This official site of the Census Bureau currently offers a wealth of information. Not only does it include considerable information about the Census Bureau, press releases, and links to other Census sites on the Internet through its gopher, it also has the Statistical Abstract of the United States, papers from the Center for Economic Studies, the Surveys-On-Call system, formerly the Data Extraction System, (described below), the 1990 Census Lookup (via Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories (also described below)), financial data for state and local governments, and population estimates and projections.
The Surveys-On-Call system, formerly the Data Extraction System, DES, allows one to make extractions from large surveys. Currently, these include both the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). In the future it may expand to the American Housing Survey and Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES). Output from the extractions can come in several different formats (ASCII, Ingress, and several SAS formats) in several different methods, including email and ftp.
To access the Surveys-On-Call system, one can telnet to gateway.census.gov, log on with the username of "desuser", and simply presses the return key when prompted for the password (it can also reached via a dial-in facility at (301) 457-2341). The system is fairly easy to navigate, with the possible exception that one moves back up a menu by pressing the Q key (for quit). This system is also available on their web and gopher servers. With the web server, first move to "Main Data Bank," then to "Data Access Tools."
One very useful resource located here is the Statistical Abstract of the United States. It is organized in different ways that make searching for information easy. On the web server, it is found in "Main Data Bank."
Another very useful resource is the 1990 Census Lookup. With it, one can search for very detailed information from the 1990 Census Summary Tape Files. Its coverage and detail is quite impressive. Its use requires a forms capable web client. According to Karl Radov, who has taken a careful look at this system, one first needs to know which Census Summary Tape file and geographical area you need. Next, be sure to read the documentation off-line, as this system is complex. Finally, it would be wise to experiment with this system first with a small dataset. This system is found in the same section as the Surveys-On-Call system.
One can subscribe to their news releases by sending email to "pio@census.gov" with "subscribe press-release" in the body of the message.
Note that Statistical Briefs and papers from the Center for Economic Studies are in PostScript.
Press releases and statistical briefs from many parts of the Bureau are available via gopher and the web sites.
In December of 1994, the Census won an award from the Vice President for this site. It was in honor using the Internet to "distribute Census Bureau data and dramatically increase public access to Bureau information."..."The Census Bureau envisions a day in the not too distant future when most census data will be disseminated electronically."
ftp://ftp.census.gov
http://www.census.gov
gopher://gopher.census.gov:70/1/
Bill Goffe <bgoffe@whale.st.usm.edu>