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This Week's Facts: Educational Tools Define Purpose of Census Have you ever needed to teach someone the meaning behind using the population census in the United States, and why the data is important? The Census 2010 Multimedia Center has educational resources in video, audio, and photo formats. Many of the videos are short and to the point, easy to share, and useful for all ages. The Evolution of the Census is a 1.5 minute video that explains the history of the census in the U.S. and its connection to the American Community Survey. The Census in the Constitution is a 2 minute video that describes the tradition of the census and the meaning behind the data. Civic Ceremony is a 3.5 minute video that teaches about how the census is integrated within our governmental history, society, and each individual U.S. resident. See also the Featured Media webpage, which covers many other resources you can use in your libraries, classrooms, and offices.
Fast Fact: America A visual tool based on the new 2011 Statistical Abstract of the United States is available at America by the Numbers, illustrated by Jennifer Daniels via the New York Times. It points to a related article, “A U.S. Portrait, in Numbers,” by Sam Roberts, which briefly explains the contents of the Stat Abstract. -------------------------------
Friday Facts
Katharine Springer
Elisabeth
O’Donnell
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Hi-Tech Web Portal Provides Info on Scientific Research
While the videos themselves are useful to patrons, the search functions will be of interest to librarians. Not only is the database equipped with standard bibliographic search capabilities, but it also uses a speech recognition technology that makes actually searching through the audio files of the videos possible. Just type in a keyword and the database will retrieve videos in which that word or phrase was spoken. The initial search results also allow you to view snippets of the video, thereby allowing the user to see the context and evaluate from there. The search results include a transcript as well. Officials at the DOE have emphasized the fact that video, animation and other forms of multimedia are often used to record scientific research. By making these videos and animations fully searchable, they are enabling the scientific community to better share their ideas and achievements. It will be interesting to see where the this type of search functionality leads. INShape Indiana Unveils Enhanced Website
Learn About Nation's Forefather for Washington's Birthday
As you may well imagine, there are many government sites with information about our first Constitutional President. The White House has biographical information on all of our presidents, including Washington. You can also find information on him in the Biographical directory of the United States Congress as well as at the Library of Congress. Not only do they have the largest collection of original Washington documents in the world, but you can also find special presentations on him at their site. For some fun trivia about all of the presidents, be sure to check out this site from the National Park Service. Census Releases Population Data for New Orleans  The
Census Bureau released new data Monday on Hurricane Katrina
housing damage and repair in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
Four out of every five New Orleans residents moved away from
their homes for at least
two weeks following the storm. You can find the detailed data
tables in Excel by viewing the
2009 American Housing Survey for the New
Orleans Metropolitan Area.
The
press release,
which contains an overview of the data, is available at the
Census Bureau’s online
Newsroom.
In addition to tables related to Hurricane Katrina, data on the
following is also available: presence of air-conditioning,
satisfaction with home and neighborhood, housing costs, presence
of various amenities, problems with neighborhood, reasons for
choosing home and neighborhood, cost of utilities and size of
home. The Bureau’s American Housing Survey (AHS) collects
information every year via a national and a metropolitan area
survey. Data will be available soon for the following metro
areas: New York City, Northern New Jersey, Seattle,
Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit. You can subscribe to updates
from the Newsroom
here.
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