City Profiles

• Reference Books
• Web Sites
• Finding Books in the Pace Library
• Finding Articles
• Finding Additional Web Sites
• Citing Your Sources

Reference Books

College Handbook     Birnbaum Reserve Ref LB2351.A1 C6 2003 + CD-ROM

List over 3,200 US colleges. Check and see what colleges/universities are located in your city!

Columbia Gazetteer of the World    Birnbaum Ref G103.5 C65 1998 (vols. 1-3)

Alphabetical organization. Contains cities, townships, locations, etc. Gives a brief paragraph of information.

Editor and Publisher Market Guide    Birnbaum Reserve Ref HF5905.E38 2004

Provides minimal information: population, principal industries, retail outlets, chain drugstores, chain supermarkets, chain restaurants, auto dealerships, colleges and universities, newspapers and climate. Arranged alphabetically, first by state, then by city.

Moving and Relocation Sourcebook    Birnbaum Ref HT334.U5 M5 1998

Useful resource providing information on 100 U.S. cities. Information includes: climate, history, demographics, government, the economy, education, quality of life indicators, and vital contact information.

Official Museum Directory    Birnbaum Ref AM11.M8 2004 + CD-ROM (vols. 1-2)

Arranged alphabetically by state and then by city; lists museums and related organizations.

Patterson's American Education    Birnbaum Ref L901.P3 2005

Lists secondary schools (K-12, public, private, & parochial) by state and then by city.

Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings    Birnbaum Ref G105.R66 1997

Provides a brief synopsis of the origins of place names around the world.

Weather Almanac    Birnbaum Ref QC983.W38 2001

Gives an overview of the weather in many cities plus a detailed chart of each month on any given year. This is update yearly, though the most recent available edition is from 1999.

Web Sites

American FactFinder    http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet

Current demographic information from the 2000 Census are available for a number of cities.  Use the "Basic Facts" box to choose items to view.  Data is available on segregation, ethnicity, language and more by county at http://www.CensusScope.org/. 

Best Places to Live   http://money.cnn.com/best/bplive/index.html

Yearly feature on the best places to live in the U.S. from Money.com.  Try the "City Search" feature for a profile of your city.

Fodors   http://www.fodors.com/

Use the Find Your Destination: Create a mini-guide section. Also try the Fodors travel guides available at local bookstores and public libraries.

Frommers   http://www.frommers.com

Has some of the cities listed. Try a search for your city by clicking on search or use the Destinations pull down menus.  Also try the Frommers travel guides available at local bookstores and public libraries.

Google   http://www.google.com/

Favorite search engine of many librarians! Great for all kinds of searches. Type in name of city and state.

State of the Cities Data Systems    http://socds.huduser.org

Allows users to extract customized datasets on US cities based on statistics gathered by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Bureau of the Census, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

Yahoo! Local   http://local.yahoo.com/

Find your city by looking through the Yahoo menu of states and then cities. You may find all kinds of information about your city including links to the local newspapers and the Chamber of Commerce.

Finding Books in the Pace University Library

You can find books on your topic by searching the online Pace Library Catalog by subject or keyword. Subject searches target the specific Library of Congress Subject Headings that have been assigned to the books that the Pace Library owns.  Unless you know the subject headings that pertain to your topic, you may want to begin with a Word (keyword) search.  Once you have found a source that you find useful, look at the Library of Congress Subject Headings towards the bottom of the catalog record to determine the best terms to use in a Subject search for further materials. For additional tips on searching the catalog, see the library's guide to Using the Pace Library Catalog.

Finding Articles

To access news article databases through the Pace Library, go to the library home page (http://library.pace.edu/), click on Databases, and use the pull-down menu labeled "Subject Research Area" to select General.  You may also choose a specific database from an alphabetical list.  For news articles on your city, we recommend:

Lexis-Nexis Universe   

Search the U. S. News category and limit by your State. This may lead you to news from your city's local newspaper(s).  Alternatively, you can click on Sources and search for the name of your city in the titles of newspapers and magazines.

NOTE:  Before you search Lexis-Nexis Universe, you may want to look at the current online edition of your city's local newspaper to identify current issues facing your city.  To find out what your city's major newspaper(s) is, check the Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media (Ref. Desk Z6951.G3 2004, vols. 1-5).  To find the web site for your city's newspaper, check Yahoo! Local (http://local.yahoo.com) or search for the newspaper by name using a web search engine.

Finding Additional Web Sites

In addition to the specific resources listed above, the Pace Library maintains lists of high-quality resources in various subject areas.  To find these topical lists, go to the Pace Library home page (http://library.pace.edu), then click on Internet Resources.  Use the pull-down menu provided to select a subject research area.

To search for additional information on the Web, you will need to use a subject directory or a search engine.  For more information, see the library's page on Using the Internet for Research. A list of subject directories and search engines that you might find useful is available on the library's Internet Search Search Engines (http://www.pace.edu/library/pages/Find_Resources/SEARCHTOOLS_frame.html) page.

If you are using resources from the World Wide Web, it is especially important that you evaluate their accuracy, authority, currency and objectivity. For more information, see our page on Evaluating Resources.

Citing Your Sources

Once you have found your information, you will need to cite the sources that you used. The library has prepared some information on citation styles for print and electronic resources. You can access it on the Pace Library web site at http://www.pace.edu/library/pages/instruct/citing.html.  Please check with your instructor if you are unsure of which citation style to use.