Book excerpt: Overview: Published annually by the Federal Government since 1878, The Statistical Abstract of the United States is the best-known statistical reference publication in the country, and perhaps, the world. You'll find it behind nearly every reference desk in U.S. libraries as the authoritative go-to source. Librarians value the Statistical Abstract as both an answer book and a guide to statistical sources. As a carefully selected collection of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States, it is a snapshot of America and its people. In the spring of 2011, the Census Bureau announced that the edition that year would be the last one produced at government expense. Despite protests from librarians and journalists and despite petitions to Congress, the Census Bureau unit that published the Statistical Abstract was eliminated in November. Its elimination resulted not from a decline in the popularity or perceived value of statistical compilations, but from the need to reduce agency spending while supporting new and existing data collection efforts. ProQuest and Bernan have now taken on responsibility for updating and releasing this publication, the most used statistical reference tool in libraries. We bring to this task ProQuest's 35 years of experience acquiring, abstracting, and indexing Federal Government statistical publications and tables and Bernan's 60 years of providing libraries with essential government publications and quality service. The Statistical Abstract print edition resembles the Census version that users know and love, plus more with: Thousands of tables from hundreds of sources and valuable, detailed bibliographic documentation.