Public Policy and Urban Issues

PPS201 L. Bennett
Margaret Power
mpower@wppost.depaul.edu

I. Some Useful Reference Sources All LPC

II. Suggestions for finding books: Select Library Catalog (Illinet Online) from the Library web page or public PCs in library.

Strategy 1. Do a Title Keyword search, then use your results to lead you to more material. Here's how:

• Type one to three words that describe your topic or the name of your city.
• From the search results, select an item that looks good for your subject.
• You will see a list of the subject headings for this title. Click on one ore more one to find more material on that subject.

Strategy 2. Do a Subject Words (Keyword )search.

• Type one to three words that describe your topic.. Click on Subject Words

Note: If you don't find what you're looking for this way, do not assume that there's nothing on your topic. You may have chosen different terms than the subject headings actually use. Try Strategy 1 if this search does not work well for you.

Strategy 3. Do a Subject Heading search with precise subject headings you have identified. Here are some examples of subject headings: These headings are "clickable" in the records you find with Title and keyword searches.

• Aid to families with dependent children programs
• Housing policy--United States—History
• Schools—Decentralization
• Urban renewal--United States

Remember do both title and subject searches. Modify your search to "all locations" to find more materials.

III. Databases for identifying articles and books. On Library Web Page under Databases

Coverage of older years may be found in bound volumes in Abstracts & Indexes section of Reference.

IV. Internet sites

Center for Urban Policy Research
Focused on "urban poverty, community development, economic development and forecasting, housing, land use, environmental policy, and Geographic Information Systems." Provides summaries of research projects, information on books and reports, and links to related sites.http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/cupr/

The Federal Web Locator :
A service of The Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy http://www.vcilp.org/Fed-Agency/fedwebloc.html

FedWorld Information Network :
Comprehensive central access point for searching, locating, ordering and acquiring government and business information. http://www.fedworld.gov/

Institute for Policy Research
At Northwestern Univesity

National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) Idea House
Text, information, and audio related to public policy. Includes; news articles and reports from research institutions; briefings, reports, and analyses of tax, crime, education, economic, health care, Social Security, welfare, national security, trade, and environmental policies; biographical material about and transcripts of congressional testimony http://www.ncpa.org/

Policy.com:
A comprehensive public policy information service and Internet/online community http://www.policy.com/

THOMAS -
Library of Congress Legislative Server. http://thomas.loc.gov

The Urban Institute:
A nonprofit policy research organization. http://www.urban.org/index.htm