Development of an integrated CARI Interactive Data Access System for the US Census Bureau

Abstract

In preparation for the American Community Survey Content Test, a team from the US Census Bureau and RTI International has been collaborating in the development of the CARI Interactive Data Access System, an integrated web-based system for reviewing of audio and image recordings which are made with Blaise 4.8.2 during field and telephone interviewing.

The use of computer audio-recorded interviewing (CARI) techniques is expanding and can be expected to grow rapidly with the release of CARI capabilities in Blaise software. Capture of these sound and image files is only the beginning of the process, however; to be useful, those recordings must be reviewed and analyzed in light of the study goals. CARI can have many values: confirmation of data quality and authenticity, examination of the effectiveness of question wording, study of interviewer and respondent behavior, managing performance of the interviewing staff, and other purposes. In this paper we discuss the design and implementation of the integrated CARI Interactive Data Access System with emphasis on data integration to bring audio and image recordings created from Blaise 4.8.2 during data collection into the system for quality review, authenticity evaluation and behavior coding of interview administration, respondent reactions and questionnaire design.