Urban Studies Resources

This is a brief list of useful subject specific research sources available in Wesleyan's libraries and on the Internet. It is intended to provide a starting point for research in Urban Studies, sufficient for basic research needs. For more extensive research needs, you can ask for a personal research session with a librarian.

On the Internet (See note about Internet sources)
Web Indexes:  Meta Sites/Guides  
Selected Sites:  Full Text Online  Organizations  

Reference Sources - For introductions to or summaries of topics

Call Numbers - Call Number locations for Urban Studies (in Reference and Stacks)

HT 101-395 - Urban sociology

HE 305-311 - Urban transportation

HC 94-1085 - Economics, organized region or country

HA 175-4737 - Statistical data, organized by region or country

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of Urban America - HT 123 .E5 1998 - 2 volumes on all things urban and suburban in the United States, featuring articles by sociologists, political scientists, architects, historians, criminologists, and scholars from many other related fields.

Encyclopedia of Urban Cultures - HT 108.5 .E52 2002 - Four volumes of thematic essays on major issues in the comparative study of the cultures of cities on a worldwide basis, and articles on specific cities around the world.

Dictionaries

Urban Politics Dictionary - JS 48 .S65 1990 - Definitions and discussions of the significance of terms relating to urban politics, primarily but not exclusively focusing on the United States and Canada.

Guides/Summaries

Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics - HT 391.3 .H36 1986 - 3 volume guide analyzing spatial and populational aspects of economic activities.

Statistics

Facts About the Cities - HT 123 .C385 1996 - Statistical summaries of 373 urban regions in the United States.

Places, Towns, and Townships - HA 214 .P52 1998 - Statistics from the US Department of Census.

Statistical Universe - Statistics on a wide variety of topics, primarily published by U.S. federal, state, and foreign government agencies.

Books

Catalogs

CTW Online Catalog - For books at Wesleyan, Conn College, or Trinity College.

WorldCat - For books not in the CTW Catalog (order by interlibrary loan)

Articles

Indexes & Databases - These indexes and databases are the ones most likely to be relevant to research in Urban Studies. See Indexes and Databases for a full list of available online databases.

Social Services Abstracts - Indexes and abstracts covering over 2,000 journals as well as books, conference proceedings, dissertations, reviews, and other publications in sociology and related disciplines. Covers items published since 1963.

EconLit - Indexes with abstracts to journal articles, books, papers, and other publications in business, finance, statistics, and economics. Covers items published since 1969.

Social Sciences Citation Index - Interdisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the social sciences. In addition to searching for authors, titles, and subjects of articles, this index allows searching for articles which have cited a particular publication, and to search for articles which share one or more cited sources in their bibliographies.

Expanded Academic ASAP - An index, with many full text articles, covering all areas of academic research.

Social Sciences Full Text - An index, with abstracts and some full text, to scholarly sources in the social sciences; covers articles published from 1984 to the present.

PAISInternational - Index of publications concerning public and social policy. Online version covers items published since 1972. The paper index, providing coverage since 1915, is in the Olin Library reference collection at Z 7163 .P92

PCI Full Text - Index of the tables of contents (with access to some full text articles) from social science and humanities journals from as far back as 1770 to recent issues.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe - Full text articles from newspapers, magazines, and other sources, covering a wide range of subjects.

WWW Urban Studies Sources - Note: It is important to keep in mind that anyone can publish information on the Internet. You need to be very careful about evaluating and citing information found on the Web. Another good way of finding Urban Studies resources is to use a search engine or subject directory.

Internet Indexes

Meta Sites/Guides to urban studies Sites - These sites list, and often evaluate, web sites relevant to research in Urban Studies. See Indexes and Databases for a full list of available databases.

Urban Studies - extensive list of sites indexed by Yahoo.

Urban Studies Links - compiled by the Urban Studies Program at Barnard College of Columbia University.

Urban Studies - Web Sites - WebCrawler's index of sites for Urban Studies and subdisciplines such as urban issues, planning, and history.

Selected Sites

Full Text Online

Urban Environmental Management - A web site by the Urban Environmental Management Research Initiative, featuring articles, essays, presentations, statistics, etc. concerning the management of urban activities, including natural, built, and socio-economic environments.

Urban Planning, 1794-1918 - Full text and analyses of "primary source material for the study of how urban planning developed up to the end of World War I. They include statements about techniques, principles, theories, and practice by those who helped to create a new professional specialization."

Organizations

Wesleyan's Urban Studies Program

Research Tips

Types of Sources Developing a Topic Finding Background Info Searching Online Databases Finding Books Interpreting Call Numbers Finding Journal Articles Finding Audio/Video/Etc Finding Primary Sources Getting Stuff That Isn't Here Finding Internet Sources Evaluating Sources Found Citing Sources Used Wesleyan's Plagiarism Policy