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AIMD-00-324R 1 (2000-09-29)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptakwo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G United States General Accounting Office Accounting and Information Washington, DC 20548 Management Division B-286259.1 September 29, 2000 The Honorable Dan Miller Chairman The Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on the Census Committee on Government Reform House of Representatives Subject: 2000 Census: Update on Data Capture Operations and System As you know, earlier this year the U.S. Census Bureau adopted a two-phase approach to capturing household data for the 2000 decennial census. Under phase one, which the bureau terms first pass, only the data necessary to determine the reapportioning of seats in the House of Representatives, which the bureau calls 100 percent data, are captured. Under the second pass, the remaining data, which the bureau calls sample data, are captured. To implement this two-pass approach, the bureau had to modify one of its key systems, the Data Capture System (DCS) 2000, so that during the first pass only the 100 percent data from the digitally imaged census forms (short and long) would be optically read (and keyed) and so that the long-form images could be written to a mass storage device. At the same time that it has been conducting first-pass operations, the bureau's DCS 2000 development contractor has been creating a modified version of the system so that during second-pass operations the stored long- form images can be retrieved and the sample data can be optically scanned and keyed. At your request, we have been reviewing and periodically reporting to you on (1) the bureau's progress in performing first-pass data capture operations, including the performance of DCS 2000, and (2) the bureau's progress in modifying DCS 2000 to GAO/AIMD-00-324R 2000 Census: Update on Data Capture