----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear Mapsters,
this is forwarded from H-Urban for your information, Alice Hudson, Map
Division, NYPL. [log in to unmask]
______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
Subject: Re: US Urban History data bases
Author: Maureen Flanagan <[log in to unmask]> at Internet
Date: 3/28/98 6:31 PM
Posted by Lois Dean <[log in to unmask]>
Dear Professor Foster,
I will send you literature on Community 2020 software which
I believe will meet and surpass you expectations of what
software or data you can get for your $250. (Only I would
personally add $49 to it and get the five software sets that
ship with the Nationwide system). The US Department of
Housing and Urban Development offers a system for
communicating information about places, their
characteristics, and what is going on in them. It is
suitable for depicting what took place in times past,
including using multimedia.
Community 2020 is a geographic information system that
provides three very extensive data sets and the software to
permit you to enter data, analyse it with the supplied data,
and display it in many ways on maps, charts, spreadsheets,
bar graphs, pie charts dot density and scalable symbols (on
maps). You can also add photographs and video to your
display, or have them activate when you touch a location on
the map. In similar fashion you can incorporate extensive
data, and activate its display when the icon showing the
location of the site or event is touched by the curser. You
are able to modify the maps in virtually any way you choose
- adding locations, roads, text, etc, etc. HUD developed
this software with Caliper corporation to enable persons and
groups who are not computer literate to plan, analyse and
communicate with high quality mapping and information
software.
The three data sets are comprised of the
following: All U.S. Streets, roads, highways, and
Interstate highways; US Railroads; US Cities, Counties,
States, urban places, Census Places, Congressional
Districts; Census Tracts, Census Block Groups; US
Waterbodies; Landmarks such as schools and universities,
parks, churches, monuments, cemeteries, village greens, and
other. The second set is comprised of Demographic, Housing
and other Census Data - 640 different Census data elements
for the US and territories, down to the block group level.
180 of these Census Data elements are estimated for 1997
and projected to the years 2002 and 2007. The software
computes this for all of the supplied boundaries, including
joined boundaries, and for boundaries drawn by the user
(any polygons) as well. You can label anything using the
supplied information or enter your own labels if you prefer.
The third data set is remarkable, but probably will be of
less interest to an historian. I use it to deduce where
older structures have been replaced and where they have
survived. The data is program and project data for
virtually all currently HUD-funded or guaranteed programs
and projects in every jurisdiction in the United States,
including data from 1995 to 1997 as well as monthly updates
to the present. For each, contact persons, program
description, funding details, location(s), and as
appropriate to the kind of projects: tenant characteristics,
building characteristics, jobs generated, units created,
persons trained and other measures of objectives achieved.
Boundaries of Empowerment Zones and Enterprise communities
and Homeownership Zones are shown.
The data resides on the CDROM so your computer memory is not
wasted. Maps you save retrieve the data when you call them
up again. You can import data from other mapping programs
and a long list of formats, and you can also export to them.
You can print maps, project them, create layouts, and enter
them into text documents, powerpoint presentations or
slides. There is more to describe, but I think you already
get the point. Data you obtain or generate will be very
effectively used in Community 2020, and it is a very
effective communication medium. I hope this is helpful to
you.
Very sincerely,
Lois Dean
[log in to unmask]
. . . . . . . . . ........
Howard H. Foster, Jr.wrote: <[log in to unmask]>
I am in possession of $250 dollars that I may use to buy data base
and/or software specifically for research in U.S. Urban history.
Suggestions would be welcome including cd-rom format.
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