----------------------------Original message---------------------------- This message is being cross-posted to govdoc-l, maps-l, and law-lib. Sorry for the duplication. 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]