The needs of the social science user for computer-related services are not unique, but for a variety of reasons they are somewhat different from the needs of, say, the mathematician, the engineer or the physical scientist; certainly they tend to differ from those of that rare bird, the humanities user. Typically and succinctly, the social science user has a large amount of data and he doesn't know how to program. His data frequently require sorting, merging, logical and/or arithmetic manipulation and he desires as an end product frequency tabulations, cross-tabulations (each with appropriate statistics), correlations or regressions. There are other more sophisticated requests but these are the basic requirements.  In order to meet the computing requirements of these users, Princeton, like many other academic institutions, provides separate social science-oriented services. In our case, they are offered at the Computer Center by Social Science User Services. In order to simplify this discussion a bit I propose to do the following:  First, to define and explain in greater detail the needs of the social science user, indicating as I do so the ways in which those needs are met at Princeton and .   Second, to present models, including the Princeton model, of the ways in which these services may be provided, discussing as I do so the advantages and disadvantages of each. .
['Judith S. Rowe']
Meeting the needs of the social science user