University of Waterloo
                     Electronic Data Service Task Group
                   Minutes for Meeting of April 19, 1995

Present:  Albert Kemp (Secretary)	Absent:  Sue Moskal
	  Doug Morton (Chair)                    Debbie Tytko
	  Shabiran Rahman                           
          Bill Oldfield
	  Carol Vogt

CC:       Bruce MacNeil, Mike Ridley, Charles Woods

1.  Minutes of Previous Meeting - Approval deferred.

2.  Add'l Agenda - 7. TGEM

3.  CANSIM/EPAS - 
    Doug Morton is still in the process of updating the HTML version of 
    the Cansim manual.

    Doug also reported that recently, one patron had trouble with the
    web interface to Cansim (WebSIM), because he tried to search the 
    short-title index using a label number.  The group recommended
    moving the retieval section higher up on the page to make it more
    visible to first-time users.  Albert Kemp will do this.

4.  Census, GSS & VAW - 
    Carol Vogt reports that most of the GSS SAS control files (except
    those for cycle 8) have problems with the variable definitions.
    Doug Morton will post a message to the CAPDU-L listserv to inquire
    if other institutions have been successful in using these files.

    Carol Vogt suggested the possibility of converting the existing
    GSS data files to a "portable" file format, which would make them
    easier to use, but would also increase the file size by 10-30%.
   
    However, if the Web to SAS interface can be successfully implemented,
    the amount of required disk space for storing the census data would
    be drastically reduced.  It would only be necessary to mount the 3
    Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF), which contain all the information
    most students would need.  Other files could be mounted upon request.
    This will be investigated further.

5.  User Interface - Nothing to report.

6.  Future Meetings - 
    The question was raised as to whether the group should continue to 
    meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.  It was decided that for the 
    time being, UW-EDS will continue to meet each week.    

7.  TGEM - 
    Richard Pinnell gave a brief status report on the activites of this
    group and its interest in all types of electronic information, 
    including the datasets that UW-EDS works with.  He volunteered to 
    demonstrate TGEM's area on the World Wide Web next week.


Next Meeting: Apr. 26, 1995, 1:30 pm, Porter 428.