OKU Reference Services Division
Cornell University Library

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/NewCRP417.html

Research Guide for
CRP 417:

Industrial Restructuring


 CU Library Gateway

Finding Policy
Policy Institutes
Finding Statistics
Sector Analysis
Census 2000
Maps and Mapping.
Internet Resources
Evaluating Sources
Citing Sources
Research and Reference Help
Feedback


Industrial Restructuring

Finding Policy

One aspect of researching policy questions is determining what current policies are, what changes in policy occurred in the past, and what changes to policies are being considered for the future. There are many print and electronic resources for finding policy information, but you need to be aware that the smaller the area, the more difficult it is to locate information.

There are several categories of resources available. This list is meant to be suggestive, not exhaustive. Use the eReference Collection to find similar resources.

News Sources

For a good introduction to news sources on the Internet see our page: "Finding the News"

LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe
Lexis-Nexis' Academic Universe provides access to full text resources on topics including current and general news; business and financial information; newspapers; company directories; government and politics; medical and health topics; accounting, auditing, and tax; federal and state laws; legal cases; and regulations. Resources include TV and radio news transcripts.

NewsBank infoweb.
A full-text news resource containing over 70,000 articles annually from more than 500 newspapers and other news sources, including the Ithaca journal.

Journal Articles and Reports

EconLit
Produced by the American Economic Association, EconLit indexes books, journal articles, dissertations, and articles in books published since 1969. Subjects covered in EconLit include economic theory and history, fiscal theory, econometrics, agricultural economics, public finance, demography, monetary theory, international economics and others.

PAIS
Contains citations to public policy literature of economics, government, law, international business, political science, public administration, and other social sciences. It includes references to journal articles, books, government documents, reports and pamphlets in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

ProQuestABI/Inform (ProQuest Direct Web : 1971- )
Available as part of the ProQuest Direct system, ABI/Inform, an extensive international business and management database, contains bibliographic citations, abstracts, and full text of articles appearing in professional publications, academic journals, and trade magazines published worldwide. ABI/Inform covers the areas of accounting, banking, computers, economics, engineering management, communications, finance, health care, human resources, insurance, international trends, law, management, marketing, public administration, real estate, taxation, transportation.

NTIS (WebSPIRS Web : 1983- )

NTIS database provides access to the results of U.S. (and non-U.S.) government-sponsored research, development, and engineering, plus analyses prepared by federal agencies, their contractors, or grantees. Includes chemical engineering, computer science, energy, engineering, environment, geology, information science, marine, nuclear science, pollution, science and technology.

CQ Public Affairs Collection.

CQ Public Affairs Collection brings together CQ's storehouse of current affairs content in a fully integrated reference tool. Some subjects are advocacy and public service, education, energy, the environment, health, and transportation. Provides in-depth reporting on vital issues, statistical and historical analyses, historic documents and primary source materials, as well as a directory of key govenment, nonprofit, and private organizations in each of the major policy areas.

Local Government Documents

Finding policy information at the State level has gotten easier with the development of electronic resources. The following will help, but a lot of state level material requires access to local print resources. This is even more true of municipal level policy.

We've tried to facilitate access to New York State documents with our guide: "New York State Documents."

If you're working with other states try to locate similar guides to their documents at their state library or a large state university library.

Hernon, Peter.Municipal government reference sources : publications and collections. New York : Bowker, 1978.

Olin Library Reference Z1223.6.A1 M96

Terribly out of date, but unfortunately the only general bibliography available. Still useful for older material and helpful for seeing the range of material published, local library collections, etc.

Index to Current Urban Documents
Index to Current Urban Documents is the only regularly published guide to the reports and research that are generated by local government agencies, civic organizations, academic and research organizations public libraries, and metropolitan and regional planning agencies in approximately 500 selected cities in the United States and Canada. It indexes over 2,400 documents yearly, providing a spectrum of access to local information. The yearly subscription to ICUD includes a fully searchable online index with full text documents available as PDF file.

The indexes for earlier years are in print. Olin Reference Z1223.5 A1 I38+. We have the fiche set of the texts of the documents for 8 years, 1990-1997: Olin Microfiche 1157. Prior years must be ordered through Interlibrary Services.

LEXIS-NEXIS State Capital Universe
Full Text

Provides access to bills, laws, constitutions, proposed and enacted regulations, legislature membership and newspapers of record for all the states.

Local Web Sites
Municipal and county web sites can now be quite useful as more and more material is published to the web. Some things to look for: tax maps, regulations, minutes of meetings, local statistics, etc.

City of Rochester

PTI Public Technology, Inc.
One of several sites that indexes municipal government pages.

Statistics: General Sources

Statistical Universe.
Provides comprehensive access to U.S. statistical information. Includes an index to over 100,000 U.S. government, state, local, privately-produced and international statistical publications from 1973 to present, abstracts and tables, and background information.

Statistics Sources.
Olin Library Reference Z7551 .S79 +
The best print index to statistical sources by broad subject area. Particularly important are the bibliographies and lists of organizations and web pages in the front.

Statistical Abstract of the US
The basic statistical compendium for the US, but also a powerful index to US government data sources. Data is at the national level with some state data and less MSA data. The 2001 edition is available on the web. The 2000 edition is available in the Electronic Text Center in Olin. In general, the CD-ROM is a more powerful, faster product, but obviously not as convenient and now a little out of date.

Government Statistical Sources on the Web

The Federal Government 'Big Three' and a General Index
These general web addresses are here for convenience. See Econdata.net below for a complete review of the sources available at these sites.

Census Bureau

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

FedStats

CenStats.

An online subscription (so limited to the Cornell Community) service that provides access to several popular Census Bureau databases, including the Annual Survey of Manufactures (1987-96--national level data only), USA Counties, and County Business Patterns (1998 and 99). All Census Bureau publications released since Jan. 1, 1996 as well as several 1990 census and 1992 economic and agriculture census reports are accessible.

Statistics: Finding Economic Information for Local Areas.

Finding economic statistics for municipalities and regions is made easier by Econdata.net which pulls together a lot of information.

Econdata.net
Your guide to regional economic activity. 900 links to socioeconomic data sources, arranged by subject and provider, pointers to the Web's premiere data collections, and their own list of the ten best sites for finding regional economic data.

EconData.Net is designed to help practitioners, researchers, students, and other data users quickly gain access to relevant state and substate socioeconomic data. The site aims to be a convenient, comprehensive first stop for anyone searching among the vast, disparate array of public and private data sources on the Web. EconData.Net is sponsored by the Economic Development Administration as a service to regional data users, and is jointly operated by Impresa, Inc. and Andrew Reamer & Associates, independent economic development consulting firms.

New York State Data Center.
The State Data Center, a cooperative program with the U.S. Bureau of the Census for managing the dissemination of census, state and federal statistical information, is part of the New York State Department of Economic Development, Bureau of Economic and Demographic Information. It is New York's primary repository of Decennial Census data. This page provides broad access to statistical series for and about New York's population and economy. It is constantly being updated to include new items. It also includes a directory of state data affiliates resources, links to other data resources, and announcements of upcoming conferences.

County Business Patterns
The County Business Patterns data base provides county, state, and national level business data for 1977-1995. Statistics include number of establishments, payroll (annual and 1st quarter), number of employees, and number of establishments by size class for 2 digit SIC industry groupings. The data is collected annually by the Bureau of the Census. Our link goes to the Oregon site. It's also available through CenStats.

The CD-ROM version (Olin Reference HC101.A185in the Electronic Text Center) is more up-to date (1999).

Regional Economic Information Service (REIS)
Individual state data can be downloaded from BEA

United States. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Regional Economic Measurement Division.REIS Regional economic information system. [Washington, D.C.?] : U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Measurement Division.
Management Library (Sage Hall), Mann Library, Olin Library (Closed Stacks) and Olin Reference, Electronic Text Center. Disk HC101 .R37
1969/1990-1969/1998

The Web site is convenient, but the CD is more powerful (you can select multiple states and multiple counties, for example) and quicker.

USACounties

Also on CD-ROM in the Electronic Text Center

There's not much to choose from between the Web site at Oregon and the CD-ROM. Both feature the 1998 edition (so no 2000 census data are included). A hassle-free way to look at county-level data collected from many sources. Some data in time series, also. Also available through CenStats.

Economic Census, 1992 (Oregon)
Economic Census, 1997 (Census)
Covers eight sectors of the economy: retail trade; wholesale trade; service industries; transportation, communications, and utilities; financial, insurance, and real estate industries; manufactures; mineral industries, and construction industries. Programs in the economic census that cover all sectors include: enterprise statistics and minority- and women-owned business. Statistics common to all sectors include the number of establishments, number of employees, payroll, and measures of output such as sales, receipts, value of shipments, and value of construction work done. The Census site has 92-97 comparative tables at the national level. Note that there was a major change in the industrial classification system from SICS in 1992 to NAICS in 1997. They are not totally comparable, although it is possible to bridge some categories.

Sector Analysis and special areas

This is only an initial look at some of the bibliographic and statistical materials available for sectors of the economy. You'll need to use the various discovery tools available through this page or the eReference Collection to fill in the gaps.

Energy and Energy Deregulation

Energy Information Administration.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA), created by Congress in 1977, is a statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. It provides policy-independent data, forecasts, and analyses to promote sound policy making, efficient markets, and public understanding regarding energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment.

Employment/Unemployment,Labor Force and Labor Issues

Current Employment Statistics (CES)

Covered Employment and Wages (ES-202)
Available from state agencies (New York) and through customized data extraction at BLS. Good search engine and html display at the New York site. It's also possible, and easy, to download the entire state file in comma delimited format, or individual counties.

Nonemployer Statistics, 1999 All Sectors

A part of the Economic Census, Nonemployer Statistics summarizes the number of establishments and sales or receipts of companies with no paid employees. These nonemployers are typically self-employed individuals or partnerships operating businesses that they have not chosen to incorporate. (Self-employed owners of incorporated businesses typically pay themselves wages or salary, so that the business is an employer.)

Because payroll tax records are at the heart of the Census Bureau's system for keeping track of businesses between censuses, nonemployers do not get census questionnaires and are not reflected in any of the other Core Business Statistics reports or detailed sector-specific reports. (Nonemployers are, however, included in "all firms" totals in reports on minority- and women-owned business.)

Transportation

Transport

TRANSPORT combines the databases and knowledge of three leading research organisations: OECD's International Road Research Documentation (IRRD), the ECMT TRANSDOC database, and the TRB Transportation Research Information Services database (TRIS). With nearly 500,000 records, TRANSPORT provides all relevant information of interest to practicing engineers, managers, researchers, educators and other professionals in the transportation sectors. Special emphasis is placed on road transportation and transportation economics. The multilingual nature of TRANSPORT (predominantly English, with articles in French, German and Spanish as well) makes it a useful tool for accessing worldwide information.

TRIS online
Database of records of almost half a million technical reports on transportation issues.

National transportation statistics.

NTS is compiled and published by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It presents basic information on America's transportation system on a national scale, including the physical network, economic performance, and its safety record, energy use, and related air emissions. It is a companion volume to the Bureau's Transportation Statistics Annual Report (TSAR), which is a comprehensive analysis of the data presented in NTS.

Education and "Culture Industries"

ERIC (WebSPIRS Web : 1966- ).
ERIC abstracts journal articles and other literature on education. Many materials, such as curriculum guides, instructional materials, conference papers, program descriptions, and project reports are available in Mann Library's ERIC Microfiche. ERIC indexes materials on education, child development, classroom techniques, computer education, counseling, testing, educational administration, higher education, reading skills, communication skills, career education, science education, social studies, urban education, rural education, teacher education, measurements, evaluation, vocational education, adult education, mathematics education, environmental education, elementary education, handicapped children, gifted children, educational management, and library and information science.

School District Demographics.

The School District Demographics Website provides access to school district geographic and demographic data useful for describing and analyzing characteristics of school districts, children, and K-12 education.

Environment

Pollution abstracts.

Pollution abstracts is a resource for references to environment-related literature on pollution, its sources, and its control. Includes topics on air pollution, environmental quality, noise pollution, pesticides, radiation, solid wastes, water pollution, sewage and waster water treatment, environmental action, etc.

Environmental knowledgebase.

"... nearly three quarters of a million indexed citations to articles from scientific, technical, and popular journals, spanning the whole range of environmental topics"--Environmental periodicals bibliography homepage. Covered subject areas include: Human Ecology, Social, Political & Philosophical Issues; Industrial, Scientific & Technological Issues; Energy; Water Resources; Air; Land Resources; Nutrition and Health. International in scope. Not that strong at the local level.

HUD Environmental Maps

HUD E-MAPS provides: location, type and performance of HUD-funded activities in every neighborhood across the country; and select EPA information on brownfields, hazardous wastes, air pollution and waste water discharges. Users can produce ten types of e-maps by selecting map type and then entering a zip code or city and state.

Think Tanks and Policy Centers

Center for Urban Policy Research

Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy

State of the Cities Data Systems(SOCDS)

The SOCDS provides data for individual Metropolitan Areas, Central Cities, and Suburbs. A service of HUD.

The 2000 Decennial Census

The decennial census is probably the most important statistical tool you'll use. Currently available is SF1 the summary data from the "short form." This is available on the Web at the Census sit using the American FactFinder interface.

It is also available on DVD in the Electronic Text Center. The DVD allows better access to multiple geographies and also allows extraction of individual variables.

A third point of access is a set of CD-ROMs from a private data firm, Geolytics. These will be arriving in the Electronic Text Center soon. Data from the 1990 census and earlier are on CD-ROMs in the Map Room.

There is an excellent PowerPoint tutorial for using all three resources at the Michigan site listed below.

A basic bibliography:

Bohme, Frederick G. 200 Years of U.S. Census Taking: Population and Housing Questions, 1790-1990. Bureau of the Census, 1989. Olin Library Reference HA37.U55 B67 1989 +

Cook, Kevin L. Dubester's U.S. census bibliography with SuDocs class numbers and indexes. Olin Library Reference Z7553.C3 C66x 1996.

Encyclopedia of the U.S. census. Margo J. Anderson, editor in chief. Washington, DC : CQ Press, c2000. Olin Library Reference HA37.U55 C66x 2000 +.

Guide to 1990 U.S. decennial census publications : detailed abstracts and indexes derived from the American statistics index. Bethesda, MD : Congressional Information Service, c1995. Olin Library Reference HA201 1990 .A18 1995 +

Lavin, Michael R. Understanding the census : a guide for marketers, planners, grant writers, and other data users. Olin Library Reference + HA37.U52 L41 1996.
Far and away the best introduction to the Census. Even though written specifically for the 1990 Census, it is still valuable for 2000.

Lavin, Michael R., Jane Weintrop, and Cynthia Cornelius. Subject Index to the 1990 Census of Population and Housing. Olin Reference HA201 1990 .F3x 1997

Schulze, Suzanne. Population information in twentieth century census volumes, 1950-1980. Olin Reference Z7554.U5 S381 +

United States. Bureau of the Census. www.census.gov
The Census site itself.

University of Michigan. Documents Center. Census of Population and Housing 2000: Initial Data Products.
And excellent site for understanding the census. Features a 200 slide powerpoint presentation of American FactFinder, the SF1 DVD and the Geolytics disk for 2000. Highly recommended.

University of North Carolina. Davis Library. Reference Department. A Guide to the Decennial Census with a focus on 1990 and 2000 census, data.
Another excellent guide to the 2000 census.

Maps and Thematic Mapping

Olin Library Map Room
The source for maps, atlases, GIS applications including ArcView, Wessex, etc. Many digitized maps and expert help.

Bureau fo the Census
Some thematic mapping can be done right from the census site.

[Datamap]. Tompkins County, New York.
Datamap is a networked data site of the U.S. Census Bureau. For a county or state, the site provides links to a wealth of recent census resources including the decennial population and housing census, population estimates, income and poverty, the economic census, county business patterns, and the USA Counties general profile. For Cornell users, the site of Datamap for Tompkins County has been pre-selected.

CIESIN Data Viewer.

Impressive interactive site that does on-the-fly thematic mapping. Should be the model for the Bureau.

General Interest and Reference

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Finding Books

Cornell University Library Catalog

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Finding Articles

Indexes, Abstracts, and E-Journals

Periodical indexes and abstracts are resources that identify and locate articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers.

Finding Periodicals and Periodical Articles

The e-Reference Collection contains titles, descriptive information, and links to over 2000 networked electronic resources, including periodical indexes and abstracts. There are two main ways to search for resources in your areas of interest: searching by title or keyword and browsing through the subject menus.

Internet Resources

Portals, Search Engines, and Subject Guides

Use web portals, search engines, or Internet subject guides to find resources or sites on the World Wide Web on your topic. Search Engines are software programs that allow you to search the contents of web pages and Subject Guides are web pages that use menus and lists to sort and classify web sites.

Question and evaluate the information that you find on web pages. As you would do with books and journal articles, look to see who is responsible for producing the web page or site that you are accessing. How objective is the information? How accurate or truthful? How authoritative? Go to the Evaluating Sources section of this page for more information on how to assess the web sites you have accessed.

Selected Web Searching Resources

Web PortalsSearch EnginesMetasearch Engines

Subject GuidesOther Web GuidesWeb Reference

Personalized Electronic Services featuring MyLinks and MyUpdates.

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Evaluating Sources

Evaluating the sources you find is a crucial step in the process of library research. The questions you ask about books, periodical articles, or multimedia sources are similar whether you're looking at a citation to the item or have the item in hand.

How to Critically Analyze Information Sources lists some of the critical questions you should ask when you consider the appropriateness of a particular book, article, media resource, or Web site for your research.

Distinguishing Scholarly from Non-Scholarly Periodicals: A Checklist of Criteria shows how to evaluate periodicals by looking at their format, intended audience, and appearance.

Evaluating Web Resources lists ways to analyze the Web sites you find.

Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites offers a table of suggestions.

For additional suggestions specific to Web sites, see Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools.

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Citing Sources

Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity

APA citation style

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Research and Reference Help

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Feedback and Evaluation

OKU Reference Services Division
Cornell University Library

February 25, 2002
Bob Kibbee, rk14@cornell.edu
Reference Services Division, Olin Kroch Uris Libraries
Cornell University Library
URL: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/NewCRP417.html


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