Ref
HT123
C49677

Cities of the United States. 4v. 1998

Regional arrangement of U.S. cities. Includes a map, selected statistics, and current information on economic, cultural, geographic, and social conditions, and a selected bibliography for each city covered.

The Almanac of American Politics: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their records and election results, their states and districts.
1974- [biennial] Latest on Reserve.

Overview of the year in politics regionally and for each state, including members' performances, stands on issues, voting records, interest group ratings.

Congressional Districts in the 2000s: A Portrait of America. 2003

Descriptions of the political climate at Congressional District level. Information on demographic composition, economic status, business operations, media, Presidential vote, and more for 435 districts. Includes maps.
Note: Separate volumes for the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s are also available.

Don't forget to search the catalog for BOOKS about your city. Change the search from word/s anywhere to subject word/s and type the name of your city and the state in which it is located, if the city name is not unique. Some examples: portland and oregon, saint louis and missouri, gary and indiana. Add words like education, african american*, politic*, econom*, development.

Cities and Towns Maps Home Page (American Memory Project, Library of Congress) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/cityhome.html

"[Historic]maps that depict individual buildings to panoramic views of large urban areas. These maps record the evolution of cities illustrating the development and nature of economic activities, educational and religious facilities, parks, street patterns and widths, and transportation systems." --From Web site--
Most maps range from 1880 - 1900.

American FactFinder. [US Census]

To find basic demographic, social, economic, and housing statistics for a particular city go to the Fact Sheet and type in your city, select a state, then click on GO.

Note the Narrative Profile, which includes data graphs with brief interpretations and Reference Map for each city.

Check out State & County Quick Facts, which now includes statistics for cities and towns larger than 25,000. For additional statistical information on your city, click on link from the quick facts page Want More? at the top right of the table.

State of Cities Data Systems.
http://socds.huduser.org/
Links to federal data sets that include statistics on metropolitan areas. Includes census, employment, county business patterns, crime, public finance, building permits, and housing affordability (CHAS) data.

From Quick Link select a state, then your city, to access longitudinal data on a city for the 3-4 current decades. This is a good place to easily track changes in your city for the topics listed above.

Reserve
HA203
C68

County & City Extra: Annual Metro, City, and County Data Book. 2007
Includes social, economic, and political data for cities as current as 1999. Maps.

Cities Ranked & Rated. 2007

Comparative analysis of 400 metropolian areas in the U.S. and Canada. Rankings cover such topics as economy & jobs, cost of living, transportation, education, crime, and health care.

America's Top-Rated Cities: A Statistical Handbook. 4v. 2003

Ranks America's 100 "best" cities with a population of 100,000 or more. Brief background information on each city including history and current events. Based on surveys conducted by magazines such as Forbes, Ebony, Seventeen, Ladies Home Journal, Modern Maturity, American Demographics and Travel & Leisure. Rankings cover such topics as city government expenditures, real estate, businesses, cost of living, recreation, environment, media, ethnic groups, education, and health care.

Lifestyle Market Analyst. [SDRS] Latest on Reserve.
"A reference guide for consumer market analysis."

Encyclopedia of Urban America: The Cities and Suburbs. 2v. 1998

Focuses on 20th century urban issues in United States including politics, public policy, economy, education, and culture. Presented from a multidisciplinary perspective. Includes articles on people influential in urban development and some major cities.

Encyclopedia of the City. 2005

Available online through the Cook Library catalog. Once you find it in the catalog, click on and enter 14-digit library ID and last name. Also available in Reference stacks on the main floor of Cook Library: Ref HT108.5 E63

Articles on concepts and people related to cities. Biographical articles include a list of key works. Most articles are accompanied by a list of two - four items for further reading.

Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtural World. 4v. 2003

Articles covering all aspects of community that fall into broad topics such as activism and social transformation, community design, community economics, and urban and suburban life. Each article is written by a scholar in the field and accompanied by a list of readings.

Key Concepts in Urban Studies. 2005

Articles on terms from Urban Sociology & Urban Studies, Urban Planning, and Urban Geography such as environmental concerns, gentrification, ghetto, homelessness, housing, inequality and poverty, informal economy, neighborhood, planning, preservation, slums, sprawl, uneven development and urban politics.

Encyclopedia of American Urban History. 2v. 2007

Available online through the Cook Library Web site from > databases. Click on Sage Online Reference and then type your 14-digit library ID and last name. Also available in Reference stacks on the main floor of Cook Library: Ref HT123 E49

Historical focus providing background information of urban issues. Includes biographies and articles on cities and topics such as: doctrines, actions, movements, and religions; community development block grants; commuting; education and schools; finances and commerce; gentrification; housing, race; theories; transportation; and women.

Municipal Year Book. [International City/County Management Association] 1944-

Five sections including management issues and trends, intergovernmental relations, staffing and compensation, directories, and references. Includes salaries of municipal and county officials, fire and police personnel. Articles on state/local relations and Congressional legislation and Supreme Court cases affecting local government.

Encyclopedia of Housing. 1998

Presents many topics directly related to the urban environment. Appendix includes a list of legislation and executive orders authorizing HUD programs.

Homeland Security Digital Library [HSDL]

Online database available through the Cook Library Web site or through Research Port from off campus. Provides full text access to documents on security and related issues such as civil rights, policing, crime, gangs, and transit.

USA.gov: State & Local Employees
http://www.firstgov.gov/Government/State_Local.shtml

Web site developed in response to Gore's National Performance Review on reinventing government. Includes best practices for administrative units at the local level. Covers areas such as administrative management, disasters, education, health, housing, and transportation.

Type the name of a city into the search box to search the Government Web for local, regional, and state government Web sites related to a city.

National League of Cities
http://www.nlc.org/

Metropolitan Policy Program [Brookings Institute]
http://www.brookings.edu/metro.aspx
Analysis of city issues from an economic point of view, with an emphasis on the impact of federal policies.

The Urban Institute: A Nonpartisan Economic and Social Policy Research Organization
http://www.urban.org/

Access to research reports and data on cities and metropolitan regions include Arts and Culture, Community Building, Development, Crime Prevention Efforts, Federal Urban Policies, Job Opportunities, Mobility, and Transportation.

Smart Growth in Maryland

Finding useful information about a city's education on a city Web site varies by city. Search Google, typing the name of your city and schools or education (e.g. boston schools, boston education)

In addition, search at the state level, as this is where policy regarding education is most often developed. Search Google, typing the name of your city's state and education (e.g. california education).

Also, determine the county in which your city is located, as a county is a possible source of information.

Council of the Great City Schools: The Nation's Voice for Urban Education

Search the site by city name.

Education Week on the Web
http://www.edweek.org
Information on education at federal, state and local levels. After registering, click on Research Center.

• Click on States to find links to statistics, reports, and articles about education in each state.
• Click on the issues on the sidebar to find information on topics such as desegregation, home schooling, digital divide, school fincance, and standards.
• Each issue of the Special Reports Series, Quality Counts, published annually, focuses on a timely issue and includes a "report card" for each state back to 1997. The 1998 report is entitled The Urban Challenge: Public Education in the 50 States.
• The Archived Issues section allows one to search for articles on a particular city in back issues of Education Week.

ERIC and Education Research Complete [Ebsco]
Research Database available through Cook Library home page
Use Research Port for off-campus access that requires your 14-digit ID # found on the front of your Towson OneCard.
Search for articles from magazines, journals, and reports in Education.

*Go to Advanced Search and search city name as SU Subject Terms (change from Select a Field ). Combine with terms which cover your specific topic, such as desegregation, funding, reform [Select a Field]. Click on Search.

Note: Most online databases index articles that have been published post-1990. To review sources published prior to 1990, check printed indexes located in the Reference area such as:

• Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature [Ref AI3.R4]
• Social Sciences Index [Ref AI3.S611]

Yahoo [for city-related Web sites]
http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/U_S__States/
Next click on a state name, then Cities, then a city name. Links to city governmental pages and a city's history are listed under Community.

Note that there are also links to the city's News and Media sites. When searching online newspapers, try the Local News and Opinion sections, as well as searching with keywords.

HUD Community Renewal Initiative
- for America's Renewal Communities, Urban Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (RC/EZ/EC)

See RC/EZ/ECs by State to identify cities that are participating in renewal initiatives.

Lexis Nexis Academic
For full text of U.S. newspapers, click on Sources. Select United States. Select appropriate state. Select News folder.

• Select state news folder.
• Click on show options to select specific document sections
• Select HLEAD to search for your words in the article title and lead paragraph
• Type in appropriate topic such as housing, renewal, empowerment, poor, neighborhoods, schools.

NOTE: The truncation symbol in this database is !. For example, environment! = environment, environments, environmental, etc.

For a video (audio included) on searching state newspapers in LexisNexis, see http://pages.towson.edu/sara/LN_state.htm

National Newspapers [ProQuest]
Provides full text of 4 newspapers including the Christian Science Monitor (1988 - ), New York Times (1980 - ), Wall Street Journal (1984 - ), and Washington Post (1987 - ).

NOTE:ProQuest also provides full text access to the Baltimore Sun. To limit a search to The Sun (Baltimore), from the main search screen, click on select multiple databases next to the words News - Proquest Newspapers, deselect Proquest Newspapers, select The Sun.

NOTE: To search multiple papers, such as The Sun (Baltimore) and the Washington Post, from the main search screen, click on the words select multiple databases. Uncheck Proquest Newspapers, check off the Washington Post and The Sun. Click on Continue and type in your search topic.

Note: Any or all of the following Ebsco databases can be searched simultaneously.
To search more than one Ebsco database at a time, select one of them. Once you are in the search screen for that database, click on the dropdown menu and select the others (e.g. Social Sciences Abstracts, MasterFILE Premier, Business Source Premier) that you want to search.
Begin your search by combining Academic Search, Business Source and Social Sciences Abstracts. Add SocINDEX to your search if you are researching a topic for a Sociology course.

Academic Search [Ebsco]
Search for articles from magazines and journals in various disciplines including Political Science, Law and History. More academically oriented. Search here for information on economic, political, and social issues.

*Go to Advanced Search and search city name as a Subject [Note: Spell out cities that begin with abbreviations such as St. e.g. Type saint louis, NOT st louis.] Combine with words such as schools, urban renewal, politics, transit, community, roads, or words representing more specific issues.

NOTE: The truncation symbol in this database is *. For example, environment* = environment, environments, environmental, etc.

SocINDEX [Ebsco]
Search for articles from journals, as well as books, dissertations and conference proceedings on topics in sociology, social work, public policy, criminal justice, and anthropology.
*Go to Advanced Search and search for city-related topics. Sample topics that will yield good results in this database might deal with issues such as gentrification, residential segregation, urban poverty, urban schools, digital divide, and gangs.