Before users can use statistical information, they must be able to find it. Information-seeking in an electronic environment requires us to develop new methods of organizing and cataloging information. Systems built on geographical footprints may be just one of many new such methods. The following are just a few of the areas requiring interdisciplinary research if we are to achieve the three conditions discussed above as being necessary for turning numbers into information. Information seeking Knowledge acquisition Statistical methods Information visualization Expert systems Human-computer interface Statistics as Information Federal statistics are an important information resource.
Most students contemplating career choices make use of occupational employment projections.
Anyone planning a move to another part of the country is interested in housing costs, school test scores, air quality, and traffic congestion around their new home in comparison to where they live now. Owners and managers of rental property often use the Consumer Price Index to raise rents. State and local governments use statistics of all kinds to project needs for schools, roads, and other publicly-provided services. Communicating with and about numbers is far more pervasive today than even a decade ago, and we must expect it to continue to grow. If the public is to have access and use of the existing infrastructure of Federal statistical information, the low level of statistical literacy in the United States must be taken into account.