Access to microdata on the Internet: Web-based analysis and data subset extraction tools

The Internet is increasingly being recognized as an invaluable component of education. At the college and university level, online databases and statistical tools for Web-based analysis and data subset extraction have become important instructional resources. These Internet resources enable students to formulate specific research hypotheses, identify relevant variables, and analyze large existing databases. This article describes three of these resources: the Federal Electronic Research and Review Extraction Tool (FERRET) of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) unit at the University of California, Berkley, and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), which is housed at the University of Michigan.