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The Library Programs Service (LPS) received a request to provide the text
of the "Bureau of the Census Update" in advance of the publication of the
Proceedings of the 4th annual Federal Depository Library Conference later
this summer. The majority of the speakers have not as yet provided the
text of their presentations to LPS for inclusion in the Proceedings.
Bureau of the Census Update
Presented by
Lars B. Johanson
Chief, Statistical Abstract Section
Statistical Compendia Staff
Data User Services Division
at the
4th Annual Federal Depository Library Conference
Rosslyn Westpark Hotel
Arlington, VA
April 12, 1995
Good morning. It is my pleasure to be here and to give you some
recent information about the status of various Census Bureau
products and programs. During this time of budget uncertainties
we are doing our best to continue to release both printed and
electronic products that are useful to you and your library's
clientele. I want to give you first some hard-core information
about the status of various products and then review some recent
changes in the availability of printed reports.
CD-ROMS
Within the last few weeks you should have received the 1994
edition of the Statistical Abstract on CD-ROM and USA Counties.
This latest version of the Statistical Abstract has several
changes in the Textware software and also includes for the first
time a Macintosh version of Textware. USA Counties, an historical
county database, contains not only the popular "GO" software but
also LANDVIEW II mapping software. Complete technical
documentation is also included on the CD. We will also release
this spring the County and City Data Book 1994 CD-ROM which will
contain even more data for counties, cities, and places than is
found in the printed version.
The Bureau is also releasing now several CD-ROMs from the
economic and population censuses. The latest economic census CD-
ROM 1D contains complete geographic area reports for the censuses
of retail trade, wholesale trade, and services as well as many
manufacturing industries reports. We expect to release this
summer the geographic area data for the new report series on
financial businesses, insurance, real estate, transportation,
communications, and utilities.
Among the latest population and housing CD-ROMS are the 1990
Census Metropolitan Housing Characteristics CD-ROM and various
Subject Summary Tape Files. These specialized tabulations focus
on various topics such as earnings by occupation and education,
occupation by industry, poverty areas, and the aging population.
We will also release shortly an Income and Poverty CD-ROM based
on material from the March Income supplement to the Current
Population Survey. This redesigned version of the Current
Population Survey CD-ROM will contain a sample of unidentified
long-form housing-unit records for large areas so that users with
special needs can prepare customized tabulations. Also included
are historical summary data files for poverty and income. The
user of the historical data files will be able to do searches
using Textware software and to copy Lotus worksheet files.
The complete set of CD-ROMs for the Census Tract Street Index is
now available. This first-time release on compact disk allows a
user to enter an address and then find out the corresponding
census tract number, zip code, congressional district number, and
appropriate FIPS geographic codes. The disks come with both DOS
and Windows versions of the software.
Another new release in the geographic area is the new Landview II
series. This series which is a joint venture sponsored by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, and the Census Bureau, will contain
prepackaged county sets of boundary files. This should ease
somewhat the problem of loading Tiger files on your hard drive.
The set of 11 disks will contain information from various EPA
databases, including facilities that discharge into water, air,
or underground; facilities that generate, treat, store, or
dispose of hazardous waste; and abandoned hazardous waste sites
(Superfund sites). It will also contain demographic and economic
data from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing. The data are
presented in a geographic context that includes jurisdictional
boundaries (e.g. counties, cities, census tracts and block
groups, and metropolitan areas); detailed networks of roads,
rivers, railroads, and landmarks; and watershed boundaries.
Landview II data are integrated and accessible through software
that provides thematic mapping, printed maps and reports, the
ability to add new layers of information, and desktop mapping
capabilities for displaying, searching, and identifying map
objects. While on the subject of Landview software, we do have
plans to develop Landview software for the Windows environment;
however, its future release date is subject to the availability
of staff resources.
Also newly available in the geographic area is the first disk
from the 1994 TIGER/Line series. This development is sponsored by
the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The chief features of
the new set of six CDs are the addition of geographic boundaries
for traffic analysis, updated ZIP codes, and ZIP +4 codes for the
entire country.
Internet
For several months now the Bureau has distributed data and other
information on the Internet. Users can access our material
through Gopher (address: gopher.census.gov), FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) (address: ftp.census.gov), and the World Wide Web
(Mosaic client software) (uniform resource locator URL:
http://www.census.gov/). Telnet access is allowed for the Census-
Bureau of Economic Analysis Economic Bulletin Board (telnet
cenbbs.census.gov).
If you have not accessed our home page lately, you will notice
next time that we are redesigning our home page. This home page
will lead you to a wide range of demographic, economic, and small
area data; product information (including on-line ordering);
press releases; research papers; geographic data; and custom data
extract capability.
Within the demographic menu you can lookup 1990 Census summary
data at Census and University of California Lawrence-Berkeley
servers. This online lookup allows interactive data retrieval.
The user can also extract data files. You will also find
historical and current population estimates for the nation,
states, counties, and places as well as population projections.
The popular Statistical Briefs and We, the American... series are
also available in Postscript format. Among the new demographic
material are charts and historical data from the Bureau's annual
income and poverty reports.
The economic area provides key economic indicators such as
monthly retail sales and current business and industry
information. As an example of the riches in one subject alone,
let's look at the foreign trade section. Here you will find the
monthly press releases on exports and imports, the Schedule B
Commodity Classification codes (with a search engine),
instructions on how to fill out the Shipper's Export Declaration,
ordering information for all foreign trade products and a list of
contacts for further information. You can find similar riches in
other economic areas of the Bureau's Internet menu.
Other popular sections are the profiles and rankings from the
Statistical Abstract and the County and City Data Book, county
business data from the County Business Patterns annual reports,
and descriptions from the 1992 Economic Census. We also provide
listings of our Internet addresses, key telephone contacts, and
tutorials and sample files from TIGER '92 and TIGER '94.
Availability of printed reports
Since the Census Bureau is now offering speedier access to
statistics via Internet, it is also reconsidering the amount of
information released in printed reports. Governments Division
recently decided to replace most printed reports with Fact Sheets
for two primary reasons. One is a desire to shorten the
processing time between collection and public release and the
other is a need to reduce printing costs. When the Bureau
releases in the future a particular government finance or
employment set on the Internet, it will simultaneously issue a
separate printed fact sheet summarizing findings from the data
set. This fact sheet will also be on the Internet. The fact
sheets will provide information on how to access the data on the
Internet, as well as how to get the data for those who do not
have access to the Internet. This includes an offer by
Governments Division to produce on demand printed output of any
material in its data base. After data are released for all
states, Governments Division plans to release a CD-ROM with the
full data file and possibly some page images and historical data.
This follows a recent change in the Current Industrial Reports
series. The Bureau discontinued several months ago the printing
of monthly and quarterly reports. They are accessible online and
by FAX (through a 900 number or by subscription). With the
various Current Industrial Reports series, however, an annual
publication does compile the electronically-released information.
Some astute observers of the Bureau's Current Population Reports
may have also observed reductions in the number of reports and
the amount of material released in those printed reports. Staff
members in the Population Division are considering changes in the
mix of paper products and electronic data releases but they have
not made any final decisions.
Similar reevaluations of the balance of printed and electronic
releases are underway for the 2000 Decennial Census. The Census
Bureau will develop and implement a plan and system for data
access and dissemination focusing on the decennial census but
with the ability to accommodate other data sets having geographic
detail, like those produced from the Economic and Agriculture
Censuses. A design and implementation team will develop this
vision into a complete proposal defining the main features of the
system, including a scenario of how users would access the
system, how data would be delivered, and a timeline for
implementation. Some of the principles under which the system
will be designed and developed include the following:
1. The system will provide direct access to a limited number
of data summaries, to public use microdata samples, and to a
process for specifying special tabulations. It will be
accessible to the widest possible array of users through the
Internet and all available intermediaries, including
libraries and universities.
2. There will be limited standard, prepackaged data
summaries, and no standard printed reports except those few
profile reports necessary to show appreciation to the public
for its cooperation. All reports, files, etc. will be
rapidly prepared on demand.
3. All data sources with comparable levels of geographic
detail will eventually be integrated into the system (e.g.,
economic census files, decennial census files, population
estimates files).
In order to help the Bureau plan the future of its data delivery
system, we would appreciate your comments on a one-page
questionnaire which I have brought with me today. Please feel
free to add any other comments on the back of the form. This
questionnaire will give us information about the availability of
Internet and CD-ROM technology to users of Census data and their
preferred methods of receiving our data.
As this overview of our latest offerings on CD-ROM and the
Internet and the future of printed reports has shown, change is
quickly occurring at the Census Bureau. We wish to assure you
that we value very highly your role in the dissemination of our
data and we encourage you to let us know what information you
need and how you would like to receive it. I will be happy to
answer your questions and hear your comments.
Sheila McGarr, Library Programs Service, Mail Stop: SLLD, U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20401. Voice:
202-512-1119; fax: 202-512-1432; e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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