Research Guides: Area studies and comparative politics: Planning & urban affairs

Find background in urban affairs and planning

Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods by Silva, Elisabete A. Healey, Patsy Harris, Neil
Call Number: HT165.5 -- .R688 2015eb
ISBN: 9781317917038
Publication Date: 2014
Handbook of Local and Regional Development by Pike, Andy; Rodriguez-Pose, Andres; Tomaney, John
Call Number: HD82 .H27525 2010
ISBN: 9780203842393
Publication Date: 2010
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2d ed) by James D. Wright, ed.
ISBN: 9780080970868
Publication Date: 2015
Fully revised and updated since the first edition (2001), IESBS 2/e comprises over 3,900 articles, commissioned by 71 section editors, and includes 90,000 bibliographic references as well as comprehensive name and subject indexes; more than 80 percent of the chapters are new or updated since the original text. Both its format and integrated chapters encourage discovery and map contexts and connections within the social and behavioral sciences. Some experts prefer the first edition (2001).

Gale Ebooks
Gale Ebooks is a collection of searchable ebook reference works. You can search within a particular work or across the entire collection. Individual articles from these sources are presented in HTML and PDF. Illustrations, photos, maps, and multimedia content is often included.
SAGE Research Methods Online
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Allows you to explore the concepts and mechanics of social research to design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct research, and write up your findings. With its focus on methodology rather than disciplines and sophisticated search options, SRMO can be used across the social sciences, health sciences, and more. Incorporates full-text content from over 720 books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and articles. SRMO incorporates specially commissioned instructional materials illustrating the application of particular methodologies:
- videos,
- sample cases,
- practice datasets.
The Methods Map is an exciting and innovative visualization tool that can be used to discover relationships between methods, to discover new methods and to find content related to them. Underpinning the Methods Map is a new taxonomy of social science research methods, developed by SAGE, and containing over 1,400 unique terms.

The Methods Lists are lists of content within the product that our users have selected and want to share through this product. You can create your own lists, either for private use, or to share with others on the site.

The Little Green Books are our famous series, Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. This entire series is available on SAGE Research Methods, with additional tools across the site to filter your search on just these titles.

Essential: most literature-searching will start here

Urban Studies Abstracts from EBSCOhost
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Indexes citations and abstracts of journal articles on all aspects of urban studies, 1973-present. Use GetVText link to get to full-text articles online or to order via ILLiad.

HUD User
Managed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), HUD User hosts research, publications, and data sets in housing, community development, and more.

Environment Complete from EBSCOhost
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Environment Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and full-text articles from journals, conference proceedings, and books on the agricultural, biological, social science, and technological aspects of the environment. Full text available in HTML and PDF. The database allows limiting to peer-reviewed journals. 1888-present.

Environment Complete contains more than 1,957,000 records from more than 1,700 domestic and international titles going back to the 1940s (including 1,125 active core titles) as well as more than 120 monographs. The database also contains full text for more than 680 journals, including many of the most used journals in the discipline, such as Environment (back to 1975), Ecologist, Conservation Biology, etc. Additionally, Environment Complete provides full text for 120 monographs, such as Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (3 volumes), Advances in Water Treatment & Environmental Management, etc.
ULI Development Case Studies
ULI Case Studies showcase innovative approaches and best practices in real estate and urban development. Each case study provides detailed information about the ideas, plans, performance, and lessons learned for an exemplary and often award-winning development project. Each also includes project facts, timelines, financial data, site plans, and photos. You must sign in with the library's member login and password access all ULI case studies and briefs from 1994 to present; contact the VT Ask a Librarian service for the password.
CAB Abstracts from CAB Direct
CAB Abstracts indexes citations and abstracts from journals, books, reports, handbooks, conference proceedings, field notes, and theses in agriculture, life sciences, natural resources, veterinary sciences, applied economics, nutrition, tourism, and the environment. Includes the CAB Abstracts Archive. Some full text available as PDFs. 1910s-present.
Public Administration Abstracts from EBSCOhost
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Public Administration Abstracts indexes citations and abstracts of articles from public administration journals. 1974-present.

Architecture, Art & Design databases from ProQuest
This database indexes citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, and dissertations (in full text PDFs) across multiple architecture, art, and design databases on the ProQuest platform. Use the Databases link at the top of the screen to change which databases are searched. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals from EBSCOhost
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals indexes citations, abstracts, and full-text articles in architecture and design from American and international scholarly and trade journals, popular magazines, and publications of professional organizations. In addition, this database also provides citation records for architects' obituaries. Full text, when available, is in PDF and HTML. 1800s-present.
Art & Architecture Complete from EBSCOhost
Art & Architecture Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and some full text from journals, magazines, trade publications, and books covering all aspects of art and architecture. It also includes a large image collection. 1901-present.

Historical

FIMo Fire Insurance Maps Online
VT has coverage for Virginia and District of Columbia only. Uniform series of large-scale maps, starting in the mid-19th century, depicting the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of towns and cities in Virginia and Washington, DC, in original color schemes. Useful to urban specialists, social historians, architects, geographers, genealogists, local historians, planners, and environmentalists. Map data include the outline of each building; size, shape, and construction materials; functions of structures; locations of windows and doors; street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, and house and block numbers. Displays images in the browser using a plugin for zooming and scrolling.

FIMO replaces the subscription to black-and-white Sanborn Maps for Virginia and DC from ProQuest. Access to many Sanborn maps of other parts of the US is available from the Library of Congress.
See also a national directory to fire insurance map coverage of other states, including some online access: Union List of Sanborn & Other Fire Insurance Maps from the University of California, Berkeley, earth sciences and map library.

Social Sciences & History Librarian

Bruce Pencek

Email Me

Contact:

Newman Library (MC 0434)
Office #3050
560 Drillfield Dr
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Email is the best way to contact me with questions or appointment requests.

Office hours (walk-in and/or Zoom): T-W 1-3:00 pm, Th 2-4:00 pm (Eastern time), and by appointment.
- virginiatech.zoom.us/j/95623507981

(540) 231-2140

Subjects: Humanities and performing arts, Social sciences and education

Ask a Librarian

Interlibrary Loan Services

All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:

not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)

We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).

Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.

Temporary, trial access only -- use while you can

Tech's University Libraries seek user input about possible purchases of online resources; October, February, and April are the primary trial months. Let us know how (if...) a trial fits the research, teaching/learning, and public service missions of the university. Share your judgments through the short survey linked to each trial blurb and/or more detailed remarks in an email to a subject librarians.

All active trials are listed in a sidebar on the Databases A-Z guide, usually including their expiration dates and links to online user evaluation surveys. Here I list current trials of likely interest to the departments I serve.

Statista
Statista combines market research and analysis, content and information design, ecommerce, global consumer surveys, and digital and consumer market outlooks, consolidating statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources and makes it available on four platforms: German, English, French and Spanish.
Coronavirus Research Database from ProQuest
The Coronavirus Research Database indexes citations and abstracts of articles from journals, preprints, conference proceedings, dissertations, and more related to COVID-19 and other coronaviruses including MERS and SARS outbreaks. 1970s-present.