GPLNE MEETING
DECEMBER 15, 2006
WORCESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY
MINUTES
Present:
Deborah Angelo, Providence College, dangelo@providence.edu
Donna Koepp, Harvard College Library, koepp@fas.harvard.edu
Jim MacDonald, Connecticut College, wjmac@conncoll.edu
Cesar Monzon, U.S. Census Bureau, boston.pdsp@census.gov
Paul Pelletier, Worcester Public Library, ppelleti@cwmars.org
Beverly Presley, Clark University, bpresley@clarku.edu
Hans Raum, Middlebury College, raum@middlebury.edu
Connie Reik, Tufts University, connie.reik@tufts.edu
Tom Stieve, Brown University, Thomas_Stieve@brown.edu
Julia Tryon, Providence College, jtryon@providence.edu
Jim Walsh, Readex, a division of Newsbank, jwalsh@newsbank.com
Chair, Donna Koepp, called the meeting to order at 10:00.
Cesar Monzon, from the Boston Regional Office of the Bureau of the Census was introduced. We were all provided training packets of information on the American FactFinder and the American Community Survey (ACS).
Mr. Monzon provided some introductory remarks about his background with the Census Bureau and what he would present. He also told us that there were two positions available at the Boston Regional Office for Geographers, in case we know someone who is qualified and interested in a position with Census. Further information is available at:
http://www.census.gov/hrd/www/jobs/geo.html
Mr. Monzon then went online to the Census Bureau site and went through several examples of searches in FactFinder and the American Community Survey, and answered our many questions along the way.
A very clear explanation of the Census geography was given, an understanding of which is very important to being able to navigate through FactFinder effectively. We talked about each level of geography, including the criteria for that level, and its relationship to other levels, the difference between towns and cities, that MCDs are always towns, Places are always cities, and that CDPs can only be within a town. An explanation of the different Summary Files was also given.
Data from the 2005 American Community Survey is now available. This data is available for areas with a population of 65,000 or more for 2005. By next year, with the 2007 data, data will be available for areas with a population of 20,000 and more. By 2009-10, they will have data to the tract and block level. They currently survey 250,000 households per month, all across the country, on a rotating basis. Data gathered in these monthly surveys is reported annually.
The 2010 Decennial Census will consist of short forms only. That census will be entirely 100% data. The American Community Survey will be our source for survey data that we used to get from the Census long forms. There will no longer be any Summary File 3 and 4 which were long form sample data. These are replaced by the ACS.
Mr. Monzon was an excellent presenter, and we all learned a lot. We also all that we needed to go home and try all of the things we had learned right away before we forgot how to do it. Our training packets contain lots of helpful information and will be good to share with colleagues back at our own libraries. There are also good guidelines on the Census web site.
We had a short business meeting at 11:30 following the Census presentation.
The minutes of the last meeting were approved as posted.
The treasurer’s report reported that as of November 30, 2006 we had a balance of $1,167.81.
Donna announced that Connie Reik of Tufts University had volunteered to fill the vacancy for the position of Vice Chair. Thank you, Connie.
Donna gave an update on the planning for StatUSA training, which we are hoping to have early in the week of May 21. John Lewis of Salve Regina was contacted. He has a lab with 22 computers, but there isn’t room to double up on the computers. He said that he would be happy to host the training if we decide to have it there. Some of the other sites were discussed. Jim MacDonald said that Connecticut College had a lab with 20 computers that would allow doubling up. The sentiment seemed to be, however, that it would not be desirable to double up, so we should just try to find the most number of workstations without consideration of space for more than one user. Donna agreed to contact UConn, Eastern Connecticut University, UMass, Dartmouth, and to talk more with Julie Linden of Yale, who, along with her CTGODORT group was the impetus for having this training session. We will do more planning via e-mail in coming weeks to pin this down very soon.
The next meeting will likely be the week of March 12. Donna announced that she had been in touch with Bette Siegel, who could not attend today. Bette would like to do a program on state documents with a panel of state document librarians from New England. Donna has suggested that perhaps we could meet at the Boston Athenaeum for Bette’s state document program. We could perhaps have a tour of the Athenaeum in addition to the program, and since it is right across the street from the State Library of Massachusetts, anyone wanting to tour that library would be able to do so following the meeting. Donna will work further with Bette to finalize plans.
Donna asked if there were any questions or concerns that should be brought up with GPO or GODORT at ALA Midwinter. Donna will be attending that meeting in Seattle. No one had issues, but we did briefly mention the announcement on GovDoc-L on Thursday from GPO that they had now decided that they would no longer do series authority work. This follows last summer’s announcement from LC on this same issue. The GPO announcement Friday was, however, contrary to what they had stated at the Federal Depository Conference in Washington, D.C. in October.
Under other business, Donna read an announcement from Linda Johnson of UNH. Here follows a brief version of that announcement:
Claudia Morner, Library Dean, is stepping down as Dean the end of June 2007. They are just pulling together the search committee---I am on it along with 5 or other library faculty, library staff, & university folks. I will share the position description with GPLNE & BLC docs folks once we have it but we do want to get the word out in general & for possible candidates.
It was suggested under other business that a letter of thanks be sent to Cesar Monzon, our presenter from Bureau of Census. Donna said that she would do that.
The meeting was adjourned about 12:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna Koepp