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SeekData Awarded GSA Schedule

SeekData is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a GSA Schedule 70 Contract by the U.S. General Services Administration. The contract will expedite the ordering and delivery process for potential U.S. Government customers of our GIS data services and products. The contract, number GS-35F-0925R, is effective from November 17, 2005 through November 15, 2010.

For more information, please contact SeekData or click on the GSA logo below to be redirected to SeekData's contract information page on the GSA Advantage website.

SeekData Releases Puerto Rico Public School Points

SeekData, a GIS company that specializes in problematic location and address data for the U.S. and Puerto Rico, in coordination with the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), has released newly developed Public School Points for the entire island of Puerto Rico. Working closely with the NCES, SeekData has made available longitude/latitude point data for all public schools located on the island of Puerto Rico. These data include Puerto Rico Public Schools ranging from pre-kindergarten to graduate school. Also available are various attribute data including: location address, grade range, student information, zone, region, title 1 calculations and other school-specific information.

The NCES is the primary federal entity responsible for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S., Puerto Rico and other nations. NCES is part of the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.

The NCES publishes numerous publications and datasets each year. Many publications report the findings of specific surveys, but at least three ("Digest of Education Statistics", "Projections of Education Statistics" and "The Condition of Education") cover the field of education statistics from a broad perspective.

These data assist the School District Review Program, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau every 2 years, and is of vital importance for each state's allocation under Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Public Law (P.L.) 107-110.

For more information on SeekData's Puerto Rico Public School Points data and other exclusive data products, please click here.

Previously, Puerto Rico was made up of only one public school boundary, making data gathering and analysis difficult. SeekData has released data on the 84 new public school district boundaries and 10 newly developed regions. These boundaries and regions have never been mapped before and will contribute to a more consistant and reliable data gathering process to help guide local and national educational services and agencies.

For more information on SeekData's Puerto Rico Public School Boundary data and other exclusive data products, please click here.

SeekData is pleased to announce that the release of our Puerto Rican Centerline data is forthcoming. The dataset will contain extremely accurate (maintained by GPS) street centerline data for Puerto Rico. For more information on SeekData's Centerline data, please click here.

SeekData now has available newly released 2003 boundary data for the entire United States (Including Alaska, Hawaii, and New England). The data available includes Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas, Metropolitan Divisions, Combined Statistical Areas, New England City and Town Areas (NECTAs), NECTA Divisions, and Combined NECTAs.

U.S. Micropolitan and Metropolitan Statistical Area Data Released in 2003

Metropolitan Statistical Area
An urbanized area with a population of 50,000 or, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties.

Micropolitan Statistical Area
Defined as a core based statistical area associated with at least one urban cluster that has a population of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000. The area comprises the central county or counties containing the core, plus adjacent outlying counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the central county as measured by commuting ties.

Metropolitan Divisions
This area, if specified criteria are met, is a Metropolitan Statistical Area containing a single core with a population of 2.5 million or more which may be subdivided to form smaller groupings of counties referred to as Metropolitan Divisions.

Combined Statistical Areas
If specified criteria are met, adjacent Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas, in various combinations, may become the components of a new set of areas called Combined Statistical Areas. For instance, a Combined Statistical Area may comprise two or more Metropolitan Statistical Areas, a Metropolitan Statistical Area and a Micropolitan Statistical Area, two or more Micropolitan Statistical Areas, or multiple Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas.

New England City and Town Areas
This area is defined using cities and towns in the six New England states. The New England City and Town Areas (NECTA) are defined using the same criteria as Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and are identified as either metropolitan or micropolitan, based, respectively, on the presence of either an urbanized area of 50,000 or more population or an urban cluster of at last 10,000 but less than 50,000 population.

New England City and Town Area Divisions
If the specified criteria are met, a New England City and Town Area (NECTA) containing a single core with a population of at least 2.5 million may be subdivided to form smaller groupings of cities and towns referred to as New England City and Town Area Divisions.

Combined New England City and Town Areas
The geographic components of Combined New England City and Town Areas are individual metropolitan and micropolitan NECTAs, in various combinations. The areas that combine retain their own designations as Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Areas (or NECTAs) within the larger Combined Statistical Area (or Combined NECTAs). Combinations for adjacent areas with an employment interchange of 25 or more are automatic. Combinations for adjacent areas with an employment interchange of at least 15 but less than 25 are based on local opinion as expressed through the Congressional delegations.

Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs):
SeekData now has available newly released 2003 Metropolitan Statistical Area boundary data for Puerto Rico. The release is significant due to the fact that the boundary definitions since the last release in 2000 have doubled, from 4 to 8 MSAs on the island of Puerto Rico. In all, there were only 49 new MSAs for the entire United States and its territories released in 2003. Please see the 2000 and 2003 comparison maps below.

Micropolitan Statistical Areas:
In addition, the 2003 Micropolitan Statistical Area boundary data for Puerto Rico is available from SeekData, the first release of this newly defined statistical area. Micropolitan Statistical Areas, as defined by the OMB, are a core based statistical area associated with at least one urban cluster that has a population of at least 10,000, but less than 50,000. The Micropolitan Statistical Area comprises the central county or counties containing the core, plus adjacent outlying counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the central county as measured by commuting ties.