American FactFinder 2: Learning to navigate new waters

If you’re like me, you loved the original American Factfinder and have spent countless hours bopping around the site, happy and carefree, wallowing among the statistics dating back to the 1990 Decennial Census and playing with the data extraction tools.   Imagine my dismay upon learning earlier this fall that our beloved AFF will be replaced by American Factfinder 2.  While AFF2 hosts the latest data from the 2010 Census and 2010 American Community Survey, the content currently available at  American Factfinder will be gradually added to the new AFF2 website in phases during fall 2011 and into Spring 2012.  Eventually the entire AFF website will cease operation.  Key research features, like “address lookup”, have already migrated from AFF to AFF2 and are no longer supported in the old website.

Given these random changes in navigation and the resulting impact they might have on research, miscellaneous agencies like the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration and libraries are creating online tutorials to guide users through the new interface and help them manipulate mined data into tables and charts.  See this 5-minute video on the basics of American FactFinder and a longer 9 minute video on advanced searching courtesy of the fine folks at Political Science and International Area Studies Government Information Library University of Colorado, Boulder.