LibGuides: URST 442: Brookings: Metropolitan Policy (Beavers): Library Guides

E-Book

The Metropolitan Revolution by Bruce Katz; Jennifer Bradley
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2013
Across the US, cities and metropolitan areas are facing huge economic and competitive challenges that Washington won't, or can't, solve. The good news is that networks of metropolitan leaders - mayors, business and labor leaders, educators, and philanthropists - are stepping up and powering the nation forward.

Brookings Mountain West & Lincy Institute Resources

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Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Searchable articles from academic and professional journals and magazines covering every academic discipline.
Update frequency: Updated daily
This excellent one-stop resource lets you search citations and summaries by keyword and then instantly retrieve the full text of articles from journals online. The Get Text button helps you locate any article without linked full text in alternate online sources or in UNLV's print journal collection.
Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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1960-
Journal articles in criminology and related disciplines.
Provides comprehensive coverage of the major journals in criminology and related disciplines.
PAIS International This link opens in a new window
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1972-
Index to the literature of public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general.
From the Public Affairs Information Service, this database provides access to the literature of public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general. It includes records from journals, books, conference proceedings, research and government reports, and directories.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
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Social Explorer is an online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to current and historical U.S. census data and demographic information.
The easy-to-use web interface lets users create maps and reports to better illustrate, analyze and understand demography and social change. In addition to being a comprehensive data resource, Social Explorer also offers features and tools to meet the needs of both demography experts and novices. It creates reports at all geographic levels including the state, county, census tract, block group, zip code and census place. Included are over 18,000 maps, hundreds of profile reports, 40 billion data elements, 335,000 variables and 220 years of data.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
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1895-
Indexes the literature of sociology and related disciplines.
Includes full text for selected journals, monographs, and conference papers and contains full text for over 325 journals dating back to 1895. Encompasses all subdisciplines of sociology, including abortion, anthropology, criminology, criminal justice, marriage & family, politics, religion, rural sociology, social psychology, social structure, social work, sociological theory, sociology of education, substance abuse, urban studies, and many others.

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Newspaper Databases

Las Vegas Review Journal (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
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1996-
Full text of articles, not including images.

Las Vegas Sun

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Searchable published news, legal, medical and business information.
The news section delivers the full text of international, national and regional newspapers along with wire services, broadcast transcripts, magazines, and non-English language sources. The legal section contains U.S. Federal and state case law, codes, regulations, legal news, law reviews and international legal information. This includes Shepard's Citations for all U.S. Supreme Court cases back to 1789. The medical section supplies information from news and medical journals, and provides abstracts to medical news from Medline. The business section includes business news journals, company financial information, SEC filings and reports, and industry and market news.

US Newsstream This link opens in a new window
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1980s-
Searchable current and recent articles from newspapers, including Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Full text of articles from major national newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, USA Today. Also included are the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, and the Las Vegas Review Journal.

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Think Tanks & Policy-Related Web Resources

A think tank or policy institute is a research institute which performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Although many think tanks claim to be neutral, some may be considered to have a more conservative or a more liberal agenda. For example, the Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank and the Heritage Foundation is considered to be conservative. Be sure to examine the "About the Organization" page, in addition to outside sources to investigate the organization's agenda and their political views.

Think tanks are defined by the above as institutions affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity.

Tips: Search these selected think tanks by keywords to find research and analysis.
If one seems most relevant to your topic, go to the home page and mine the site for publications, issues, research, and links to other organizations.

Think Tank Search--Harvard
From Harvard's Kennedy School of Government library; custom Google search + list of hundreds of US and international think tanks.
Brookings
Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and global economy and development.
Brookings Mountain West
"Brookings Mountain West is a partnership between UNLV and the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. The purpose of Brookings Mountain West is to bring the Brookings tradition of high-quality, independent, and impactful research to the issues facing the dynamic and fast-growing Intermountain West region."
The Lincy Institute
"The Lincy Institute is a research institute organized to conduct and support research that focuses on improving Nevada’s health, education, and social services."
Annenberg Public Policy Center
This policy center produces research that looks at the role of communication in politics, adolescent behavior, chlid development, health care, civics and mental health, and other areas.
Annie E. Casey Foundation- KIDS COUNT
KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state project of the Casey Foundation to track the status of children in the United States.
CATO Institute
CATO's education research is founded on the principle that parents are best suited to make important decisions regarding the care and education of their children.
Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress is a progressive think-tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through ideas and action.
Center on Education Policy
The Center on Education Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools.
Center for Law & Social Policy
"The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advancing policy solutions for low-income people."
Center for Strategic & International Studies
An international policy institute, the CSIS focuses on a number of topics including defense and security, governance, technology and global trends.
The Children's Defense Fund
"The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities."
Goldwater Institute- Center for Educational Opportunity
Arizona-based think tank. Broad areas of research include expansion of charter schools, education tax credits and vouchers, and the regulatory climate for alternative and independent schools
Hoover Institution
Produces the journal "Education Next."
Human Rights Campaign
"The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality."
MDRC
Created in 1974 by the Ford Foundation and a group of federal agencies, MDRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor.
Mathematica Policy Research
"Mathematica Policy Research is a pioneering nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving public well-being."
National Bureau of Economic Research
A "private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals. NBER-affiliated researchers study a wide range of topics and they employ many different methods in their work. Key focus areas include developing new statistical measurements, estimating quantitative models of economic behavior, and analyzing the effects of public policies."
New America
New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is a non-partisan think tank in the United States. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security studies, technology, asset building, health, gender, energy, education, and the economy.
Policy Archive
This collection of public policy research is gathered from sources such as the American Bar Association, the Brookings Institution, the Ford Foudnation, the Institute for Policy Studies, and others.
RAND.org
RAND's research and analysis address issues that impact people around the world including security, health, education, sustainability, growth, and development.
Social Work Policy Institute
"The Social Work Policy Institute examines issues that relate to the work of social workers, including how to serve people who have multiple or complex needs and how public agencies and other structures deliver health and human services."
Urban Institute
The Urban Institute is a Washington D.C.-based think tank that carries out economic and social policy research to "open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions."

Searching for Government & Legislative Information

Google is an easy way to find official government information (reports, statistics, factsheets, etc.). After you type in your keywords, add site:gov to the search.

For example:
food stamp statistics site:.gov

high school dropout rates site:.gov

Then, you will limit your search to .gov sites (mostly federal, but also some state & local resources).

NELIS (Nevada Electronic Legislative Information System)
Information about the current session as well as past sessions, search for your representatives, and more.
Nevada Legislature
UNLV Libraries Government Information Portal
Information on how to find publications that are produced by government agencies covering a wide variety of topics
Congress.gov
The CONGRESS.GOV website, from the Library of Congress, provides a wealth of legislative history information from current and past years. The site provides the full text of public laws, legislative bills (as well as summaries and status information for these bills), legislative debates, and committee reports. For the debates and reports, links are provided to a PDF version of these documents.
The Supreme Court Database
This database includes information about Supreme Court decisions from 1946 to the present.
General Accounting Office (GAO)
Site provides both summaries and full text files of reports and testimony dating back to fiscal year 1979. GAO posts full-text files on its website daily, often within 24 hours of when a report or testimony is publicly released.

Congressional Publications (ProQuest Congressional) This link opens in a new window
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1789-
U.S. legislative information, including access to many full-text Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, and more. Includes the U.S. Serial Set.
Comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information, including access to many full-text Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, and more. Additionally, searchers can retrieve CIS Legislative Histories for public laws. Contains an index of congressional publications from 1789 to the present and locate information about members and committees. Statutes at Large and Congressional Indexes from 1789-1969 are included.

Guides & Handouts for ProQuest Congressional & Executive Branch Documents
Use this guide for information on how to search in the Congressional interface, and for links to information on the digital collections.
Video: Short ProQuest Congressional Tutorial

CQ Magazine This link opens in a new window
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1983-
Comprehensive roundup of virtually all Capitol Hill activity from the previous week.
Excellent source of current information on hot legislative topics in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
CQ Press Library This link opens in a new window
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Resources on public policy and American government, including deep dives into hot topics for policymakers in CQ Researcher Plus Archive and brief legislative analysis in the CQ Magazine (formerly CQ Weekly).
HeinOnline Law Journal Library This link opens in a new window
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Online law journals and full text federal legal materials.
HeinOnline is an image-based, fully searchable database made up primarily of law journals. Newer content is not added until the end of a volume year so the most recent issues are likely a year old. Coverage varies by title, but most sources go back to volume one. In addition to journals, it also contains treaties, the federal register, some classic treatises and some federal legislative materials. Subscription to HeinOnline is sponsored by the Wiener-Rogers Law Library.
Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
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Legislative Insight includes all congressional publications that pertain to an enacted law, 1929 to current and includes all bills, reports, hearings documents and signing statements.

Local, State, Regional & National Data & Statistics Starting Points

Las Vegas Info-US Census Bureau
Statistics-City of Las Vegas
Las Vegas-Paradise: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Comprehensive Planning Demographics - Clark County
Las Vegas Open Data
Report Card (Education): Nevada Accountability Portal
State, district and school level data via customizable reports
Nevada Data
NV Dept of Health & Human Services Data Links
Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) Data Portal
Useful data and links to get information about Nevada’s economy and its consumers.
Data and Statistics about the U.S.
Links to US govt. data & statistics by agency/department (such as Census, health, education, etc.)

Principal U.S. Federal Statistical Agencies

U.S. State Labor Market Information Agencies

State Labor Market Information Contact List -- information about the job market in each State

Gov-Related Magazines & Other Organizations and Resources

Keeping Track & Citing Your Information

refworks logo

RefWorks is a web-based bibliographic software package that enables you to:

Organize your research
Create a bibliography in a variety of citation styles, including APA, MLA and Chicago
Import references from many data sources
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Include citations while you write your paper (using Write-n-Cite plugin)
Access your personal account from any computer connected to the internet

RefWorks This link opens in a new window
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Bibliography manager saves your citations and formats them into APA, MLA, or other styles.
This web-based bibliography manager lets you save citations to journal articles, books, web sites and more into your personal online database. You'll be able to quickly link to online articles, organize and share your references, and automatically create formatted bibliographies in all the major citation formats, including APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. Off-campus users, see the Using RefWorks at UNLV page for special instructions.
Mendeley This link opens in a new window
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A bibliography manager that saves your citations and formats them into APA, MLA, or other styles, and allows you to share citation lists with groups.
This bibliography manager uses both web-based and desktop software to save citations to journal articles, books, web sites and more into your personal database. You'll be able to quickly link to online articles, organize and share your references, and automatically create formatted bibliographies in all the major citation formats, including APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. Use your UNLV email address to receive an updated account. See the Mendeley guide for more information.

Mendeley Resource Guide
This page of the guide focuses on getting started with a new Mendeley account. Other tabs on this guide focus on all the functions and features of Mendeley, and ways to get help using Mendeley.
Zotero
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research.

Creating Infographics

Creating Infographics

Urban Affairs Librarian

Susie Skarl, Urban Affairs Librarian

Email Me

Contact:

UNLV Libraries
Lied Library
4505 S. Maryland Parkway
Box 457014
Las Vegas, NV 89154-7014
susie.skarl@unlv.edu

702-895-2141

Subjects: Communication Studies, Couple & Family Therapy, Criminal Justice, Crisis & Emergency Management, Government Information, Journalism & Media Studies, Public Administration, Social Work, Urban Studies

URST 442: Brookings: Metropolitan Policy (Beavers): Library Guides