Frank Lester, librarian for Communication Studies, Political Science, and Cinema and Media Arts, has been appointed to the Census Information Center (CIC) Steering Committee for a two year term beginning April 1. The CIC program is a partnership between the U.S. Census Bureau and a network of select organizations with the shared goal of providing local access, education, and technical assistance on census data. The CIC program has been in operation since 1990. CICs provide demographic and socioeconomic data trend reports, respond to custom data requests, and offer trainings on accessing, using, and interpreting census data. Vanderbilt is a part of this large delivery network, which is comprised of colleges and universities, research groups, minority chambers of commerce, and civil rights organizations serving children, the aging, rural populations, and tribal governments.
Lester has been a government information research and subject librarian at Vanderbilt for 13 years and specializes in Census data. He has taught classes and training workshops about using Census data nearly every semester. “I’m honored to be chosen and to be able to represent Vanderbilt by serving on this important committee,” Lester says. “I’m looking forward to engaging with the steering committee, to learning more about other CICs around the country, and to raising awareness of the collection and use of Census data by increasing outreach to our community .”