Internet access to historical Census data

As one step in this integrated effort, the Census Bureau is providing support to preserve unique social science data resources at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The LBNL data archive, representing 100 person-years of development effort in the 1970s and 1980s, contains historical government data that are no longer available elsewhere.

history since 1970
accomplishments since 1970

The tasks to be performed by LBNL include:

1. Installation of SEEDIS (software and data) on a VAX VMS computer at the Census Bureau.
2. Transfer of data from the LBNL Mass Storage System to seedis.census.gov.
3. Transfer of 3500 historical data tapes from LBNL to the Census Bureau.
4. Integration of 1960, 1970, 1980 Census data at the state and county level, fur use with a future Web-based retrieval system.

• Census data: nationwide 1980 and 1970 Census with county, tract and block group detail. 1960 Census with county level detail.
• map files: nationwide 1980 and 1970 Census geography with tract level detail.
• mortality data: cancer, 1950-1984 at county level. All causes, 1968-84 at county level.
• cancer incidence: Third National Cancer Survey 1969-71 at tract level. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) 1973-81 at tract level.
• other: about 100 major data bases from the 1970's and 1980's, geographically integrated in Socio-Economic Environmental Demographic Information System (SEEDIS); with electronic and paper-based documentation.
• 50 GB data archive, in LBNL Mass Storage System (MSS).
• CD-ROM information system: 300 CD-ROMs (150 GB) of data for public Internet access.
• 1990 Census LOOKUP, a Web-based system for retrieval of 1990 Census data.
• software for Density Equalizing Map Projections (DEMP).

Under government programs that no longer exist, important data resources were developed and integrated between 1970 and 1995 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a Department of Energy (DOE) installation. From 1978 to 1995 these activities were supported under DOE's Populations at Risk to Environmental Pollution (PAREP) project, which investigated the human health effects of energy-related activities.

Responsibility for DOE human health studies has passed from DOE to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Henceforth DOE has a mandate to preserve only the data related to DOE activities, which are in the Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (CEDR). Despite its name, CEDR contains none of the comprehensive public data (Census data, maps, county mortality data, cancer incidence, etc) that were installed in SEEDIS by the now-discontinued PAREP project. DOE has no mandate to transfer these broader data holdings to other agencies.

Both recent and historical data are needed for epidemiologic studies of long-term environmental exposures and associated health effects. The recent data are widely available and are not in danger. However, some of the older data are available only at LBNL. The historical electronic data holdings of the following agencies are incomplete:

• U.S. Bureau of the Census
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

The custodian of the LBNL data is Dr. Deane Merrill. Dr. Merrill is presently supported by the CEDR project and the Bureau of the Census, but continued funding from neither source is certain. If Dr. Merrill is obliged to leave LBNL, SEEDIS will be taken off line and the data and documentation at LBNL will become unavailable for all practical purposes. If funding for electronic storage is interrupted even temporarily, the 50 GB data archive on MSS will be immediately lost. Until the MSS archive is copied to other media (e.g. CD-ROM), there is no option for zero-cost archival storage of the MSS files.