SDC Tree States for 2011-2012

Click here for the listing of SDC tree states for 2011-2012 as of August 13, 2012.

Outreach and Dissemination Efforts for the 2012 Census of Governments

On February 23, 2012, the Census Bureau held a Data User Workshop  to discuss “Outreach and Dissemination Efforts for the 2012 Census of Governments”.  This meeting was held in Washington DC and organized by the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COFAS).  This workshop was one of many that the Governments Division is conducting in preparation for the 2012 Census of Governments. 

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Census Bureau’s data on governments and to look and discuss proposed plans for future products, current products, data visualization and outreach. Proposed products included both print and electronic media.  In addition, the session reviewed and discussed disseminations tools to allow for better access, visibility and usability of statistics on governments.  This discussion included American FactFinder (AFF), DataFerrett including HotReports, and the Central Indicator Data Repository for accessing Q-Tax data.

There was a lively discussion and there were a number of current and former SDC friends present.  The Governments Division is looking to expand access to the data through the following print and electronic media products:  publications, flyer series, maps, graphical summary, snapshot series, special study report series, how to guides, educational materials, press releases, slide rules.  In addition they are looking to add the Census of Governments to the American FactFinder and to host a webinar series on the data. 

It was suggested that individual unit file records be easier to access for local governments that may wish to compare their finances, structure etc to other local governments of similar size.  Also, while the individual unit file is non-confidential and in theory publicly available, it is only available on request through a password-protected FTP site for a limited amount of time.

In addition, there was a discussion about the different types of users and that no one system meets the needs of everyone.  Other items that were reinforced were that data quality and access to the data are most important to the users present.  The funding environment may predicate a future where the Bureau must make difficult choices and the attendees expressed an interest to be consulted or for the Bureau to assess how data are used prior to making some of these problematical decisions.  There also seemed to be sentiment on the user side that if budgets became an issue the Census Bureau should produce a few core products (such as the individual unit file and broad summary reports) and let the data intermediaries and other power users produce the maps, graphical summaries, etc. from these more basic products. 

Also, with the rise of technology, other groups and / or individuals take the Bureau’s data and add value through analysis and reports, news articles, delivery systems, mapping, graphing, etc.  The challenge for the Bureau is to ensure that the end-user identifies the data as originating with the Bureau. 

The Bureau is working to optimize the availability and use of the governments data and in doing so they are looking at electronic access through American FactFinder, DataFerrett and the Central Indicator Data Repository.  The group discussed some of the pros/cons of these delivery systems and that some of features of these systems may be geared toward the advanced user.   While having a variety data access tools available is useful, there was sentiment that the data should all be available on AFF since that is what the average user of these data will be most familiar with – don’t make them learn more tools than is necessary.

Overall, it appeared that the Bureau viewed the workshop as successful.

Census Bureau Calendar

Did you know that you can add the Census Bureau release schedule to your Outlook Calendar?

Go to:  http://www.census.gov/newsroom/

And select Under “NEWS” …. “Release Schedule”

 Under the Month/Year in the center of the top of the page … there is “Subscribe: iCal / RSS  …. I had initially thought that this was it … and that it would add it to my outlook calendar and update automatically … BUT it does NOT work like that …

So instead you can go to “Export” in the gray bar at the top of the page ….  Select your date range, the type of items you would like to export, and the format.  I selected “iCalendar Interchange Format (.ics)” and then told it to OPEN.

A new calendar is added to your outlook calendar section.

 The downside –  This DOES NOT update automatically, so monthly or periodically you may want to delete the calendar and re-import (Export Calendar Events) to get a refreshed version of the releases, etc.

GSS Initiative – Draft Address Data Content Guidelines

Geographic Support System (GSS) Initiative Announcement from the U.S. Census Bureau – Geography Divsion.

Draft address data content guidelines are now available as part of the U.S. Census Bureau – Geography Division’s GSS Initiative.

As a part of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Geographic Support System Initiative (GSS-I), the Census Bureau is committed to accepting address and structure point data from our partners beginning in the second quarter of fiscal year 2013. These documents outline the address data elements and metadata that the Census Bureau identifies as optimal components in address and structure datasets.   Learn more

Optimal Address Data Submission Guidelines (Draft) - PDF

Census Address to FGDC Address Standard Crosswalk (Draft)  - PDF

Questions?
Contact us at geo.gss.initiative@census.gov

2012 Census of Governments Informational Binder

The Governments Division provided the SDC lead agencies with an informational binder on the 2012 Census of Governments.  The original binder was distributed in December 2011. 

An updated PDF is now available.