A New Window Into America's Past

On April 2, the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States released for the first time the 1940 census.  This is the most recent of the decennial censuses to be made available to libraries, researchers, genealogists and the general public, and the first to be issued initially in a digital format.  For more than three years the National Archives has been digitizing over 3.9 million images of records which will give a clearer picture of Americans and American life during the decade of the Great Depression.  Access to these important records can be gained at:  http://1940census.archives.gov/.  A brief video introduction to the project is also available on the site's "Getting Started" page at:  http://1940census.archives.gov/getting-started/.  Finally, an excellent summary of information related to the release of these records is available in a post entitled "1940 Census Goes Digital" on the Government Printing Office's GovernmentBookTalk blog.

PO