Considers some of the major categories of federally produced data resources, mentions some of the means of access to those resources, calls attention to some of the difficulties confronted in their use, and notes several developments that look toward more effective access by social scientists to those resources. (Author)

Describes archives of survey data, which differ from archives of other basic research material in that they came into being as collections of material created only to serve someone's original research needs. These archives do have particular problems but they do provide broad contributions to scholarship and should be encouraged rather than…