EDITOR’S NOTE: Sessions run from 9:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama State Data Center will host a training session Feb. 4 at the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence on The University of Alabama campus for selected librarians, government planning officials and university researchers to discuss the latest electronic products and software used by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Essentially we are training the trainers,” said Annette Watters, assistant director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UA. Watters is on the National Steering Committee of the Census Bureau’s State Data Center, whose nine-member board serves as an advisory group to the Census Bureau.

Information gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau helps keep the government and the public abreast on issues in socioeconomics, population information, income and educational attainment. Surveys held between the censuses keep information timely.

For the Feb. 4 meeting, two representatives from the Census Bureau, Barbara LaFleur from the Customer Liaison Office in Washington, D.C. and Bea Piddock from the bureau’s regional office in Atlanta, will train government planners, reference librarians from Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile, and university researchers from The University of Alabama, Jacksonville State University, Alabama A&M and The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Watters said information from the Census can be used for decision making, planning and grant writing. The trainers will show participants how to effectively use the Bureau’s web site for effective data research and how to use the LandView software for mapping purposes.

Cost is $30 per person, and lunch is provided. Registration deadline for the event is Jan. 30.