Librarian
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Finding the History of your City
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OneSearchYou may find books and articles which chronicle the history of your city. A search including your city and the word history (e.g. Minneapolis AND history), should return books that will be of interest. You may use the facets in the left column to filter your results to books, e-books, journal articles or just peer reviewed sources.
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America: History & LifeEnter the name of your city into the search box, you might combine it with an event known to have taken place in the city or a keyword that relates to your topic (e.g. Chicago and fire, Chicago and socioeconomic).
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JSTORThis database includes articles from many disciplines, including history, political science, and urban studies. All of these areas may be helpful in understanding your city.
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Academic Search CompleteThis database indexes journals includes article from journals in such disciplines as history, political science, and also from some urban studies journals.
Finding Demographic and Socioeconomic Information
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Statistical AtlasTo see information similar to what you would find at Census.gov in graphic form, select your state and then your city from the U.S. map. Select the information you would like to see from the right column of the page.
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ArcGIS Online and other Mapping SoftwareLearn about using ArcGIS Online and mapping software available to Ball State University students.
Finding Municple Codes, State Statutes, Govenrnment Structure, and City Council Outputs
Researching your City's Government Structure
The municipal code should help you understand your municipality's structure. Look for sections of the code which define powers of the city council, mayor, etc. The resources below will help you locate the municipal code as well as state's statutes.
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American Legal PublishingProvides access to codified municipal ordinances for many U.S. cities. This site does not allow you to sort ordinances by the date they were passed. If you do not find your city try the Municode link.
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Municode LibraryProvides access to the municipal codes for many U.S. cities. This site does not allow you to sort ordinances by the date they were passed. If you do not find your city try the American Legal Publishing link.
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Local Governments: USA.govA directory of local government websites. It may take you the state government website or to a directory of local government sites maintained by the state.
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Nexis UniFind the statutes for all 50 states. Type name of your state in the big search box and look for your state's statutes or code on the list of suggestions in the search box. If you click on the outline icon to the right of the source name (e.g. IN - Burns Indiana Statutes Annotated) you will be able to browse the code. If you click on the source name, Nexis Uni will limit your search to that source.
Finding Recently Passed or Adopted Ordinances
Although the links above will allow you a city's ordinances in their codified form they do not arrange them in the order they were passed or adopted. You will have to go to city's website. You can Google the city's name and the phrase "adopted ordinances" (e.g. Chicago and passed ordinances) or just name of the city and the phrase "city government." In either case, you are looking for the output of the city council or some committee.
Some cities use a service called Legistar to keep track of meetings. These sites will have "legistar" in the web address so a search for your city's name and "legistar" may return their legistar cite, if they have one. If you find one, you may be able to find ordinances by clicking on the "legislation" tab and selecting ordinances. Usually you can click on the search legislation button without entering a search term, that should bring up all the ordinances that are in the system.
See the links below for examples. Not all cities who use Legistar have a legislation tab.
Finding Newspaper Articles
Newspaper articles may discuss recently adopted or passed city ordinances as well as tell a little about the city's history and issues. Use the sources below to search for newspaper articles.
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Access World NewsProvides the text for many newspapers around the world. Tends to have newspapers from smaller cities.