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 data collection and processing techniques. Recent decades have seen the Census Bureau undertake several important new initiatives to improve the census-taking process. These include the adoption of geographic programs to improve the mail census; for example, the creation of computerized geographic files, including the address coding guides (ACGs) of the 1970 census, the GBF/DIME-Files of the 1970 and 1980 censuses, and the TIGER data base of the 1990 census. These improvements allowed the Census Bureau to extend the small-area geographic entities to all parts of the Nation by the 1990 census, assisted by the rapidly increasing use of automation in data processing and in map-making and other graphic presentations. As these developments continue, they become increasingly important in both their direct and indirect effect on the type, definition, and/or delineation of geographic areas for Census Bureau data tabulations and map portrayals. The geographic precision and detail included in the automated files improves the Census Bureau’s performance in fulfilling its mission. This manual is an important component in understanding the geographic concepts that go into the automation of the Census Bureau’s geographic framework so that this framework can be adjusted more effectively to respond to the ever-changing political, social, and economic dynamics of our Nation.

Data users need to be aware of the Census Bureau’s commitments and obligations to the data-using public. Mutual cooperation with the data user community is, and will continue to be, a vital element in the Census Bureau’s maintenance and update of its geographic area framework. In meeting this obligation to involve data users in planning the geographic structure, the Census Bureau has invited the network of local Census Statistical Areas Committees, State Data Centers, Business and Industry Data Centers, tribal groups, and other user groups to assist in delineating many of the geographic entities (see, “Local Census Statistical Areas Committees and Other Local Assistance”). These groups also serve as an important resource for distributing the resulting census data, maps, Notes and References 1-8Census Bureau Geography