To study faculty linkages to their institutions, local labor markets, and their communities, we pursued both a quantitative and qualitative data collection strategy. First, during fall 1995, we administered a mail survey to a national sample of 3,500 community college faculty to gather data on the characteristics and attitudes of faculty and their linkages to the labor market. The survey included both academic and vocational faculty, full-time and part-time. Second, we conducted case studies of four community colleges across the country. The case studies provide more detail as to the types of links faculty have to the labor market and their communities and the institutional context within which faculty undertake such activities. In this section we explain our data gathering techniques and provide some details on our survey and case study samples.