Here is a summary of all replies. Sorry for the delay.
ORIGNAL MESSAGE:
I was speaking with the U.S.Postal Service (USPS) Historian, an apparently
likely resource for "ancient" information such as 1980 zipcodes. She has had a
tough time selling the idea of keeping old records, such as 1980 zipcodes, to
her management. I said that the USPS could possibly sell this information, and
the USPS costs would be minimal. Something like a web/ftp site where you give
them your VISA number and they'll email/ftp you the file.
(After all, how much space could a tab-text file with several columns take. They
could have a single file with column One containing zipcodes (all numbers 00000
to 99999), and 2 columns for lat/longs every five or ten years (1970lat,
1970long; 1980lat, 1980long; 1990lat, 1990long; etc.).)
I told her I'd post a message on the list to ask if anyone would be interested
in such a file and, aside from free, if it could be sold and for how much. I
said that the USPS would need to recognize that zipcodes are more than just
things to make delivery of the mail easier for the USPS. I think this woman's
ability to sell this idea to her management "may" depend on whether the data
could be sold, at least to cover costs. I think she needs help to bolster a
position.
If you could send me your responses, I will forward them to the USPS Historian.
REPLIES:
ONE
Michael,
I think this would be great, although it would also be beneficial if they
had zipcode region objects. Granted, that would take up quite a bit more
space.
Perhaps they could develop a relationship with a vendor who could make the
information available? (I also would like to see it available for free,
such as on the Directions magazine web site).
Thanks,
Eric Johnson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
TWO
I would likely make use of this resource. We are undertaking a project to
map cancer incidence by zip code, since zip code is the smallest level
geography that we have complete information for. I took the trouble of
tracing every zip code change in New York in the 1990s by going through all
the back issues of the Postal Register. Since New York isn't growing, the
number of changes was fairly small, so this wasn't as bad as it sounds.
Still, it would have been nice to have this information digitally.
Frank Boscoe
NYS Cancer Registry
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
THREE
My sense is that the post office didn't even compute centroids, that was
something done by other
vendors such as GDT. And that physical centroids don't change over time,
except in cases where the post office
realigns delivery areas, which is rare (there were no instances of this in
New York in the 1990s).
My expectation of the post office would be a much simpler one: a list of
which zip codes were valid for which years.
We would probably we willing to pay a few hundred dollars for such a file,
provided it went back as far as 1976.
Frank Boscoe
NYS Cancer Registry
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
FOUR
We have death, birth and disease surveillance records back decades. Many
times all we have is a Zipcode address for the 1980 +/- few years records.
Without 1980 zipcodes we can do no time trend analysis to geographies
smaller than a county. If we had 1980 zipcodes we could do analysis on a
smaller scale which is very much more useful than at the county level.
Public health agencies (thousands of offices in 50 states - federal, state,
county, city) throughout the US have this need - its a real one and there
is no otherway that I am aware of to have it solved unless the USPS takes it
over.
Richard E. Hoskins PhD MPH
Senior Epidemiologist and Director
GIS & Spatial Epidemiology Group
WA State Department of Health
1102 Quince Street
Olympia, WA 98504-7812
tel: (360) 236-4270
fax: (360) 236-4245
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
FIVE
HAVE YOU FOUND THAT THE USPS HAS LAT-LON'S FOR HISTORICAL ZIP CODES?
THEY HAVEN'T IN THE PAST.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
SIX
Your message was not read by:Matt Sully @ Exmoor NPA/Somerset County Council
at:Mon, 31 Jan 2000 19:32:13 UT
SEVEN
Michael,
Thanks for the note back. Yes, boundary files would be great. Preferably
as a clean ArcInfo coverage with polygons in .e00 format, since that allows
one to use either the arcs (polylines) or polygons (regions). I do most of
my work in MI, but like to have the explicit topology that clean coverages
have.
Thanks,
Eric Johnson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
EIGHT
Hi !
I received your email and I shall send you a reply ASAP.
Till then, take a look at the attached zipped docs.
bye.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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