Begininning in 1991, the Populations at Risk to Environmental Pollution (PAREP) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) established Internet access to public socio-economic and geographic data files on CD-ROM.
LOOKUP, a Web-based interface providing access to 1990 Census Summary Tape Files, was completed at LBNL in 1994.
As of February 1996 the CD-ROM system includes 200 GB of CD-ROM and disk-based data files, exported from six different locations. LOOKUP, now installed at both LBNL and the Census Bureau, serves 27,000 users monthly; that figure is increasing by 10 percent each month.
LBNL is a National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In August 1995, DOE funding for the PAREP project was discontinued. The Bureau of the Census is providing interim funding for maintenance and user support; additional funding is urgently needed to maintain LOOKUP and the CD-ROM system beyond October 1, 1996.
Furthermore, no support is available for system development. The barriers to implementing additional files in LOOKUP are only budgetary, not technical. If you wish to inquire about Web access for additional data files, please contact Deane Merrill (dwmerrill@lbl.gov) or Valerie Gregg (vgregg@census.gov).
If you care about the maintenance and further development of these resources, you can help by sending an unsolicited letter to influential persons you know. Make it clear that you have no connection with LBNL or the Census Bureau other than a need for the data. A cc: (after the fact) to dwmerrill@lbl.gov and vgregg@census.gov is not necessary but would be appreciated.
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