GEOG 377 Urban Political Geography

Find Local News

Nationwide & International Newspapers

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe UW restricted
  Newspaper articles from across the United States and around the world, with an emphasis on English-language news.
• Proquest Newspapers UW restricted
  Mostly full-text, mid 1980s to present. Washington State, national, and international newspapers.
• NewsBank Retrospective UW restricted
  Back issues of U.S. newspapers, 1970-1991, including various regional papers. Check here for a state-by-state list of newspapers covered.

Washington State Newspapers

• Washington State Newstand UW restricted
  Indexing and full-text of major Washington newspapers, including the Seattle times, Seattle post-intelligencer, Puget Sound Business Journal, Spokane Spokesman Review, Tacoma News Tribune, and Vancouver Columbian, plus selected coverage of other regional sources.
• Pacific Northwest Regional Newspaper and Periodical Index
  Contains citations from newspapers, periodicals, monographs, scrapbooks, dissertations, pamphlets, and other ephemera dealing with all aspects of life in Seattle, Washington State, and the Pacific Northwest from the 1850s to the present. Article text is not online but available in Microforms/Newspapers, Suzzallo Library, ground floor.
• Washington State Newspapers in UW Libraries
  Current subscriptions listed by location. Listing by title or language also available.
• Washington Newspapers
  This listing of webpage links provided by the MSRC. Newspaper websites often provide only limited availability of back issues.

Minority, Ethnic, and Special Audience Newspapers

• Alt-Press Watch UW restricted
  Full text newspaper, magazine and journal articles from alternative and independent presses.
• Ethnic Newswatch UW restricted
  Full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic and minority press in America.
• Real Change
  Seattle's weekly activist publication with an ear to the street.

Additional News Databases & Websites

• News Article Databases
  Additional resources to find current and historical news articles. For a few major US cities we have separate databases of historic news articles (NY, LA, Chicago, etc).
• Current Newspaper Subscriptions in the UW Libraries
  Listed by location, title, and language; with information about holdings in the UW Libraries and links to websites where available.
• NewsLink
  Current online newspapers; most won't have a searchable archive of older papers

Find Academic Analysis & Scholarly Articles

• UW Libraries Catalog
  Search for books, videos, documents, and journal subscriptions at all of the UW Libraries at once.
• Summit Catalog
  A catalog of libraries at university & college in Washington and Oregon. You'll need the barcode on your Husky card and a Libraries PIN to request items - they arrive at the library of your choice in 3-5 business days.

• Expanded Academic Index UW restricted
  Academic and popular articles in many disciplines; about 60% of the articles are in full text. Limit to scholarly material by checking the box next to "Refereed publications" but THIS IS NOT 100% ACCURATE.
• Research Library Complete UW restricted
  Academic and popular articles in many disciplines; about 60% of the articles are in full text. Limit to scholarly material by checking the box next to "Scholarly journals" but THIS IS NOT 100% ACCURATE.
• Avery index to architectural periodicals UW restricted
  Provides citations to the worldwide literature on architecture, urban design, urban planning, interior design, and historic preservation.
• EconLIT UW restricted
  Published by the American Economic Association, provides bibliographic coverage of a wide range of economics-related literature.
• GeoBase UW restricted
  Citations and abstracts for scholarly articles in Geography, including urban, political and economic geography.
• PAIS UW restricted
  Articles and documents in the fields of public policy, political science, and international relations.
• Sociological abstracts UW restricted
  Contains abstracts of journal articles in sociology and related disciplines from approximately 2,500 journals. Also includes citations to conference proceedings and dissertations which can be hard to get your hands on.
• Web of Science UW restricted
  This database covers a broad spectrum of journal literature in the social sciences, sciences, and the arts & humanities. In addition to keyword searching, this database provides unique features that allow you to trace the web of intellectual connections between a particular article and others it has cited, as well as those which have cited it.

Local Decision Making

• Seattle City Council
  • Primary site to begin researching activities and decisions of the City Council. Calendar of council and committee meetings, agendas, minutes of the legislative process, Municipal Code and Charter, a legislative database which includes Council Bills/Ordinances 1869-present; City Council Resolutions 1890-present; Comptroller/Clerk files 1895-present and MUCH MORE. Suggestions for how to research city laws (how all the pieces work together).
• Metropolitan King County Council
  • Primary site to begin researching activities and decisions of the County Council.
• Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington
  • The Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) is a non-profit, independent organization whose mission is, "working together for excellence in local government through professional consultation, research and information services." Resources available include links to official websites for city, county and special district governments in Washington state; city and county codes, RCW/WAC, court decisions, and much more.
• USA.gov
  • Portal to government information for federal, state, county, local and tribal government agencies nationwide. Website managed by the General Services Adminstration.

• County & City Data, Washington State Office of Financial Management
  • A great starting point but be sure to ask if you need more data on different topics or for different time periods. There are MANY additional sources of data.

Voting Data

Voter Demographic Data

Electorate Data by Age, Sex, Race
Step by step instructions on how to extract this information from the Census Bureau's extensive American Factfinder website.

Elections - Washington

Washington Secretary of State Elections
Archived election results for statewide and national ballot issues and candidates.

Elections Information for Washington State Counties
County listing of election results - years online vary. Only source for results on local candidates and ballot issues. Some County Auditors provide precinct level voting tallies.

VoteWashington
Unofficial election results are archived here, issue/candidate information and links to county auditor

Elections - Nationwide

Federal and State Election Resources
Annotated guide to contents of secretaries of state web sites. Includes voter information, candidate information, election results, and campaign finances

Secretary of State Offices
Links to state Secretary of State offices. Individual web sites often have campaign information and election results

Mayoral Elections Data Base (US Conference of Mayors)
Lists current year's elections by name of city. Identifies state, winner, if incumbent, percentage of vote, and month of election. Identifies forthcoming election months

Project VoteSmart
Nationwide, non-partisan, volunteer-run. All aspects of elections and related political resources including campaign finance, issues, incumbent voting records, voter registration, national and statewide election results.

Citation/Writing Help

RefWorks
An online personal citation database and bibliography creator that allows you to import, store, and share your research citations and automatically formats your bibliographies into whatever style you need (APA, MLA, Chicago, and many more). Since it is on the web you can use this from anywhere! Online help and instructions for using from off-campus provided here.

Anthropology & Geography Writing Center

Odegaard Writing & Research Center

Citation & Writing Guides
If you insist on building your footnotes and bibliographies by hand, at least use a style guide so your citations will be consistent!

Peer Reviewed Articles

Peer Reviewed or Scholarly or Academic Articles - how can you tell?

Work through this activity for guided practice recognizing peer reviewed articles.