PSCI 3000: Urban Politics Class Guide

Overview

The following reference books, databases and Web sites will help your complete your assignments in this urban politics course. If you have any questions, please ask me or anyone at the Central Reference Desk for assistance.

Reference Books and Web Sites

Some of the following reference books and Web sites will be usefull in identifying organization, information about urban problems, facts about cities, etc.

Urban Issues

Encyclopedia of Urban America: The Cities and Suburbs HT 123 .E5 1998 (Ref)
This 2-volume set contains about 500 entries relating to all aspects of urban life, including such topics as transportation, community actions programs, gentrification, religion, sports, property taxes, sanitation, regional planning, unemployment, etc. Article include references for further reading. This would be an excellent place to get an overview of the urban issue you have choosen for your paper.

Encyclopedia of Urban Cultures
HT 108.5 .E53 2002 (Ref)
This 4-volume set begins with 16 thematic, detailed essays on urban culture, including migration, urban geography, health issues, and the declining city, followed by shorter essays on over 240 urban centers across the globe. Includes illustrations, maps, photographs, and a useful bibliography at the end of each entry.

Center for Urban Policy Research Hosted by Rutgers University, this organization has served the nation for over three decades with basic and applied research on a broad spectrum of public policy issues. CUPR conducts basic, fundamental research on urban growth and development and brings its wide-ranging expertise to bear on the practical applications of its analyses to policy design and implementation. The site has its own search engine.

The Urban Institute This is a nonpartisan, economic and social research policy organization in Washington, DC, that publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The site contains news releases and many of the reports are full-text online. You can search for information by broad topics such as housing, the economy, health care, welfare reform, and tax policy. You may need Adobe Acrobat to read the documents.

Urban Politics Dictionary JS 48 .S65 1990 (Ref)
Offers paragraph-long entries on over 600 words and phrases related to urban politics, including such things as historic preservation, government franchise, decentralization, community development block grant, land banking, strategic planning, recreation and parks, etc. Each essay includes references for additional reading.

City Information

America's Top-Rated Cities: A Statistical Handbook
HT 123 .A669 (Reference Desk Collection)
This 4-volume set provides an up-to-date and statistical profile of America's largest 100 cities with populations of 100,000 or more. The type of information included is cost of living, employment and earnings, taxes, finances, climate, major employers, population, education, crime, air and water quality, etc. Volume 3, the Central Region, includes Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Detroit, MI.

America's Top-Rated Smaller Cities: A Statistical Handbook
HT 123 .A6691x (Reference Desk Collection)
Offers a current and concise statistical portrait of 60 top US cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000, including cost of living, employment and earnings, taxes, finances, climate, major employers, population, education, crime, air and water quality, etc.

Best Places to Live From CNN and Money Magazine, this site offers data on over 1200 cities in the U.S. Portage is included, but Kalamazoo is not.

Cities of the United States HT 123 .C49677 (Reference Desk Collection)
This 4-volume set is a compilation of current information on economic, cultural, geographic, and social conditions on approximately 164 urban centers in the US.

County and City Data Book HA 202 . A36 (Reference Desk Collection) This statistical guide covers not only places in the United States, but a broad range of subjects from agriculture and banking to veterans and vital statistics. Many of the statistics covered in this book result from the 2000 Census.

County and City Extra
HA 203 .C68 (Reference Desk Collection)
Provides up-to-date statistical information for every state, county, metropolitan area, congressional district, and for all cities in the U.S. with a 2000 population of 25,000 or more. Has data on land area, population, households, crime, education, income, poverty, housing, labor force, health care, federal funds, city finances, and government employment.

Official City Sites
This site eventually gets you to city sites, but you must first go through the official state Web sites.

Places Rated Almanac
HN 60 .P55x (Reference Desk Collection)
This is one of several guides useful for evaluating the best places to live or work according to a variety of measures. It rates and ranks 333 U.S. metro areas according to nine factors that influence the quality of life: living costs, job outlook, crime, health care and environment, transportation, education, the arts, recreation, and climate.

Profiles of America: Facts, Figures & Statistics for Every Populated Place in the United States HT 123 .P7624 2003 (Ref)
Provides information on thousands of cities and counties across the U.S., including information on population, economy, income, education, transportation, taxes, housing, health, elections, safety, and other statistics. The 4 volumes are arranged geographically: volume 1, southern region; volume 2, western region; volume 3, central region; and volume 4, eastern region.

Associations

Encyclopedia of Associations
HS 17 .G32 (Reference Desk Collection, Science Reference, Education Library)
This is a comprehensive source of information for more than 23,000 American organizations of national scope. It lists address, phone numbers, purpose, major publications, and some statistical information, for example, budget, membership, size of staff, and more.

Government Phone Book USA
JK 6 .G58x (Reference Desk Collection)
A comprehensive guide to federal, state, county, and municipal government offices in the United States, including names of officials, addresses, and telephone and FAX numbers.

Kalamazoo Area Human Services Directory. 22nd ed HV 99 .K27 D 57 2001(Reference Desk Collection)
Includes social and human services, self-help, neighborhood groups, employment services, and service clubs, with addresses, telephone numbers, and names of contacts.

Finding Books

WestCat/Library Catalog WestCat is one of the historic names for WMU's official online library catalog. This catalog is used to identify books (including online books), government documents, journals, videos, sound recordings, slides and other items that the University Libraries has in its collections. WestCat can be searched by title, author, subject heading, keyword, call number, and more. SEARCH TIP: Use the Advanced Search method to find books on your topic.

SEARCH TIP: ABC-Clio Press has published an excellent series of books on modern problems in the world, many of which are urban in nature. You might want to try the following Advanced Search, placing each of these phrases in a separate box:

contemporary world issues
abc-clio

Look through the results to see if your topic appears. These volumes provide a superb overview of modern urban problems. Most of them are shelved in the Central Reference collection, so you will have to use them in the building.

Finding Newspaper Articles

SEARCH TIP: Your best bet for smaller and mid-sized newspapers will the NewsBank index. Most of the other indexes only include "big-city" newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, etc. Small-town newspapers will be nearly impossible to find anywhere in the Libraries or even on the Internet.

SEARCH TIP: You might want to visit the Official City Sites Web site to see if the city you are researching has an official site. If so, there may be a link to the local newspaper, especially if it is a smaller city or town. Also, you could try doing a Google search on the name of the newspaper to see if any or all of it might be printed on the Web.

InfoTrac Custom Newspapers Index to the full text from almost 500 newspapers from around the country and world, including the Grand Rapids Press, Detroit Free Press, London Times and the New York Times. Searches can be restricted to particular newspapers. Coverage varies.

InfoTrac General Reference Center Gold An index of general interest articles from magazines, newspapers, and reference books on all subjects. Many entries provide full-text and images. Coverage: 1980-present.

LexisNexis Academic
Indexes thousands of domestic and foreign newspapers, as well as journals, and other publications in News, Business company reports and articles, Legal Research, Medical and Reference. The legal research category includes law reviews, law news, federal and state laws and cases. Mostly full text. Includes Hoover's full text. Coverage dates vary.

New York Times Full-text articles from 1995 to date available from InfoTrac and from 2000 in NewsBank.
Full-text articles from 1851-2003 are available in the New York Times 1851-2003 (ProQuest)
Selective full-text articles since 1980 are available from LexisNexis.
New York Times Online, the official site of the paper, provides free articles from the last 7 days and archives to previous issues.
Print copies: recent issues are kept at the Science Reference Desk until the microfilm arrives.
Microfilm: AN 2 on the Lower Level, 1851 to date.

NewsBank Full text articles from over 2000 U.S. regional and national newspapers, wire services, and broadcasts and international newspapers. Includes NewsBank NewsFile, Access World News, Business NewsBank, America's Newspapers (including many Michigan newspapers), and more. Coverage varies.

Finding Journal Articles

CQ Researcher Explores a current news issue in-depth each week. Articles typically include an overview and background of the issue, pro-con essays on a question in the issue, a chronology, and lengthy bibliography. Coverage from October 1991 to present.

ProQuest Research Library Indexes popular magazines, scholarly journals, newspapers and trade publications in a wide range of subject areas, including business, education, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Full-text available for over 2,500 journals. Coverage from 1971.

Social Sciences Abstracts Indexes over 600 periodicals in anthropology, economics, ethnic studies, feminist studies, geography, human services, international relations, law and criminology, police science, political science, population studies, psychology, public administration, public health, social work, sociology, urban studies, and related social science subjects. Coverage: indexing from 1983 and abstracts from 1994. Updated weekly.
Details

Wilson Select Plus Index to full text articles in science, humanities, social sciences, education and business. The index includes records from: Readers' Guide Abstracts, Social Sciences Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, General Science Abstracts and Wilson Business Abstracts. Coverage: 1994 to the present. Updated weekly.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts An index with abstracts to articles from over 1,100 international journals in political science and related disciplines. Includes book reviews. Based on the Political Science Abstracts from Plenum and ABC POL SCI from ABC-CLIO. Coverage: 1975 to the present. Updated monthly.

Using Style Guides for References in Your Paper

Publication Manual of the American Psychology Association
BF 76.7 .P83 2001 (Reference Desk Collection)
The single, most used guide to preparing papers and citing sources in the field of psychology. Click here to see the APA and other Style Guide links on the Libraries' Web site.

The Chicago Manual of Style
Z 253 .C57 15th 2003 (Reference Desk Collection)
This a detailed and comprehensive guide to papers, articles, theses, and dissertations used by WMU's Department of Political Science. Consult this for the proper format for your research paper references. Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term papers, Theses, and Dissertations (LB 2369.T8 1996 Ref Desk Coll) is a condensation of this source. WMU Libraries has compiled the following concise guide:"Turbian's A manual for Writers: Brief Guide" that you may consult for citation tips.

Tips for Citing Web Sources For examples of how to cite electronic sources in the Chicago style, consult the guide Using Chicago Style to Cite and Document Sources.

Ask A Librarian

Maria A. Perez-Stable, E-mail: maria.perez-stable@wmich.edu
Phone: 269-387-5322
Last updated: August 2008