Presentation at the North American Data Documentation Conference (NADDI) 2013Statistical data exist in many different shapes and forms such as proprietary software files (SAS, Stata, SPSS), ASCII text (fixed, CSV, delimited), databases (Microsoft, Oracle, MySql), or spreadsheets (Excel). Such wide variety of formats present producers, archivists, analysts, and other users with significant challenges in terms of data usability, preservation, or dissemination. These files also commonly contain essential information, like the data dictionary, that can be extracted and leveraged for documentation purposes, task automation, or further processing. Metadata Technology will be launching mid-2013 a new software utility suite, "DataForge", for facilitating reading/writing data across packages, producing various flavors of DDI metadata, and performing other useful operations around statistical datasets, to support data management, dissemination, or analysis activities. DataForge will initially be made available as desktop based products under both freeware and commercial licenses, with web based version to follow later on. IASSIST 2013 will mark the initial launch of the product. This presentation will provide an overview of DataForge capabilities and describe how to get access to the software.Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas; University of Kansas Libraries; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Data Documentation Initiative Allianc
