Request Training:
Email jax2@rice.edu, Anna Xiong, Government Information Coordinator & FDLP Representative, Fondren Library Kelley Center for Government Information.
Level
Intermediate
Course Information
This course introduces the American Community Survey (ACS) by the U.S. Census Bureau, the leading source of detailed population and housing information in the United States. It is ideal for researchers, local officials, community leaders, business professionals, faculty, staff, and students interested in conducting population research and understanding community changes.
The training will provide an introduction to the American Community Survey and datasets, as well as hands-on training about obtaining and using datasets from the ACS with some basic R functions. The course showcases how you can use R to import and display ACS data in RStudio, and make your first visualizations and analysis using ACS data for research. Students will learn how to select data from Census Bureau Data APIs using the tidycensus package, return data frames that are ready to explore in tidyverse, visualize data as customizable graphics using ggplot2.
Prerequisites
- Prior to the workshop, students must have the RStudio Desktop version on their personal device, which can be downloaded for free from https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/. The latest version of RStudio is used for this course.
- They must also request and obtain a personal API Key from https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html. For Organization Name, enter “Rice University”.
- It is highly recommended to take
- R basics and ggplot training
- Introduction to Census Data and Data Tools (Virtual Session)
Course materials:
Eligibility
This training session is part of Kelley Center's government information literacy instruction series - Unlocking the Power of Governnent Information.
It is open to Rice University student, faculty, staff, and the general public.
Cost
Free