
Celebrate your data in 2025’s Love Data Week! Scheduled for the week of Valentine’s Day, this year’s events are all linked to Abacus, a data repository collaboration involving libraries at Simon Fraser University (SFU), the University of British Columbia (UBC), the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and the University of Victoria (UVic).
Our programming is a collaboration among the four universities but you don’t have to attend these institutions to participate – the talks and workshops are open to everyone, as are many of the datasets in Abacus. All events will be be hosted online using Zoom, so you can attend from anywhere in the world, and better yet, registration is free.
Love Data Week is also an international event, with activities promoted by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). If nothing local grabs your interest, you can explore the list of worldwide events.
We look forward to seeing you!
Calendar of events
Introduction to the Abacus Data Repository
Monday, February 10, 2025, (11:00 AM-12:00 PM)
Join us in uncovering unique and free-to-you data and resources from Abacus. Abacus is a data repository hosting licensed and open source data available to SFU, UBC, UNBC and UVic researchers and, in some cases, the public.
- Daniel Brendle-Moczuk, Geospatial & Social Sciences Data Librarian, UVic Library
- Jeremy Buhler, Data Librarian, UBC Library
- Carla Graebner, Librarian for Data Services and Government Information, SFU Library
- Mathew Vis-Dunbar, Data & Digital Scholarship Librarian, UBC Okanagan Library
- Susie Wilson, Data Services Librarian, UNBC Library
Mapping the Environment: Wrangling, Plotting, and Analyzing Spatial Environmental Data in R
Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 1:30-2:30 PM
This workshop will teach you the basics of using R to wrangle and plot spatial environmental data and conduct basic exposure assessments using both vector and raster data. The environmental conditions that people are exposed to, such as levels of air pollution or greenspace, are largely dependent on where they live, work, and play. As such, the analysis of spatial environmental data is a critical tool for understanding how environmental conditions vary across space and time and identifying who is exposed to what. During the workshop you will be introduced to useful R packages for spatial analysis, using them to analyze publicly available datasets.
Dr. Stephanie Cleland is an Assistant Professor and the Legacy for Airway Health Chair in Promotion of Lung Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She is also a Research Scientist in the Centre for Lung Health at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. She holds a PhD and MSPH in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Cleland’s research uses environmental epidemiology, exposure assessments, and health impact assessments to investigate how climate change-related environmental exposures, such as wildfire smoke and extreme heat, adversely impact human health.
Effects of Trades Deregulation on Labour Supply: The Case of Compulsory Trades Certification in British Columbia using Labour Force Survey Data
Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Compulsory Trades Certification in British Columbia (BC), Canada provides an experiment to measure the impact of deregulating compulsory certification, a form of occupational regulation and licensure. Beginning in 1967, several trades occupations in BC required a government recognized certification to practice work in these trades. In 2003, the government of BC repealed compulsory certification, and 11 formerly compulsory trades no longer required certification to practice.
To study the impact on labour force participation, Jacob obtained data from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey via its Real Time Remote Access-RTRA by 5 digits National Occupation Code facilitated by UVic’s StatsCan Librarian on labour force status for ten formerly compulsory certification trades (Autobody and Collision Repair, Automotive Service Technician, Industrial Electrician, Construction Electrician, Plumber, Powerline Technician, Refrigeration Mechanic, Roofer, Sheetmetal Worker, Steamfitter/Pipefitter) at the occupation and province level from 1997 – 2010. There will be a few slides on the (labourious) process of RTRA.
Using a two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences model with a vector of demographic controls, Jacob estimated the change in labour force participation in the selected occupations due to deregulation.
The results indicate statistically significant and positive effects on labour force participation among the study trades combined and for the Construction Electrician, Refrigeration Mechanic, and Automotive Service Technician occupations individually.
Lastly, Jacob implemented an event study to assess the identifying assumption of difference-in-differences and examine whether there are differential effects of deregulation over time. The event study results indicate that deregulation of compulsory certification had an increasing positive effect on labor force participation over time for Construction Electrician and Refrigeration Mechanic.
Jacob Genert, University of Victoria
Daniel Brendle-Moczuk,Geospatial & Social Sciences Data Librarian, University of Victoria Libraries
R Showcase: Statistics Canada Microdata in R
Thursday, February 13, 2025, 10:00-11:00 AM
Statistics Canada releases Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) for the Census and many of its surveys. These de-identified files contain responses at the individual level and are a rich source of data for researchers. This workshop demonstrates how to access, explore, and analyze Statistics Canada microdata using R. We will work with the Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey but the content applies to any Statistics Canada PUMF, hundreds of which are freely available in Abacus, UBC Library’s data repository.
There are no prerequisites. Participants familiar with R and RStudio can follow along on their own workstations. Those new to R can benefit from a demonstration that showcases how R can be used for analysis and reproducibility.
Jeremy Buhler is the Data Librarian at UBC Library, responsible for the library’s collection of open and licensed data. He facilitates access to data and helps researchers develop skills in data analysis, manipulation, and visualization.
Siobhan Schenk is a Ph.D. candidate in Botany at UBC. She studies how bacteria influence the health of kelps in stressful abiotic conditions and on kelp farms. Siobhan is a member of the Quantitative Data Analysis team at the UBC Library Research Commons and offers workshops and consultations on data analysis and visualization.
Accessing the Abacus API with R
Friday, February 14, 2025, 10:00-11:30 AM
Using Abacus, UBC’s data repository, explore basic concepts of using R to search for and download data via an API. Using an API to access data provides a unique way to explore the repository and to script repetitive tasks. Topics covered will be applicable to other APIs. This workshop assumes some level of comfort with R for the purposes of data wrangling; code will be described in plain language to guide participants through the process, but this will not be a ‘how to’ wrangle data.
Mathew Vis-Dunbar is the Data and Digital Scholarship Librarian at UBC Okanagan Library.
Nick Rochlin is the Data Science Librarian at the University of Victoria Libraries, and supports the departments of Chemistry, Math, Physics & Astronomy, and Statistics.