The Cities Data Center was not designed to serve as a library or an archive.  These functions are adequately served by the College library and the Hartford Studies Project, housed at Trinity College.  Both maintain substantial and valuable archives of materials on the Hartford area.  The Data Center is focused, primarily, on supporting faculty with their teaching and student with their research.  The Center's efforts to locate information and data are driven by faculty and student interest.  

The Cities Data Center was designed to be a practical resource center supporting undergraduate research in the Hartford area.  By introducing local data into the cirriculum, students gain exposure to quantitative methods and develop confidence in their use 'real' data in the analysis of the world around them.  

In recent years students have used the Center in their research on topics, ranging from health to housing, families and poverty, education and youth, housing, development, immigration, government and public safety. 

Thanks, in large part, to the internet, more data is now available to the public that at any time in the past.  Government agencies - most notably federal agenicies - have posted voluminous amounts of electronic data on line in recent years.  State and local governments, colleges and universities, libraries, research centers, advocacy groups and second-party republishers continue to publish a wide range of data on the web.  So much data is now available that is often comes as a surprise the students that the specific information they need is not available.  In recent years, the Cities Data Center has located and gained access to a wide range oflocal data based on student or faculty interest. Since 2001, the Center has acquired data from:

• The Connecticut State Department of Education
• The Connecticut Department of Corrections
• The Connecticut Office of Public Safety
• The Internal Revenue Service
• The Connecticut Department of Public Health
• The Office of the Child Advocate
• The Hartford Community Court
• The Prostitution Protocol at the Hartford Community Court
• The U.S. Census (various years)
• The City of Hartford Department of Health
• The City of Hartford Democratic Registrar of Voters
• THe City of Hartford Town Clerk
• The Hartford Police Department
• THe Hartford Board of Education
• The City of Hartford Department of Planning
• The Hartford Housing Authority 
• The Connecticut Policy and Economic Council
• The Office of the Connecticut Secretary of State 
• The Hartford Public Library
• The U.S. Bureau of Justice
• Citizen's Research Education Network
• The Hartford Fire Department
• The City Manager's Office
• The Federal Election Commission
• The U.S. Bureau of Commerce
• The Connecticut Department of Labor
• The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
• The Connecticut Office of Healthcare Accesss
• The Hartford Courant
• The Connecticut Commision on the Status of Women
• Community Partners in Action
• The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• The U.S. Health and Human Services Administration
• The USEPA