Media Advisory: Looking for Census Information?

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Editors, reporters and researchers looking for accurate census data, past and present, can find help in the University at Buffalo Arts and Sciences Libraries' online Government Documents Center: http://library.buffalo.edu/asl/guides/busdoc/census.html.

The page links to the U.S. Bureau of the Census home page to facilitate access to statistics, and reproduces many of the bureau's publications in PDF format and FAQS from the bureau's Question & Answer Center.

Additional material is available as well: historical documents, international population data, geographical and map information, the statistical abstract of the United States, New York State and local census document links.

The site also links to or cites additional sources about the 2000 Census of Population and Housing, as well as demography-selected handbooks and encyclopedias and international population data.

It includes information on other U.S. censuses, like the Census of Agriculture and the Census of Governments (both conducted every five years ending with two and seven) and other selected periodic surveys conducted by the Bureau of the Census on behalf of other federal agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Center for Health Statistics.

The UB Libraries' government documents subject specialist, Associate Librarian Edward P. Herman, suggests that researchers also take a look at the Social Explorer database, which includes data from 1940 to date for "census tracts," small local areas comparable to neighborhoods, so it enables people to see how their neighborhoods have changed over time.

It is available at http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/pdp/index.asp?ID=357.

UB's Herman says, "The nice thing about Social Explorer is that it lets you develop customized maps of these areas, as well as statistical tables, and it covers the entire nation. The Census Bureau didn't divide the entire nation into tracts until 2000. Before that, tracts were limited to metropolitan areas.

Reference and information services for government documents are available from the main desk on the second floor of Lockwood Library on UB's North Campus, or by appointment with Herman at 716-645-2814 ext. 431 or lolherma@buffalo.edu.