NetNews
In my last column, I referred to work on improving the search facilities on the ABS web site. The ABS has now released a new search engine, based on Lotus Discovery Server (LDS). We have received some very positive feedback, but also some negative feedback mostly from people missing the advanced search facility. After some deliberation, we will be adding advanced search facilities to the new search engine.
In the meantime, please refer to the 'Search Tips' Help page which is available from the Help menu on the home page - this will assist you in getting the most from our new web site search.
Librarians may also be interested to know that the ABS has recently upgraded our AGLS metadata to provide more depth and coverage across our web site. This will help provide more accuracy for our search engine and help people who harvest metadata from our web site.
Another ABS initiative to make it easier to find information on the web site is the release of the National Regional Profiles, which are available free on the web site and allow you to download a spreadsheet containing a range of indicator information for a region of your choice.
The National Regional Profile (ABS Cat. no. 1379.0.55.001) combines a range of ABS and non-ABS information including population, births and deaths, remoteness, unemployment, income support customer numbers, wage and salary earners, and building approvals. Information is available for Local Government Areas, Statistical Local Areas, Statistical Subdivisions, Statistical Divisions, States/Territories and for Australia as a whole.
The National Regional Profile does not, however, contain data from the 2001 Census of Population and Housing, but links to this census data on our web site, which is also of course available on CLIB.
If you would like more information about any of these developments, please contact me at mano.georgopoulos@abs.gov.au
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