Building a data archive that meets the needs of both researchers and non-researchers: how CPANDA addresses this challenge

The Cultural Policy the Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA) at Princeton University was created in 2003 to stimulate the development of a nascent field of study - arts and cultural policy research. As a field-building enterprise, CPANDA seeks not only to archive relevant data sets, but also to spur new research, encourage emerging scholars to take an interest in the field, and inform journalists, policy makers, artists, cultural organizations, and the public about the data it collects. Meeting the needs of such a diverse set of potential users poses significant challenges for organizing and creating web content, building tools for accessing data, and educating non-researchers on the proper interpretation of statistical data. At the same time, CPANDA must also meet the needs of its primary constituency, the research community; it is, after all, a data archive. This presentation will discuss how CPANDA structures users' online experience so as to meet the data and information needs of individuals with widely differing backgrounds and research expertise