The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded a 2019 National Medal for Museum and Library Service to The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan.

This annual award celebrates institutions “that are making a difference for individuals, families, and communities.” Ten organizations were selected from a group of 30 finalists. 

ICPSR is an international consortium of 800 academic institutions and research organizations with a mission focused on advancing and expanding social and behavioral research. 

Housed within the U-M Institute for Social Research, ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.

Professors of information Paul Courant and Margaret Hedstrom and associate professor Libby Hemphill are members of ICPSR. UMSI research professor Margaret C. Levenstein is the organization’s director.

“ICPSR is most deserving of this recognition from the Institute of Museum and Library Services,” says Courant. “ICPSR serves as a center of activity for essentially all of the social science disciplines and for many interdisciplinary projects and topics. Above all, ICPSR is consortial, bringing together students, researchers, academic institutions and disciplines in the service of producing and sharing excellent work.”

  - Jessica Webster, UMSI PR Specialist