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The 1970 Census was the 19th count of the U.S. population and housing. This section covers important developments pertaining to the 1970 Census data resources and access to and use of these data. This document is written by Warren Glimpse, former senior Census Bureau statistician responsible for innovative data access and use operations. He is also the former associate director of the U.S. Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards for data access and use. The 1970 Census was the first Census that had planned summary data files. There were selected machine-readable files from the 1960 Census. There was no American Community Survey, the rolling or annual "census", until after Census 2000. Summary Tape Assistance Research and Training (START) Under the leadership of Warren Glimpse, the Summary Tape Assistance Research and Training (START) at the University of Missouri was the largest national participant in providing access to and use of the Census data. The START Community was a pioneering consortium established in the early 1970s to solve a major technical and logistical challenge: making the massive, newly computerized summary data tapes of the 1970 U.S. Census accessible to researchers and local planners. At the time, the Census Bureau had released an unprecedented amount of digital tabular data on magnetic tape. However, the raw output consisted of roughly 2,000 tape reels. Processing this sheer volume of data was cost-prohibitive and technically overwhelming for most individual universities and organizations, lacking the standardized software and hardware resources to parse it efficiently. To overcome this, the National Data Use and Access Laboratories (DUALabs) - a non-profit founded by former Census Bureau staffer Jack Beresford - partnered with the Center for Research Libraries. Supported by matching grants from the Ford Foundation, over 50 universities and research organizations pooled their funds to join the START Program. The START Community achieved: Data Compression & Software: DUALabs developed a library of computer programs (compatible with IBM System/360 Model 30 and larger) to read, tabulate, and summarize the data. Crucially, they managed to compress the census tape files by 85% to 90%, reducing the physical footprint from 2,000 reels down to about 300 reels, significantly lowering the marginal cost of data acquisition for the participants. The "Train-the-Trainer" Model: Recognizing that providing the tapes wasn't enough, DUALabs took responsibility for training three representatives from each participating organization. These individuals were trained on the software, file characteristics, and how to handle data base errors. They then returned to their institutions to support local researchers, acting as early "research librarians" for digital data. A Shared Technology Ecosystem: By using a common computer technology and software base, the START Community could easily share data arrangements, code, and troubleshooting techniques across the network. The program was designed to run for five years (through 1974) to permanently build census-use capabilities at major research sites. Its success ultimately proved the necessity of decentralized, community-supported networks for federal data dissemination. It directly paved the way for the NSF-funded Clearinghouse and Laboratory for Census Data (CLCD) to help non-START locations, and it stands as an early conceptual precursor to networks like the State Data Center Program. Looking at modern data distribution methods-like extracting data via APIs or visualizing block-level data in software - the START community was essentially tackling the exact same foundational problem of data access, just using the compressed magnetic tapes and mainframe punch cards of the era. 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The open structure also provides for Q&A and discussion of application issues of interest to participants. Additional Information ProximityOne develops geodemographic-economic data and analytical tools and helps organizations knit together and use diverse data in a decision-making and analytical framework. We develop custom demographic/economic estimates and projections, develop geographic and geocoded address files, and assist with impact and geospatial analyses. Wide-ranging organizations use our tools (software, data, methodologies) to analyze their own data integrated with other data. Contact us (888-364-7656) with questions about data covered in this section or to discuss custom estimates, projections or analyses for your areas of interest. |
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