-------- Original Message --------
Subject: More on New American Factfinder
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:49:27 -0600 (CST)
From: Linda R Zellmer <[log in to unmask]>
To: Map & Air Photo Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>

Hello,

One thing that I picked up on during yesterday's media demo (the session
was a demo for reporters), was that data downloaded from American
Factfinder 2 does not have GIS compatible FIPS codes. Instead of a
GEO_ID field and a GEO_ID2 field, there is only a field named ID which
contains the same information as the old GEO_ID field (for example,
Adams County, Illinois has 0500000US17001 as its ID). The Census Bureau
is developing instructions for those of us who want to use the data for
GIS on how to convert the information in the ID field into a
GIS-compatible ID. That is fine for those of us in states that have two
digits in their FIPS codes, but if you are in one of the states that
start with zero (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California,
Colorado or Connecticut) there will be additional problems (Excel does
not recognize numbers that start with 0). I am not sure if we will be
able to do the conversion within ArcGIS 10. If you haven't converted to
ArcGIS 10, this migh!
  t be incentive to do so. (I will be asking someone at ESRI about
whether we will be able to easily edit field contents in ArcGIS 10).

I will be attending a Census workshop at the beginning of March, and
will be asking questions about how to use their data with GIS. I will
also voice my opinion on the fact that the 1990 Census data will be
dropped from the system.

Linda Zellmer

--
Linda Zellmer
Government Information & Data Services Librarian
415 Malpass Library
Macomb, IL 61455
[log in to unmask]
Phone: 309-298-2723
Fax: 309-298-2791