Current
State and Local Government Problems
(Public
Law Research Institute)
*
The list below includes the key Internet links mentioned by Susan Nevelow
Mart and Linda Weir in Professor Jung's Current State and Local Government
Problems Seminar on February 6, 2008. In addition, information is included
regarding useful print resources available in the Hastings College of
the Law Library.
Public
Law Research Institute Homepage Includes abstracts and
full text of Institute reports from Fall 1994 through Summer 2001,
historical indexes of the reports, and selected full text reports through 2007.
Public
Law Research Institute Project Reports and Index. (Available
in print at the Hastings College of the Law Library.) San Francisco:
University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 1985-1997.
LOCATION: KFC724.A24 H3 - 4th Floor Reading Room.
Print
Resources (Selected titles in the Hastings
Law Library)
San
Francisco Ordinances:
The San
Francisco City Charter and the City and County of San Francisco
Municipal Code are available at the Reference Desk. The library has also created a web site with links
to all of the SF
Codes available online.
California
Resources:
California
Bills. Assembly and Senate bills, resolutions and joint
resolutions, concurrent resolutions, and Constitutional amendments
from both regular and Special sessions.
Bills
for 1963 to date are available in fiche in the Micrographics Room.
Bills from 1993 to current are available at http://leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html,
and bills from 1867 to current are available in print at the San Francisco
Public Library.
California,
Cities, Towns & Counties. Palo Alto, CA: Hornwood Press, 1987-current.
(Annual publication provides basic data profiles for all California
municipalities and counties.) 4th Floor Reading Room. HA267.C3.
California
State Constitution: A Reference Guide. Joseph R. Grodin, Calvin
R. Massey, and Richard B. Cunningham; foreword by Malcolm M. Lucas.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, c1993. KFC680.1879.A6.G76 4th Floor Reading Room & 6th Stacks.
Henke's
California Law Guide. 8th ed. (2006) Daniel
W. Martin. LOCATION: Reference Desk
KFC74 .H46 2006.
Reports,
Recommendations and Studies of the California Law Revision Commission.
(The Commission's annual reports and its recommendations and studies
are published in separate pamphlets which are later bound in permanent
volumes. The page numbers in each pamphlet are the same as in the
volume in which the pamphlet is bound.) COVERAGE: 1957-1961
and 1963 to current. LOCATION: 4th Floor Reading Room CALL
NUMBERS: KFC27 .A3 1957-1961 and KFC27 .A3 . [Also available at
California Law Revision
Commission homepage.]
The California
Research Bureau is part of the California State Library. The
Bureau performs research for the Governor's Office, members of the
Assembly and the Senate, and other constitutional officers. The Bureau's
web site has a searchable list of published reports, most of which
are available full text.
The
Witkin Legal Institute publishes highly-regarded, comprehensive,
multi-volume treatises on California law: Summary of California
Law, California Procedure, California Evidence,
and California Criminal Law. All Witkin titles are available
in the 4th Floor Reading Room and on both Westlaw (database
identifier: witkin) and Lexis (database identifier: cal;witkin). Updates
are available online at the Witkin
Legal Institute web site
Comparative
State Law:
Book
of the States: 2007. (Published by The Council of State
Governments) LOCATION: Reference Desk
JK2403.B6.
Legislative
Intent Research: A 50-State Guide. (Compiled in
1996, this guide is designed to help you understand the process of
creation and storage of legislative materials, and to help to locate
these documents as easily as possible.) LOCATION: 5th
Floor Stacks JK2495.L51 1996.
State
Legislative History Research Guides and State Legislatures on the
Web. This site is a guide to the web-based resources
available to perform legislative histories in each of the fifty states.
It is available online at http://www.law.indiana.edu/lib/netres/govt/stateurlslist.html.
Martindale-Hubbell
Law Directory. (Annual publication. The Law Digests
volumes provide summaries of the laws of the United States, Canada,
and 73 other nations.) LOCATION: Reference Desk KF190
.M3.
National
Center for State Courts. Buffalo, N.Y.: W.S. Hein.
LOCATION: Micrographics Room KF8736.A1 N37. Microform publications accompanied by printed subject index. Recent
publications are available online at the National Center for State
Court's CourTopics page
(http://www.ncsconline.org/WCDS/topiclisting.htm).
National
Survey of State Laws. 5th ed. 2005. Richard A. Leiter,
editor. Detroit : Thomson/Gale. LOCATION: Reference Desk KF242.A12 N38.
Searching
the Law-The States. 4th ed. 2003. Francis R. Doyle.
(A selective bibliography of state practice materials in the 50 states.)
LOCATION: Reference Desk KF240.D69
2003.
State
Legislative Sourcebook 2007: A Resource Guide to Legislative Information
in the Fifty States. Lynn Hellebust. Topeka,
Kan.: Government Research Service. LOCATION: Reference Desk KF4933.H44 2007.
State
Yellow Book. New York, NY : Monitor Pub. Co.,
1989-current. (A semiannual directory of the executive, legislative,
and judicial branches of the 50 state governments.)
LOCATION: Most recent (Summer 2007) at Reference
Collection; older editions are in the 5th Floor Stacks. JK2679
.S72.
Statutes
Compared: A U.S., Canadian, Multinational Research Guide to Statutes
by Subject. Jon S. Schultz, 2nd ed., Buffalo,
NY : William S. Hein, 2001, with supplements. LOCATION: Reference Desk. KF1.S36 2001.
Subject
Compilations of State Laws. Cheryl Rae Nyberg, editor.
Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1981- current. LOCATION:
Reference Desk KF1 .N93.
State Administrative Law Bibliography: Print and Electronic
Resources. Cheryl Rae Nyberg, Twin Falls, Idaho: Carol
Boast and Cheryl Rae Nyberg, 2000. LOCATION: Reference
Desk KF 5407 .Z95 N93.
Specialized
Resources:
Congressional
Research Service.
Major Studies and Issue Briefs of the Congressional Research Service.
1991-2005. LOCATION: Micrographics Room). JK1108.M255. The
Hastings Law Library has an online
subscription to full-text CRS Reports and Issue Briefs
from 1994 to present. This subscription also includes an index
to CRS Reports, which includes reports as far back as 1970.
For full text access to older reports, first check the Internet. Hints:
try typing the title of your report, in quotation marks, in Google.
Or see the collection of links to CRS reports at the Library's Selected
U.S. Government Documents web page at http://library.uchastings.edu/library/Legal%20Research/Research%20Guides/usgovdocs.htm.
If you cannot find an older report online, please contact a Reference
Librarian.
The Urban Institute
investigates social and economic problems confronting the nation and
analyzes efforts to solve these problems. The Institute seeks to increase
Americans' awareness of important public choices and improve the formulation
and implementation of government decisions. Much of its research
is available to the public at their web site
The Encyclopedia
of Associations is a guide to nearly 23,000 national and international
organizations. It is a good place to start looking for a public interest
organization that might collect current information and resources
on your topic. LOCATION: Reference Desk
HS17.G332.
ERIC is
a government-sponsored searchable database of abstracts of articles
on education and related subjects. Online at http://eric.ed.gov.
Current
Law Index (LEGALTRAC)
((4th Floor Reading Room, Lexis Westlaw).
Current
Index to Legal Periodicals. ((4th Floor Reading Room,Lexis, Westlaw.)
See
Hastings Library Publication - Subject List of Serials.
Location: Reference Desk.
Annuals
and Surveys Appearing in Legal Periodicals: An Annotated Listing.
Catherine L. Kerr. Littleton, Colo. : F.B. Rothman. LOCATION: Reference Desk KF8 .K47 1996 to current.
HeinOnLine
is a searchable, online collection of law reviews and legal periodicals
in original page format. This extensive collection of newly available
online legal material dates from 1885.
Search
Hastings
Online Catalog for additional titles. Pointer:
Try the "keywords" search option on the Library catalog
and use the "limit" feature to restrict your search.
Search
other Library
Catalogs (includingFirstSearch
for additional print resources. Items that are found at other libraries
may be obtained through Interlibrary Loan.
The U.S.
Conference of Mayors allows you to search its Best Practices of
City Government site. You can keyword search recent issues in municipal
government, which may include references to the enabling ordinances.
League
of California Cities provides services including legislative advocacy
on behalf of cities, educational programs and materials on subjects
of concern to city officials, and an important research and information
exchange. The League of California Cities publishes the Western City
Magazine; current and archived articles and legal notes are online
and searchable at http://www.westerncity.com.
Institute
for Local Self Government is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization
committed to making California a better place to live and work. As the
research arm of the League of California Cities, the Institute engages
in research and education to promote and strengthen the processes of
self-governance at the regional, local and community levels.
The Council of State Governments, a non-partisan organization that promotes
excellence in state government, maintains an index of state web pages
available on the Internet and provides news about current state issues.
Stateline.org
is operated by the Pew Center on the States, a research organization
administered by the University of Richmond, and funded by the Pew Charitable
Trusts. It was founded in order to help journalists, policy makers and
engaged citizens become better informed about innovative public policies.
The Government
Innovators Network is hosted by the John F. Kennedy School of Government's
Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University.
The site has news and resources on a variety of topics of interest to
local and state governments, including economic and community development,
health and social services, public infrastructure, and finance.
State
and County QuickFacts is a source of comparative information on
local government, with an easy to use subject guide.
National
Governors Association (NGA) is a policy organization for state governors.The
NGA develops policy reports on various state programs, and maintains
the NGA Center for Best Practices, which focuses on state innovations
and best practices on issues that range from education and health to
technology, welfare reform, and the environment.
Maplight.org is a "mash-up" of information on California and federal bills, combining the offfical bill text and the votes of legislators with data from FollowtheMoney.org. You can search by bills, legislators, or interest groups.
Lexis
and Westlaw
may be useful for comparing state statutes. If you need to find all
of the state statutes on a particular topic, it may be easier to first
consult the "Comparative State Law" resources listed above
in the "Print Resources" section of this page. However, if
someone else has not previously compiled a list of all of the statutes
on a particular topic, then you may need to do the research yourself.
Lexis and Westlaw are both good sources for compiling lists of state
statutes, bills, and regulations.
LEXIS:
WESTLAW:
All
State Statutes (CODES;STCODE) - contains the statutory codes
from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and
the Virgin Islands
STAT-ANN-ALL
- contains the annotated statutes of all fifty states, the District
of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands
State
Codes, Constitutions, Court Rules and ALS (CODES;ALLCDE) -
contains the statutory codes, state constitutions, court rules
and current year slip laws (advance legislative service) from
all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Islands
STAT-ALL
- contains the unannotated statutes of all fifty states, the District
of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Official
California Legislative Information is the official site for California
legislative information maintained by the Legislative Counsel of California,
pursuant to California law. There is a great deal of useful information
available at this site including:
"Bill
Information" , which includes the full text of bills, resolutions,
and constitutional amendments, with status, history, votes, analyses,
and veto messages. This is a great source for California legislative
history information for bills from 1993 through current.
"Today's
Events" , which includes the daily legislative calendar.
"California
Law", which includes the current California
Code.
The Judicial
Council of California, the constitutionally mandated body responsible
for improving the administration of justice in California.
California
Code of Regulations The unofficial California Code of Regulations
(CCR) web site contains the text of the regulations that have been formally
adopted by state agencies, reviewed and approved by the Office of Administrative
Law, and filed with the Secretary of State. The Official version
known as Barclays Official California Code of Regulations,
is available in looseleaf printed format at the First Floor Library.
If you
are looking for a California agency or department web site, you might
want to use the list of state
agencies and departments.
FindLaw
California provides a short directory with links to most of the
important California legal information available on the Internet.
California
Government Legal Information indexed by Yahoo. This site provides
links to the California Code and to various directories of California
legal information.
Counting
California
is a new service of the California Digital Library that provides access
to current and historical statistical data which can be viewed by topic
or geographical locations.
FirstGov
is the only official US Government portal to 30 million pages of government
information, services, and online transactions.
GPO
Access is the official online Federal Government information service
provided by the US Government Printing Office. GPO Access provides access
to the full-text of numerous government publications including: The
Federal Register; The Congressional Record; Congressional Bills,
House & Senate Calendars, Congressional Reports; the Congressional
Directory; Public Laws; the US Government Manual; and the
United States Code
Thomas
- Legislative Information on the Internet is a service provided
by the Library of Congress. It contains the full text of all versions
of House and Senate bills (101st - 107th congress) , as well as the
full text of The Congressional Record (101st - 107th congress)
and Committee Reports (104th - 107th congress).
LexisNexis
Congressional (restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff)
Comprehensive access to US legislative histories, indexes and abstracts
of congressional publications from Congressional Information Service,
Inc.
Getting
Help with your Project: The Reference Librarians are available
to help you plan your research strategy and to help you find the resources
that might be useful in your project. It is best to call (or e-mail)
one of the Reference Librarians, and make an appointment before coming
in to discuss your project.
Reference
Librarians:
Librarian
Phone
e-mail
John
Borden
565-4768
Chuck
Marcus
565-4838
Susan
Nevelow Mart
565-4759
Vincent
Moyer
565-4752
Linda
Weir
565-4761
Reference
Desk Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30 - 5:30 and Sat 9:00 - 5:00
Last updated
August 31, 2007
Prepared by Susan Nevelow Mart, Reference Librarian.
