PHILADELPHIAehind every neighborhood is a wealth of stored knowledge. Accessing that information is the key to determining troubled areas and producing the solutions to fix them.

The University of Pennsylvania Department of City and Regional Planning of the Graduate School of Fine Arts has launched an online comprehensive overview of data about West and Southwest Philadelphia called InfoResources at http://westphillydata.library.upenn.edu/.

InfoResources provides researchers, community leaders, residents and public officials with user-friendly information for developing a wide-range of research and community-development projects.

Modeled on community information networks across the country, InfoResources provides maps, socioeconomic data tables and downloadable resource guides for grant writing, project development and community-empowerment purposes. Its web links enable users to better connect with West Philadelphia community-based organizations, institutions and service-providing agencies.

InfoResources categorizes neighborhood themes such as housing, demographics, health and education information at the block, neighborhood, ZIP code and census-track levels to facilitate the flow of information to all users.

"InfoResources is a forum in which community information needs are met," Sidney Wong, director of the project, said. "Its future depends on how well it serves the community."

InfoResources will be updated as new information, such as the 2000 Census data and regional economic dataset, is available.

InfoResources was begun initially in 1996 to establish a consortium of Penn faculty and community leaders called the "West Philadelphia Data Consortium." The effort was to share and exchange information resources to help solve "real-world" problems in West Philadelphia neighborhoods.