National Crosswalk

Service Center

Annual Report

July 1, 2002-June 30, 2003

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

October 20, 2003

National Crosswalk Service Center

Annual Report

July 1, 2002-June 30, 2003

Summary

Since 1983, the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC – now defunct) and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration have made a small investment of only $4,000,000 over two decades which has reaped a wide variety of products and services to users of occupational classifications, data and crosswalks. These services were provided through a service center in Iowa under a series of grants from the federal agencies. This document is the latest in a series of annual reports on that center’s activities (for reports for selected earlier years, visit http://www.xwalkcenter.org/xwrepo.html). The period covered by this report is the third year for which funding has flowed from the Employment and Training Administration through the ALMIS Resource Center. State ALMIS Database administrators are now a major customer group for the NCSC.

The overall level of service provided by the center has increased greatly since its early years. Increases in the variety of products and use of the Internet for delivering them have contributed to this rise. In the period covered by this report, the number of files downloaded by the center’s customers rose by 54 percent, to slightly over 38,000. The Employment and Training Administration through the ALMIS Resource Center funds the center. Slightly fewer than half of all the files downloaded from the center’s server were formatted for use in the ALMIS Database. Just over half of the ALMIS Database files downloaded were state-specific data files such as personal income or population.

During the year ending June 30, 2003, the center experienced its sixth 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 about 200 files to its customers. Nearly all of these files were on nine-track tapes destined for use with mainframe computers. During the last year, the center delivered over 38,000 files, almost exclusively through the Internet. File formats included text, MS Access, MS Word, MS Excel, Adobe Portable Document Format, FoxPro and video formats. Slightly under half (47 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, 2003. 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.)

Task 1: Support the ALMIS Database Maintenance Consortium…

¨ Attended consortium meetings in September (Kalispell MT), February (Myrtle Beach SC) and May (Portland OR). At each meeting, staff presented updates on the center’s activities and worked with all subcommittees but primarily with the Education and Communication and Database Structure committees, and with other groups as needed.

¨ Prepared quarterly reports on the center’s activities for inclusion in consortium reports for ETA. (July, October, January, April)

¨ Consulted with other Structure Committee members on new or revised structures for a number of tables: NAICS lookup and related tables; lay titles, licensing tables, SOC-based replacements for ALMIS OES crosswalk tables.

¨ Developed content, files, and other materials for the Applied ALMIS Database training classes. (August, September, October)

¨ Participated in delivery of material at Applied ALMIS Database training classes in Raleigh. (July, November)

¨ Submitted XML project proposal to North Carolina. (October, April)

¨ Maintained ALMIS Database Administrator communication list. (July-June)

¨ Prepared an annual report detailing NCSC activities and an analysis of trends in usage by customers. Report was distributed to the consortium and ETA and published on the NCSC web site. (September)

Task 2: Support State staff in their efforts to populate and manage the ALMIS Database…

¨ Combined content from a number of sources to create a prototype NAICS-based CESCODE lookup table. (June)

¨ Updated ALMIS Database Update Calendar web page as needed and created web page containing planned dates for monthly updates for LABFORCE, CES and CPI tables. (January).

¨ Provided monthly updates of national data for the CES and LABFORCE tables (July-June). The table provided in June was the first to use NAICS-based industry codes.

¨ Provided monthly updates to the content of the CPI table. (January-June)

¨ Provided prototype content for URL table containing web addresses for state LMI pages. (Released in May, updated in June)

¨ Worked on ALMIS Source document and created prototype ALMIS Sources database. (August)

¨ Tested SQL scripts for database and table creation capability. (July, August)

¨ Provided national Covered Employment and Wages (ES-202) data for 2001 formatted for use in the ALMIS Database, along with a compatible NAICCODE table developed in cooperation with the consortium. (November)

¨ Reformatted and provided 2001 OES wage data. (January)

¨ Identified and renamed data tables that can be used with version 2.2 of the database. The standard format provided by the NCSC had been for version 2.0. Nearly all are compatible with version 2.2. The files were renamed to indicate their compatibility with version 2.2, and database administrators were notified. (March)

¨ Updated a variety of non-Department of Labor ALMIS tables:

o Census population estimates. (July)

o Bureau of Economic Analysis personal income estimates. (August, January, May)

o Department of Defense military separations file. (October)

o Census income estimates. (January)

o Commuting data from the 2000 Census. (March)

o Updated ALMIS GEOG table. (June)

o ALMIS GEOG table with new geography types. (micropolitan areas, metropolitan divisions – June)

Task 3: Provide support to the Career OneStop Consortium, ETA and other users…

¨ Participated in ACINet, Workforce Tools of the Trade and American Association of Community Colleges interest group conference calls. (August, October, January, February, March, April, June)

¨ Attended Career OneStop Consortium meeting in Clearwater Beach FL. (February)

¨ Attended ACINet work group meeting in Alexandria VA. (May)

¨ Tested and provided comments during beta test periods for new Career OneStop enhancements. (January, June)

¨ Created ACINet Licensed Occupation database application in Access. (September).

¨ Created final files and metadata for the new Labor Exchange Skill Statements (now known as the Detailed Work Activities). (July, September)

¨ Converted survey questions on Labor Exchange Skill Statements (now known as the Detailed Work Activities) to web based survey instrument. (October)

¨ Tested and provided comments during beta test periods for new Career OneStop applications: Skills Profiler (January) and Resume Tutorial. (March).

¨ Converted NCSC licensing database utility programs to O*NET occupations. (August)

¨ Updated licensing database provided to ETA Career InfoNet contractor. (September, October, November, February, May)

¨ Provided licensing database for national licenses to contractor for updating. (January)

¨ Worked with individual states on content of their licensing files. (July-two states, September-one state, October-two states, November-two states, December-one state, January-one state, April-two states)

¨ Participated in licensing database conference call with ETA and ACINet contractor. (January)

¨ Provided proposed licensing database revised file structures to ETA and ACINet contractor. (May)

Task 4: Develop and maintain the Internet resources necessary to carry out the other tasks…

¨ Added section 508 access compliance to NCSC web site. (October)

¨ Added Google™ search to NCSC web and FTP pages. (November)

¨ Distributed ALMIS Resource Center Newsletter. (February, March, July)

¨ Major update of the ALMIS Database Update Calendar page. (May)

¨ Created mockup of a redesigned NCSC website (February, March, April, May)

¨ Developed draft (May, June) and production (June) Non-standard ALMIS Database data pages.

¨ Developed web page for distribution of ALMIS Database SQL Server build scripts and Internet database application for accepting requests for access to the page. (September, October)

¨ Created prototype of a database driven website. (August, September, October)

¨ Created prototype for www.almisdb.org website. (January, February, March, April)

¨ Developed infrastructure and website for www.almisdb.org. (May, June)

Task 5: Maintain and expand center’s collection of classification resources…

¨ Work Content Statement page and files. (October)

¨ Department of Defense Military Occupational and Training Data (MOTD) update. (July)

¨ Occupational Outlook Handbook file update. (July)

¨ SOC Computer-Based Training developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (December)

¨ Career video file update. (March)

¨ CIP 2000 and CIP crosswalk file cleanup/updates. (September, October, November)

¨ O*NET Detailed Work Activity page and files. (formerly known as Labor Exchange Skill Statements and also formerly known as Work Content Statements). (October,April)

¨ O*NET page and database updates. (November, December, April)

¨ 2000 SOC to 2000 CIP crosswalk. (January)

¨ O*NET lay title file. (June)

Task 6: Continue the center’s outreach by attending conferences…

¨ Attended Workforce Innovation conference in Nashville TN (July) and provided volunteer services for the conference in general and the Career OneStop display.

¨ Attended Labor Market Information Forum in Hershey PA (October) and made a presentation about the types of NCSC support for the ALMIS Database.

¨ Attended Association for Career-based Systems for Career Information (ACSCI) Conference in Las Vegas NV (December) and made presentations on NCSC services in general and the center’s plans for development and distribution of products based on the 2000 CIP.

Overall NCSC Utilization and Product Delivery

A primary focus of NCSC activity is on support for states in their development and maintenance of the ALMIS Database. That database contains a wide variety of types of information, much of which was available through the center before the ALMIS Database. When the center began operation, a relatively small number of files was available in a very limited range of formats. Customer requests were filled through shipment of either printed reports or nine-track tapes for use on mainframe computers. Eventually, widespread use of personal computers and delivery of products over the Internet brought about a major shift in both the variety of products offered and their delivery. It was easy to track NCSC activity when that activity involved mailing 200-300 tapes and printed reports each year. It’s more difficult to quantify when thousands of files are sent over the Internet to anonymous users.

The information contained in this section was taken from the logs of the NCSC’s Internet server. The center delivers information through three primary Internet services:

1. NCSC home page (http://www.xwalkcenter.org)

2. NCSC FTP Server (ftp://ftp.xwalkcenter.org)

3. NCSC Cold Fusion web server (http://webdata.xwalkcenter.org)

This analysis will focus on activity on the latter two resources. The NCSC home page resides on a server operated by the State of Iowa, and its logs do not furnish sufficient information for this analysis. The inclusion of the third item is especially significant. For the past two years or so, the content of the center’s FTP server have also been made available through the World Wide Web protocol (HTTP). This change provides three significant advantages: 1) it makes the server’s files available to users who, for a variety of reasons, cannot access FTP services, 2) it makes the contents of the server available to Internet search engines, and 3) it allows users to search the contents of the file using the NCSC home page’s Google™ search feature.

The remainder of this section will focus largely on various dimensions of the services offered by the NCSC via the Internet:

1) Customer Requests

As was stated, tracking customer requests is relatively easy when a service has a limited product range and few delivery options. That was the case during the early years of the NCSC, when mailing products to them filled customer requests. This was complicated somewhat in 1989 when the center began operating a dial-up electronic bulletin board system. These systems were popular for several years, and their use paralleled the current use of the Internet in many ways. Tracking customer requests was still relatively simple, since individual dial-up sessions, including user names, and file downloads were tracked in the system’s log. The introduction of the center’s Internet server in late 1997 made tracking more problematic. Files were delivered to mostly anonymous users, and tracking individual sessions through the server’s logs is more difficult. Nonetheless, it’s worthwhile to attempt to estimate the number of user requests as one measure of the center’s level of activity.

For the purpose of this analysis, all files over 4 KB in size downloaded or viewed from a single internet address in one day was considered a request. This is analogous to earlier request counts in which a single request could have included multiple printed reports or files on tape or diskette. It’s important to acknowledge some degree of imprecision in these estimates, since the analysis depends on combining the server’s HTTP and FTP services’ logs and analyzing the resulting 37 MB file. Although this precision does exist, consistency over the years in the definitions and analysis used, and awareness of factors, such as file views by search engines, should allow for an accurate portrait of both trends and levels of service.

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 several hundred instances of custom product development, referral to existing products and web site enhancements each year. Custom products developed in response to requests are documented and made available to all customers. While the anonymous nature of the act of downloading files from the NCSC’s Internet server makes it difficult to identify the center’s customers, a sampling of the companies, organizations and individuals who have requested information from the center illustrates the types of organizations that utilize the center’s services. A sampling of the customers who requested and information from the NCSC through e-mail during the period covered by this report are:

North Idaho College

Vocational Economics, Inc.

Public Policy Associates

Economic Research Services, USDA

University of Arkansas – Little Rock

Nielsen Media Research

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

University of Missouri – St. Louis

Chicago Public Schools

The Ohio State University

VocRehab.com

Applied Epidemiology, Inc.

Illinois Central College

University of Iowa

Lancaster University Management School (UK)

RAND Graduate School

Files Downloaded

Counts of files downloaded may present the best picture of the center’s delivery of services. This count has risen steadily since the center started delivering files through its Internet FTP server in late 1997. For the period covered by this report, the number of files downloaded rose by 54 percent to slightly more than 38,000.

Some changes made by the NCSC over the past few years have made these files both more visible and more accessible. The files on the center’s FTP server are also available through the World Wide Web protocol (http). NCSC staff had received a number of messages indicating that some customers could not connect to the FTP server. This inability to connect could have several causes, ranging from their own browser settings to security set up by their host agency or Internet Service Provider. Adding the http protocol made the server’s files available to virtually everyone who couldn’t connect to the FTP service. In addition, during the period covered by this report the NCSC added a Google™ search of its web site. Since the files on the FTP server are also available through the web protocol and are included in the NCSC Internet domain, this search also searches their content. (NOTE: The search engine must examine the content of the server’s files in order to include them in the general Internet search results. The NCSC removed over 20,000 instances of this from the logs before usage was analyzed. Had these entries not been removed, the count of files downloaded would have been that much greater.)

Over 5,000 different files were downloaded during the year. Some highlights:

Number of user sessions	17,040
Number of unique Internet addresses	7,343
Number of files downloaded/viewed	38,060
Bytes downloaded	39,720,348,393

Downloads by Subject Area

An analysis of the types of files downloaded by NCSC customers indicates that, while the center’s support for the ALMIS database accounts for a significant portion of the files downloaded, there is still significant demand for other type of files. For example, while OES wage files are formatted for use with the ALMIS database, the data are also available in a more generic format suitable for downloading for use outside the database.

The distribution in the graph at the right relates to the 38,000 file downloads during the year. Over 5,600 distinct files were downloaded during the period. Over 5,000 of these files were downloaded ten or fewer times. A listing of the individual files downloaded 100 or more times is included as an appendix to this document.

Since support for the ALMIS Database is a significant activity, a look at the types of ALMIS Database files downloaded highlights the areas in which the center should concentrate its efforts. Although the majority of files downloaded are state-specific data files, the distribution of downloads by ALMIS Database version is significant. The number of downloads related to the most recent database version makes up larger portion of the total than it did a year earlier, when the percentage of files related to version 2.2 was only 2.1 percent. This jump is a significant indicator that states are moving to the latest database version in order to take advantage of changes that make it easier to incorporate new occupational projections and other data.

Anticipated Activities

The national service center will continue to assist its customer base in providing products and services to their customers. Based on those needs, the center anticipates both technical enhancements to accommodate new data exchange standards and supporting new products related to occupational classifications, data and crosswalks. These exact activities will be driven by customer needs. The general activities anticipated so far include:

¨ Development of a new master crosswalk file linking the 2000 CIP to various occupational and other classification systems.

¨ Redesign of the NCSC web site

¨ Revision of the prototype units of analysis (clusters) to include the 2000 CIP.

¨ Introduction of revised file structures for the ACINet licensed occupation application.

¨ In cooperation with the EEOC and others, extract information from the 2000 Census EEO file designed to allow system developers to add functionality to their applications.

¨ Develop XML resources and capacity

¨ Develop Web Services resources and capacity

¨ Continued support for development and distribution of O*NET-based products

Appendix

Files with 100 or more downloads

July 2002 -June 2003

File Name	Downloads/ Views	Description
/almis/whatsnew.txt	735	ALMIS Database file update listing
/download/xwalks/xwalk01.pdf	544	Description of Dept. of Defense military to SOC crosswalk
/download/onet31/onet31ac.zip	420	MS Access version of O*NET 3.1 database
/download/video/00001.mpg	418	Career Video File (old version -- no longer available)
/almis/ver22/txt/xwalk/mosxdot.txt	318	ALMIS military to DOT crosswalk
/download/military/motd2002.pdf	312	Military Occupational and Training Data from Dept. of Defense
/almis/ver22/txt/lookup/moscode.txt	295	ALMIS military lookup table
/whatsnew.txt	272	Server file update listing
/download/soc2000/socoes00.xls	268	SOC crosswalk to 1998 (old) and 1999 (new, SOC-based)OES
/download/career.kit/dotxonet.dbf	264	O*NET to DOT crosswalk
/almis/national/readme.txt	257