Mountain Studies Institute - 2000 Census GIS Datasets

Naming Conventions & Data Access

HOW TO ACCESS THE DATA

To access the data, you must decompress the .ZIP file that was downloaded and then decompress each of data layer .ZIP files it contains. This can be done using a compression tool such as WinZip or PK Unzip or using ESRI's ArcExplorer software. Once the data layers have been decompressed, you can display the data using GIS sofware such as ESRI's ArcExplorer or ArcView GIS. Simply use the "add theme" function for each of the shapefiles.

FILE NAMING CONVENTION

Each data file name is a combination of a layer abbreviation (e.g. 'blk') and a 5-digit County FIPS Code (e.g. '53001') and the file extension (e.g. '.zip' or '.shp'). For example, the compressed county data layer for Cook County, Illinois would be named 'cty17031.zip'. The data layers contained within the .ZIP file contain a TIGER^® abbreviation prefix (i.e. 'tgr') followed by the County FIPS and layer abbreviation (e.g. 'tgr17031cty.shp'). Below is a list of the abbreviations for each of the TIGER^® data layers.

Layer Name	Abbreviation
Line Features - Roads	lkA
Line Features - Rails	lkB
Line Features - Misc. Transport	lkC
Line Features - Landmarks	lkD
Line Features - Physical	lkE
Line Features - Non-visible	lkF
Line Features - Hydrography	lkH
Line Features - Unknown	lkX
County 1990	cty
County - Current	ctycu
County 2000	cty00
Census Tracts 1990	trt
Census Tracts 2000	trt00
Block Groups 1990	grp
Block Groups 2000	grp00
Census Blocks 1990	blk
Census Blocks 2000	blk00
Designated Places 1990	plc
Designated Places 2000	plc00
Designated Places - Current	plccu
County Census Divisions - Current	ccdcu
County Census Divisions 2000	ccd00
Voting Districts	vot
Voting Districts 2000	vot00
Indian/Alaska Native Areas	air00
American Indian Tribal Subdivisions	aits
American Indian/Alaska Native Areas	air
American Indian/Alaska Native Areas - Current	aircu
Alaskan Native Regional Corporations	arc
Key Geographic Locations	kgl
Landmark Polygons	lpy
Landmark Points	lpt
Traffic Analysis Zones	taz
Urban Areas	urb
Consolidated Cities	city
School Districts - Elementary	elm
School Districts - Middle	mid
School Districts - Secondary	sec
School Districts - Unified	uni
Water Polygons	wat
CMSA/MSA Polygons 2000	msa00
PMSA Polygons 2000	pms00
Congressional Districts - 106^th	cd106
Congressional Districts - Current	cdc
State House Districts	hse
State Senate Districuts	sen
Oregon Urban Growth Area	uga
Census 2000 Collection Blocks	colblk
ZIP Code Tabulation Areas	zcta
State Legislative District Lower Chamber	sldl
State Legislative District Upper Chamber	sldu
Alternate Feature Names	alt
Address Matching Info	add2
ZIP+4 Left and Right Info	zip
Key Geographic Location Addresses	add
Landmark Polygon Names	lpy2
Landmark Polygons - Multi-landmark	lpy3
Water Polygons - Multi-names	wat2

DATA DOCUMENTATION

Documentation for the TIGER^® 2000 data can be found on the Census Web site at the URL addresses below:

Census TIGER^® Overview: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger
TIGER/Line^® Files Technical Documentation: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/rd_2ktiger/tgrrd2k.pdf
TIGER/Line^® Files Metadata: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/rd_2ktiger/tlrdmeta.txt

Note: TIGER^® and TIGER/Line^® are registered trademarks of the U.S. Bureau of the Census.