Summary

A national service center for occupational classifications, crosswalks and data, the National Crosswalk Service Center, has been operated by the State of Iowa since 1983. As this center enters its twentieth year, it faces an increasing pace of technological change and must continue to provide services to its traditional customers while meeting the needs of new customers brought into the mix by a change in the center’s funding source. The period covered by this report is the second year for which funding has flowed from the Employment and Training Administration through the ALMIS Database Maintenance Consortium. State ALMIS Database administrators are now a major customer group for the NCSC.

During the year ending June 30 2002, the center experienced its fifth consecutive year of double-digit percentage increases in the number of files delivered to its customers. The format and delivery mechanisms for its files have had a significant impact on both what the center delivers and how it delivers it. During 1984, the NCSC delivered 200 files to its customers. Nearly all of these files were on nine-track tapes destined for use with mainframe computers. During the year ending June 2002, the center delivered over 24,700 files, almost exclusively through the Internet. File formats included text, MS Access, MS Word, Adobe Portable Document Format, FoxPro and video formats. Slightly under half (45 percent) of the files downloaded from the NCSC were formatted for use with the ALMIS Database. Other significant subject areas were Occupational Employment Statistics wage files, career video files and files containing the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook publication.

This report covers activity of the NCSC for the year ending June 30, 2002. It consists of three sections: (1) the relationships between the center’s activities and its statement of work, (2) the overall level of delivery and products delivered and (3) a brief discussion of the activity anticipated for the next year of the grant.

NCSC Activities Related to Work Statements

The National Crosswalk Service Center’s work statements spell out a number activities designed to support the ALMIS Database Maintenance Consortium, states that are implementing the ALMIS Database structure and the center’s traditional customers. This section of the document relates the center’s activities to its work statements. (NOTE: some activities may relate to more than one work statement task.)

Support for the ALMIS Database Maintenance Consortium

v Attended consortium meetings in Portland OR (August), Charleston SC (January) and Mystic CT (June). At each of these meetings, staff presented an update on the center’s activities in support of the consortium. The center’s work plan for 2002-2003 was reviewed by the consortium and approved at the June meeting.

v NCSC staff participated as members of the Database Structure and Marketing and Education committees. Participated in a Database Structure conference call (May) in preparation for the consortium meeting in June.

v Created ALMIS Training blueprint to serve as basis for training design and development.

v Presented information about files and services available from the NCSC during Basic ALMIS Database Administrator training in Raleigh NC (March) and posted files used in the training on the NCSC web page.

v Developed files and resource materials for the curriculum review version of Advanced ALMIS Database training and participated in the delivery of the training in Eugene OR (May).

v Produced an annual report summarizing NCSC activities for the 2000-2001 contract year (August) and published the report on the NCSC web site (September).

v Provided two quarterly activity updates to the consortium chair (February, May)

v Completed Visual FoxPro container for Version 2.2 of the ALMIS Database (December).

Support SESA/LMI staff in their efforts to populate and manage the ALMIS Database

v Developed prototype content for the revised RACEETHN table in version 2.2 of the database (August).

v Developed content for the core crosswalk tables MATXOES and MATXSIC (September).

v Populated core variables in the TABLLIST table (December)

v Completed development of prototype FoxPro 2.6 and delimited text files for version 2.2 of the database (February).

v Tested the prototype SQL Server scripts for building version 2.2 of the ALMIS Database.

v Developed content for the CIPCODE table from the final release of the 2000 CIP classification (April)

v Developed content for an expanded place file with 190,000+ records (June). The file contains records for populated places, American Indian areas, Alaska Native areas, Department of Defense facilities, national parks and monuments, and airports.

v Provided monthly updates for national data for the LABFORCE and CES tables (July-June).

v Reformatted national ES-202 data for use with the INDUSTRY table (November).

v Provided national employment projections (2000-2010 projections period) formatted for use with version 2.2 of the database (December).

v Provided the annual update to the count of persons leaving the military service by occupation by county (November).

v Provided updates to Bureau of Economic Analysis personal income and population tables (November, March).

v Developed or adapted from other sources sets of short titles for the NAICS and SOC ALMIS Database lookup tables (June).

v Tested and placed in production an Internet survey instrument designed to provide customer feedback (August).

v Developed and maintained a contact list of ALMIS Database administrators to supplement listserver service. (February, April, June)

v Maintained currency of an ALMIS Database listserver service.

Provide support to the Career OneStop (formerly America’s Career Kit) consortium, the Employment and Training Administration and other users of occupational and training classification systems and related data:

v Participated in ACINet and taxonomy conference calls (February, June)

v Attended America’s Career Kit consortium meeting in Chandler AZ (April)

v Provided updated work content statement databases to ETA (August, November)

v Hosted a work content statement workgroup meeting at which the group’s final report was written (June).

v Provided beta testing of ACINet revision (February, April) and Workforce Tools of the Trade.

v Notified the center’s customers of the availability of a new version of the O*NET database through the Developer’s Page on the O*NET Center’s web site. Developed MS Access and Visual FoxPro versions of the database. (April)

v Received and processed updated licensing files from ten states, provided updated licensing database to the ETA contractor (November, December), and began development of resources for states to use when they deal with the move from OES to O*NET occupations in the licensing database.

v Added another year’s production of new career videos to the center’s FTP server, along with Spanish-language videos and files formatted for streaming by Real Network’s Real server (October).

v Reviewed content and developed plans for distribution of Career OneStop resources, including:

o Work content statements

o Lay titles

o Subject matter taxonomy

Develop and maintain the Internet resources necessary for the center’s operation

v Developed prototype web site for displaying sources of content for ALMIS Database files,

v Registered Internet domains (almisdb.org, almisdb.info, almisdb.com, almisdb.biz) for use by the consortium as an ALMIS Database portal.

v Enhanced web services to enhance access to ALMIS Database-formatted files for downloading.

Maintain and expand the center's collection of occupational and training classification resources

v Developed MS Access and Visual FoxPro versions of the O*NET 3.1 database and a web page for providing access to the files and other relevant O*NET files and links(July).

v Developed SAS/PC version of the O*NET 3.1 database (November).

v Developed database files containing codes, definitions and crosswalks from the new 2000 revision to the Classification of Instructional Programs (June).

v Revised Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) to Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) crosswalks to include additional DOT occupations that were added in the O*NET 3.1 database that serves as a basis for the DOT-SOC file (July)

v Added a revised file containing links between military and civilian occupations to the center’s FTP server (October)

v Developed draft file linking the SOC to the 1990 version of the Classification of Instructional Programs for review by ETA and O*NET staff (October).

v Released prototype SOC-CIP (1990) crosswalk file through the NCSC web site with announcements to major customer groups.(March).

v Posted revised military to SOC crosswalk.

Conference Participation/Support

v Attended the Employment and Training Administration’s JETT*CON technology conference in Baltimore. Provided staffing for ALX Partner’s booth in the exhibit hall and other volunteer services (July).

v Attended the Labor Market Information Forum in Sun Valley ID (October).

v Attended Midwest career system conference and made a presentation highlighting new developments in occupational classifications, crosswalks and NCSC activities (April).

Overall NCSC Utilization and Product Delivery

(The contents of this portion of the report are based largely on an analysis of the usage logs of the NCSC’s FTP server. Note that activity on the center’s main web page (www.xwalkcenter.org) is NOT included in this analysis. The pages on that site are housed on a server operated by the State of Iowa’s Information Technology Department, and the logs furnished for the site are less detailed and do not contain the information needed for this analysis.)

The level of service provided to its customers by the NCSC can most easily be quantified by counts of the number of files delivered to them. In addition to the total number of files delivered, an analysis of the types of files by subject area provides a profile of the current interests of the center’s customers. During the center’s first few years, staff delivered a couple of dozen products based on just a few resources. The center now has thousands of different files available for downloading. During the 2000-2001 contract year, the NCSC enabled access to the files through the World Wide Web internet protocol (HTTP) in addition to the regular FTP protocol. Customers frequently contacted the center with questions about access to files on the server when it appeared that the unit that controlled their Internet access blocked access to all FTP sites. The change to the NCSC server permits those users access to the center’s server.

Various dimensions of the services provided by the NCSC through the Internet are analyzed in the following sections.

1) Customer Requests

One measure of the center’s operation is the number of customer requests filled. This measure was relatively simple to calculate when the center sent products through the mail in response to telephone or mail requests. The introduction of a dial-up bulletin board system in 1989 and Internet FTP services in late 1997 have made this calculation more difficult. For last two years, a request was defined as a session from which files were downloaded from the NCSC’s Internet FTP server. All files downloaded from any single Internet address on any given day were considered to be part of the same request. Changes in the configuration of the state’s firewall influence the amount of information passed to the center’s server and introduce inaccuracies into the count of requests. Regardless of this type of issue, the NCSC experienced a 20 percent growth in the number of requests during the most recent year, as reflected in the accompanying graph.

Although the bulk of product delivery occurs over the Internet, the NCSC continues to receive requests through e-mail and telephone calls. Such contact results in 200 or more instances of custom product development, referral to existing products and web site enhancements. Custom products developed in response to requests are documented and made available to all customers.

2) Files Downloaded

Another measure of the utilization of the center by customers is the number of files delivered. The trend in this measure mirrors that of overall requests. The number of files delivered by the center has increased significantly since the introduction of Internet FTP delivery in late 1997. During the past year, the number of files downloaded grew by 40 percent to over 24,000. (NOTE: World Wide Web search engines can access files on the center’s FTP server, since those files are also available through the protocol used by the WWW. The Google search engine showed up repeatedly in the server’s logs, and each view of a file appeared just like any other download. The impact of Google’s indexing the server’s content was removed from the logs for this analysis. Had this adjustment not been made, the count of downloads would have been over 11,000 files greater.) See the appendix for a listing of the files downloaded most frequently from the NCSC FTP server. While this list reflects the most popular files, it doesn’t reflect the variety of files available and downloaded. Over 4,000 different files were downloaded during the year. Some highlights:

Number of user sessions	8,234
Number of unique Internet addresses	3,625
Number of files downloaded/viewed	24,707
Bytes downloaded	63,976,277,837

3) Files by Subject Area

The server’s files are organized into file folders based on their general content. A review of files downloaded indicates that ALMIS Database files accounted for nearly half of all files downloaded during the period. The number of files downloaded from some directories of interest includes:

File Subject	Downloads/ Views
ALMIS Database Files	11,112
Career Video Files	3,649
Occupational Outlook Handbook Files	2,946
OES Wage Files	1,686
Census Files	1,032
O*NET Files	620
CIP Files	444
Military Classifications	164

The presence of Internet search engines has an impact on access to files on the server. For example, the files taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook publication describe numerous dimensions of many occupational groups. Because of the variety of content, nearly any topic can be related to one or more of the OOH files. An examination of the server’s logs indicated one Google search for “install mini tachometer in motorcycles” (without the quotes). This search will return a link to the OOH “Mechanics, Installers and Repairers” file quite high in its results.

4) ALMIS Database Versions

The logs also reveal some information about the ALMIS Database files downloaded by users. The files are organized along two dimensions: database version and geographic coverage for data files. The distribution of files downloaded follows:

Version/ Geography	# of Files	Percent
Version 1.1	1,064	9.6
Version 2.0	780	7.0
Version 2.1	568	5.1
Version 2.2	237	2.1
National	343	3.1
State	7,822	70.4

While this analysis appears to indicate that Version 1.1 of the database may be the most commonly used, a couple of factors may exaggerate the differences among the versions. First, the counts of files by database version reflect only the database structure and prototype content. The data files downloaded from the national and state folders are formatted for various versions of the database. A count of the versions of those files downloaded is beyond the scope of this analysis. It’s also likely that the distribution among the versions of the database changed over time, with more files related to Version 2.2 later in the year as states started moving their databases to that version.

The statistics and file list fail to capture one aspect of the files on the NCSC’s server: the choices presented to users, particularly ALMIS Database users, in available file formats. For example, files containing BEA Personal Income for South Dakota are available formatted for use with versions 1.1 and 2.0 of the database, with both versions’ files available in either delimited text or FoxPro versions. While it’s likely that only one of these files will be downloaded, it’s important that ALMIS customers be presented with files that they can incorporate into their particular version of the database with minimal effort on their part.

5) Search Engines and other Miscellaneous Information

Users arrive at the files found on the center’s server through a variety of methods. Many long-time NCSC customers and ALMIS Database administrators visit the center’s web pages on a regular basis. Others find NCSC resources when they search for specific content using Internet search engines. During the period covered by this report, nearly 1,700 visits to the center’s FTP server resulted from the use of search engines. Google, Yahoo and Altavista searches accounted for over 99 percent of those visits. Another nine engines also found files on the server, with each accounting for less than one percent of the visits. The most commonly used search terms are listed below:

A number of these terms (eeupdate, noicc, fixsic, onet98) indicate that the user was familiar with NCSC resources. Others (download video, www.fox26.com, download utilities) reflect a search for generic content by users unfamiliar with the center or its resources. The indexing of the NCSC’s files by Internet search engines, particularly the Google engine, provides exposure of NCSC resources to an entirely new group of potential customers. And, based on some of the search terms they use, at least some of these users have an interest in resources like those of the NCSC.

Anticipated Activities

v Web site redesign

v Develop database-driven access to downloadable files and supporting documentation

v Incorporation of new occupational classifications (SOC and projections occupations) into prototype units of analysis

v Provide revised units of analysis and other support to ETA’s supply/demand consortium

v Planning for and development of ALMIS Database and other products containing data from the 2000 Census

v Make presentations about new products and services at conferences made up of NCSC customers (Association of Computer-Based Systems for Career Information, LMI Forum, others)

v Increased level of testing and distribution of standardized Career OneStop resources

v Complete development of Classification of Instructional Programs products:

o Standard Occupational Classification to CIP2000 crosswalk

o Revision of the prototype units of analysis to a CIP2000 basis

Appendix

Top Files Downloaded/Viewed from NCSC FTP Server

July 2000-June 2001

File # Downloads/Views

download/onet31/onet31ac.zip	1519
download/xwalks/file+information	891
download/xwalks/xwalk01.pdf	872
download/video/	671
download/	519
download/video/00001.mpg	513
download/onet98/datadict.pdf	508
download/ooh0001/mechanics.rtf	479
download/ooh0001/production.rtf	437
almis/whatsnew.txt	428
whatsnew.txt	319
download/onet31/data_vfp.pdf	311
download/video/63008.mpg	298
almis/national/readme.txt	273
download/soc2000/socoes00.xls	255
download/ooh0001/service.rtf	246
download/ooh0001/executive.rtf	231
download/ooh0001/construction.rtf	218
download/occnames/file+information	217
download/video/index.txt	188
download/video/00002.mpg