In April of 2001, I started to get questions from around Alaska about Census figures. Some of the information I was being asked for wasn't scheduled to be released until 2002. This and knowing that the 2000 Census is quite different from earlier censuses, led me to create a nine-part tutorial on Census 2000. I sent e-mail invitations to several library related electronic discussion lists. I expected between 30 and 50 to sign up to receive this text-only e-mail. Instead, I got 614 people asking to receive my pearls of wisdom sight unseen! After I closed my mailing list, I received another 50 requests. Not wanting to spend all my time updating my Eudora address book, I decided to post the tutorials as they are written.

Census 2000 Tutorial Messages

• Part 1: Census Questions I: Questions dropped or shifted from the Short Form to the Long Form.
• Part 2: Census Questions II: Added or expanded questions.
• Part 3: Census and Race I: Category changes and the Hispanic Origin Question
• Part 4: Census and Race II: Multiracial America How do we count? Can we compare? Can we give a straight answer to our patrons?
• Part 5: Available Census Topics and the difference between "100% data" and "sample data"
• Part 6: Understanding 2000 Census Geography: Basic terms and comparability to 1990 Census data.
• Part 7: Where to get Census data and suggestions for sharing it with your patrons.
• Part 8: Where to go if you get stuck. (The State Data Center is your friend! So's the Census Bureau!)

This Page was last updated July 24, 2001. The tutorial is now complete.