Using Census Data--Local Product Development
from the 2002 FDLC
[NOTE: some links no longer valid]
I went to a couple of inspirational talks by people from institutions that are producing significant Census-derived products on the web. One of them was Sharon Morris from Johns Hopkins, where they have done a lot of work with local Census data for Baltimore, augmenting what is available from the Census Bureau. (I have Sharon's handout.) The other speaker was Michael Furlough, from the Univ. of Virginia, where they have developed the wonderful Historical Census Data Browser. He demonstrated this database and I learned some good tips on using it. He then talked about some of their other projects, one involving Virginia elected officials back to the beginning of the nation, a Virginia gazetteer project, and American Soldier Surveys, a compilation of surveys taken of GI's during World War II. In addition to this good information from UVa, he also mentioned a couple of other sites that were new to me: Minnesota Population Center, which provides access to Census microdata back to 1850; and REIS, which is now online (their CDs stopped coming a few years ago). As is usual with these kind of talks, sometimes off-the-cuff remarks by the speakers provide as much good information as their structured talks do!
Sharon's email is smorris@jhu.edu and Michael's is mjf9s@cms.mail.virginia.edu.
