US CENSUS BEREAU

http://www.census.gov

6/11/2009

     My search service evaluation is on the US Census Bureau. The Census Bureau which is an “agency within and under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce has its headquarters in Suitland, Md., and occupies a minimum of two buildings in the Suitland federal complex.”  Below are their mission, authority and goal.

     The Agency “serves as the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy. They honor privacy, protect confidentiality, share expertise globally, and conduct their work openly. They have strong and capable workforce of about 4,285 who are ready to innovate and are committed to their customers.  They derive their authority under Titles 13 and 26 of the U.S. Code and their goal is to provide the best mix of timeliness, relevancy, quality, and cost for the data they collect as well as the services they provide.”

     The main areas they collect data are “on population and housing census which is done at intervals of 10 years, Economic census every 5 years, Community Survey every year, including surveys on both demographic and economic with economic indicator on specific schedule.”

     The data they collect are “used in several ways such as to determine the distribution of Congressional seats to states, apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and define legislature districts, school district assignment areas and other important functional areas of government.  It also help to make decisions about what community services to provide, and help planning decisions, such as where to provide services for the elderly, where to build new roads and schools, where to locate job training centers, or where to distribute billions in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year.  The Census data affects how funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education, transportation and also assist to provide Age search information for qualifying for Social Security and other retirement benefits, Passport applications and proving relationship in settling estates.”

     The lay out of the home page is quite extensive with several useful navigational links that is effective in presenting and helping the user find information.  On top right of the page is the Help, FAQs, Subject A-Z links with a window for search.  Under it on the right is the Data Finders area with search windows for specific subjects.  Images are few and that leave enough room for text links which is good for the type of data they provide, mainly government statistics.  There is consistency in design.

     FAQs search returns results of 20 on a page which user chooses from and further query narrows the results.  The Help link returns a page that has links for “first time visitor, Finding Data and Using Our Data.”  Most of the pages have forms user fills or insert key words for search on specific subject matters, regional or state and institution.  Some of the results from queries I keyed in, which were general, returned results powered by Google, which means the search service can be categorized among specialized databases.  However on a topic the service covers, comprehensive keyword search service is enabled and bring further related words that help users narrow their search.

     I find the search engine has fast access to information and has accurate data on government related business and therefore very useful.  It has also enabled me to appreciate that quality and accurate data could be obtained via the internet and not only from printed statistical data.