[Babase] Re: census "A"'s

Catherine Markham amarkham at princeton.edu
Thu May 11 15:58:19 EDT 2006


Hi all,

I don't follow this thread entirely since I haven't yet seen the errors 
that Karl and Leah are referring to, but I'd be happy to look into this 
when I'm back on Monday (unless everything is resolved by then).  I 
might be able to offer some insight by checking out Princeton's 
photocopies - perhaps notes were written on our copies of the 
datasheets.  Also, having entered a lot of the census data now, I can 
perhaps figure out why something was done a certain way (or, if it is a 
more recent record, why I did it that way).

As for the "non-existent procedure manual", it does exist!  I feel like 
we have a really solid base for a Princeton Database Manager's Guide and 
many such tips/rules have been written up in it.

Thanks,
Catherine



Karl O. Pinc wrote:
> 
> On 05/11/2006 09:29:40 AM, Leah Gerber wrote:
>> Hi Karl, I think I figured out part of my confusion with the census. 
>> The documentation was not quite clear for these particular rows. They 
>> have a "D" for demography row. It makes sense to me that it should not 
>> be in census, that census should have only an "A" or "C".  The 
>> documentation states that, in order to have an "A", there needs to be 
>> a "0" on the census sheet. These 3 particular rows have nothing on the 
>> census row. They don't show up on the sheets until the next census. 
>> For this situation should they still be considered "A" as absent 
>> coming from a "0" or should we change the documentation to state that 
>> there doesn't necessarily need to be a "0" for them to be considered 
>> absent.
> 
> It won't work with that literal wording because _all_ the individuals
> not in the group have no "0" either.  It's something of a question
> of "when are the individual's in the group?" along with "what
> is the relationship between what's written on the census sheet and
> who's in the group?"  I think there was a procedural question
> decided by Jeanne and Susan that said something like "the census
> sheet has data for every individual we consider to be in the
> group."  This would be true even when, say, Jeanne decides
> retroactively that an individual was born even though they
> don't show up in the census.  So I'm thinking it's a question
> for the non-existant procedure manual that says what you guys
> do to enter the data.  The reason why those 3 rows are confusing
> is because the individuals were put (with a 0) on the census sheet
> that was entered into babase even though they're not on the
> census paper records.  Perhaps one reason this is so rare is
> because the procedure has not been consistently applied.
> 
> I'd like to see the wiki as a place for you guys to put such
> procedural information so it does not get lost in the shuffle.
> I could explain explain explain in the Babase system documention
> but it's not really something that has to do with the way
> the computer operates, and it's not something that you can
> quickly extend or clarify.  The wiki solves those problems.
> 
> Karl <kop at meme.com>
> Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
>                  -- Robert A. Heinlein
> 
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