Census consultation: Future provision of population statistics

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is launching a three month public consultation on the census and future provision of population statistics in England and Wales today.

After each census, ONS reviews the future needs for information about the population and housing in England and Wales, and how these needs might be met.

Improvements in technology and in government data sources offer opportunities to either modernise the existing census process, or to develop an alternative census method that reuses existing data already held within government.

The ONS' research has resulted in two approaches for taking the census in future:

• a census once a decade, like that conducted in 2011, but primarily online
• a census using existing government data and compulsory annual surveys.

ONS believe that both approaches would provide annual statistics about the size of the population, nationally and for local authorities. A census using existing data and surveys would provide more statistics about the characteristics of the population every year. An online census would provide more detailed statistics once a decade.

The consultation document describes these approaches, their strengths and weaknesses and the different types of information they could provide:

http://ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/get-involved/consultations/consultations/beyond-2011-consultation/beyond-2011-consultation-doc-c1.pdf

No decision has yet been made, and we welcome your views. Please respond using the online questionnaire:

http://ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/get-involved/consultations/consultations/beyond-2011-consultation/index.html

CONTACTS

Queries relating to tables or the census in general should be addressed to: census.customerservices@ons.gov.uk.

Queries relating to boundaries/geography should be addressed to: ons.geography@ons.gov.uk

Data Information Literacy sypmosium - live stream

Purdue University Libraries will be live streaming a symposium on Data Information Literacy (DIL) on Sept 23^rd and 24^th .

 

The DIL symposium will explore roles for practicing librarians in teaching competencies in data management and curation to graduate students. With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, librarians from Purdue University, Cornell University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Oregon have investigated this topic through developing and implementing “data information literacy” (DIL) instruction programs for graduate students in a range of science and engineering disciplines. 

 

No registration for viewing the live stream is required. The DIL Symposium will be recorded and made available afterwards through e-pubs, Purdue University’s Institutional Repository.

The URL for the live stream is: http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/i82md

More information about the DIL Symposium can be found at: http://wiki.lib.purdue.edu/display/ste/Symposium

The schedule for the symposium is available at: http://wiki.lib.purdue.edu/display/ste/DIL+Symposium+Schedule

 

The twitter hash tag for the symposium is #datainfolit.

Please note that, Purdue will make an effort to review the twitter feed during the symposium, but will be unable to respond to any questions or comments directly.

The organisers  have asked that attendees read two articles before coming to the DIL Symposium. They are:

· Carlson, J., Fosmire, M., Miller, C. & Sapp Nelson, M. (2011).Determining data information literacy needs: A study of students and research faculty. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 11(2). 629-657. Pre-print: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/lib_fsdocs/23/

· Carlson, J., Johnston, L., Westra, B., & Nichols, M. (2013). Developing an approach for data management education: A report from the data information literacy project. International Journal of Digital Curation, 8(1). 204-217. http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/8.1.204/306