1. Hands On American FactFinder

2. Session Outline Short Background of Census Introduction American Factfinder (AFF) & American Factfinder 2 (AFF2) –Exercise & Discussions Introduction to American Community Survey (ACS) –Exercise & Discussions Questions & Answers

3. Objectives At the end of the session you will be able to Find AFF & AFF2 Differentiate between the datasets in AFF & AFF2 Conduct simple data searches in AFF & AFF2 Make informed choices between datasets

4. Why have a Census? Defines our Congressional Representation. Defines federal funding levels for roads, public transportation, and social services. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. - Source: US Constitution

5. Raw Data  Finished Product

6. New & Legacy American Factfinders

7. Current Coverage American FactfinderAmerican Factfinder 2 Census 2010 American Community Survey Census 1990 Population Estimates Economic Census Annual Economic Surveys Census 2000

8. Conceptual Differences American Factfinder You tell it what you want It returns one or more tables Pro Clear workflow Con No guidance on what's available in the system American Factfinder 2 It presents every table in the system You tell it what you want and non-matching tables are filtered out Pro Some guidance on what's available in the system Con No clear workflow

9. Legacy AFF: Implied Workflow

10. New AFF: Guidance

11. Exercise & Discussion Exercise Using Census 2000 Use address search to find data for either your home or your workplace and the table on travel time to work (P31) Refer to the handout for detailed instructions Discussion For Each Group What worked well in this version of American Factfinder? What didn’t?

12. American Community Survey (ACS) Allows for data collection between decennial census Collects information that used to be associated with the long form 3 million housing unit addresses are selected annually, across every county in the nation Estimates o Single year estimates - populations of 65,000+ o 3-year estimates - 20,000+ o 5-year estimates - under 20,000

13. Census Geographies

14. New & Legacy American Factfinders

15. ACS Walkthrough 1

16. ACS: Select Data Source

17. Select Version

18. ACS: Select City

19. ACS: Demographics

20. ACS: Margins of Error

22. ACS: St. Cloud, MN 2005-2009 2007-2009 2009

23. Exercise & Discussion Exercise Starting in 2009 American Community Survey (one year estimate), choose a place in any state. Compare the place's 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year estimates. Refer to the handout for detailed instructions Discussion For Each Group Were the margins of sampling error large enough to make you question the data? Were the margins of sampling error large enough to cancel out any reported population increase or decrease?

24. Census 2010 Now - 2010 Redistricting Data Summer 2011 - Summary File 1 (Race / Hispanic&Latino / Select Population and Housing) Winter 2011/2012 - Summary File 2 (Detailed Population and Housing) http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2010/glance/

25. Thank You! Amy West Data Services Librarian phone: (612) 625-6368 email/IM: westx045@umn.edu (Google)westx045@umn.edu web: http://www2.lib.umn.edu/data del.icio.us: umdatalib Twitter: @amyewest@amyewest Kirsten Clark Government Information and Regional Depository Librarian phone: 612-626-7520 email/IM: clark881@umn.edu (Google)clark881@umn.edu web: http://govpubs.lib.umn.edu IM: kclark.govpubs@gmail.comkclark.govpubs@gmail.com Twitter: @kjclark

26. Flickr Attributions Gotto, C. (2011). [keyboard cat]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/threecheersformcr_xo/546353950 7/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/threecheersformcr_xo/546353950 7/