Urban Studies Internet Resources

For Databases covering Urban Studies, click here.

For even more Internet Resources, visit us on Delicious.

For resources dealing with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), click here.

General Resources / International Resources / Health Resources / Housing Resources / Planning Resources / Urban Geography / Local Resources / State Resources

General  Resources

Census of Governments
From the U.S. Census Bureau, everything you need to know about federal, state, and local governments.

American Fact Finder An interactive feature of the  U.S. Census Bureau website, American Fact Finder lets you build custom data tables of Census data from the 2000 and 1990 short and long forms. You can export the data to Excel for further manipulation as well. For a tutorial on using American Fact Finder, click here.

The Urban Institute
“A nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization” or think tank, the Urban Institute site contains papers, research, links and more dealing with urban issues. See their Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center as well.

The Urban Affairs Association
“The Urban Affairs Association (UAA) is the international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers, and public service providers." Their Cyberhood features a very helpful Library of Links.

The Taub Urban Research Center
From New York University, “The Taub Urban Research Center at NYU's Wagner School explores issues and challenges affecting cities and metropolitan regions. The Center issues reports and conducts forums that include participants from government, business, nonprofit organizations, and the academic community.”

Windows on Urban Poverty
From the Bruton Center at UT Dallas, "the Windows on Urban Poverty project has two main objectives:

• a research paper on the changes in the concentration of poverty between 1990;
• an interactive web site to help interested persons learn about the concentration of poverty in their city."

International Resources

Urban Sphere
From the Global Development Research Center, the Urban Sphere page features research on several themes: environmental management, urban governance, and heritage and conservation.

United Nations Human Settlements Programme
“The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.”

Health Resources

Health Services Research Web Sites
From the National Institute of Health and the National Library of Medicine, a comprehensive webliography of federal agencies, associations, statistics, data sets, policy, and more.

National Center for Health Statistics
"The Nation’s principal health statistics agency, the NCHS compile statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve the health of our people."

American Public Health Association
"The oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world, APHA has been influencing policies and setting priorities in public health for over 125 years. Throughout its history it has been in the forefront of numerous efforts to prevent disease and promote health."

Housing Resources

Census 2000 Summary File 1
"The Profiles of General Demographic Characteristics population items include sex, age, race, Hispanic or Latino, household relationship, household type, group quarters population, housing occupancy, and housing tenure. The profiles include a total of 71 population and 25 housing data items."

Hud User
"A source for housing research and information, with  over 800 publications and datasets, most available as free downloads on this site. Help available through phone technical support or visit the First Time Visitor page.
 

National Center for Education Statistics
"NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data that are related to education in the United States and other nations."

Texas Higher Education Data
"The links on this page provide access to Texas higher education data and related data sources via reports, statistics, queries, and other interactive tools."

Texas Education Agency
"Comprised of the commissioner of education and agency staff. The TEA and the State Board of Education (SBOE) guide and monitor activities and programs related to public education in Texas."

Texas Education Agency Data Resources & Research
A list of links to information, reports, statistics, surveys, and contacts.

American Planning Association
"The American Planning Association is a nonprofit public interest and research organization representing 33,000 practicing planners, officials, and citizens involved with urban and rural planning issues. Sixty-five percent of APA's members work for state and local government agencies"

Urban Planning 1794-1918
An International Anthology of Articles, Conference papers, and Reports. A searchable database by Professor John W. Reps of Cornell University.

The Effects of Urbanization on Water Quality
A helpful site from the US Geological Survey which examines multiple water-quality issues in relation to urban development.

Cyburbia
“Cyburbia, the Internet's oldest portal site for urban planners and others interested in cities and the built environment, contains a selective directory of Internet resources relevant to planning and urbanism."

American Association of Geographers Urban Geography Specialty Group
"The specialty group exists to facilitate communication of information and ideas among urban geographers and other urban specialists." Visit their Urban Geography on the Web page for a useful list of links.

City Map sites compiled by UT's Perry-Casteneda Library Map Collection

San Antonio Local Media - This is a site from the San Antonio Public Library on local newspaper, radio and TV media offers access to research and archive material.

San Antonio Community Portal
The official website of the City of San Antonio, the portal offers access to a wide assortment of information, from the City Council agenda to code compliance information, statistics, and the city budget, to name a few. Their Maps page features interactive GIS maps of the city.

City of San Antonio Development Services
A portal for the Development Services departments, which includes their online tools. Zoning, permits, and much land use and development information can be seen on the COSA Development Services ArcIMS Viewer, which allows downloading of data. See the library's GIS Data page for more information on access to local GIS data.

San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization
"MPO's are regional agencies created by Federal law to conduct a cooperative, continuous and comprehensive transportation planning process. This process enables our metropolitan area to receive over $200 million annually in state and federal transportation funding." Includes a page of GIS links.

Selected San Antonio/Bexar Co. links
From the Library Government Documents page, which also includes information on the library's holdings of San Antonio City documents.

2002 Economic Census data by Zip Code
Sorted by NAICS code/industry type, data includes number of establishments, number of employees, and sales and payroll figures by zipcode.

Superpages.com
The Search Within a Map tool allows one to view businesses and institutions by location (address/zipcode), as points on a color street map, by type of establishment.

Texas Resources

State of Texas Website - Access county and city governments, state population and demographic data, maps, and public health information.

Texas State Data Center and Office of the State Demographer
"...a focal point for the distribution of Census information for Texas. The Center also disseminates population estimates and projections for Texas, as well as other information from the federal government, state government, and other sources." Includes a nice page of thematic maps of Texas county-level data.

Business & Industry Data Center
U.S. Census data portal designed to support economic development & tourism, featuring a Map Room of online data in map form.

Real Estate Data Center
From Texas A&M, a publicly funded research center whose staff conducts research on financial, socioeconomic, public policy, trade, legal, land use and local market analysis issues related to real estate. Feature metro-level data on building permits, employment, home sales, housing affordability, mortgage rates, population data, and rural land values.

Texas State Historical Society Online - The Texas State Historical Association's digital gateway to Texas history, this offers full-text, searchable access to The Handbook of Texas Online.

Texas State Library and Archives Commission - In addition to archives and manuscripts, this is a great source for state and federal census data, and the About Texas page has an excellent list of links.

For a list of databases featuring citations and many full-text sources on Urban Studies, click here. 

Please send comments to Steven Hoover library liaison for Urban Studies.