Community Development
A subject guide to support research in the field of Community Development.
Library Research Guide
Database Subscriptions
Academic libraries subscribe to databases to provide access to scholarly, trustworthy publications. Although many libraries subscribe to the same databases, specific database subscriptions can vary by library system, depending on the research and teaching strengths of that institution.
Each of the boxes below include multiple tabs, each with a set of recommended databases for research in topics related to community development. These lists are intended as a starting point. Additional database subscriptions can be accessed on the K-State Libraries Databases page.
If you are also a student at a Great Plains IDEA partner institution, your home library might offer additional subscriptions.
Built Environment
Each of these resources address different aspects of architecture and design. Art Full Text is especially helpful with issues related to contemporary design. The Avery Index is a core publication for all fields connected to architecture, planning and design. The OAO is a key reference resource for topics in design, especially useful for research in design history.
- Art Full Text
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Publication Dates Covered: Indexing 1982 - present; abstracts 1994 - present; select full text 1997 - present Paid for by the State Library of Kansas
Addresses “art” in the broadest sense including topics relevant to archaeology, architecture, art history, ceramics, fashion design, graphic arts, interior design, landscape architecture, metalsmithing, photography, sculpture, textiles and more. Includes content from international arts journals, periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins. - Avery Index to Architectural PeriodicalsPublication Dates Covered: 1934 - present; selectively 1741 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Published by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, this database offers a comprehensive listing of journal articles on architecture and design, including subjects such as the history and practice of architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, historic preservation, and interior design and decoration. Article descriptions cover American and international journals from scholarly and popular periodical literature, publications of professional associations, American state and regional periodicals, and the major serials on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. - Oxford Art OnlinePaid for by K-State Libraries
Formerly Grove Art Online, this is the definitive encyclopedia for the arts and design. This portal to Oxford art reference products includes cross-referenced articles and links to art images in galleries and museums. Articles are scholarly and include bibliographic references. This database contains Grove Art Online (the entire text of The Dictionary of Art), The Oxford Companion to Western Art, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, and is continually updated.
Each of these databases includes detailed information relevant to building materials.
- BuildingGreenPaid for by K-State Libraries
Provides comprehensive content on sustainable design practices and green building materials. Shares expertise and lessons learned from design experts working in the field. Builds context for sustainable design strategies and what makes a building product or material green. - Material ConneXionPaid for by K-State Libraries
A database of contemporary materials used in industry, construction, and other aspects of life. It provides information about the properties of the materials, current uses, their producers and places of production.
Each individual user of Material ConneXion is limited to 100 downloads per day
These resources support research related to community planning.
- PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) IndexPublication Dates Covered: 1915 - present. Paid for by K-State Libraries
Indexes publications on public affairs, public and social policies, international relations, and world politics from over 120 countries throughout the world. Articles are published in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Types of materials indexed include articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, conference reports, grey literature, and Internet materials. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed. Includes access to PAIS Archive.
- Transportation Research Board (TRB) Publication IndexThe TRB Publications Index contains more than 70,000 papers, articles, and reports published by the Transportation Research Board, Highway Research Board, Strategic Highway Research Program, or the Marine Board from 1923 to date.
- TRID: Transportation Research Information DatabasePublication Dates Covered: 1922 - present Free Resource how to search
TRID provides access to over 900,000 records of transportation research worldwide and is comprised of the records from TRB’s Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. - Urban Land Institute (ULI) Development Case StudiesUrban Land Institute Development Case Studies provide examples of successful building projects and project data, including budgetary expenditures, floor plans, designer information, and methodology. Processes and retrospective analysis are also available to help users think critically about design and implementation.
Create a guest account for limited access to case studies.
Community & Natural Systems
These database subscriptions can help you to find economics literature including journal articles, books, book reviews, working papers and dissertations.
- Business Source PremierPublication Dates Covered: 1965 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Business Source Premier is a basic resource for researching business topics providing full text for more than 2,100 journals, as well as market research reports, industry reports, country reports, company profiles and SWOT analyses. All disciplines of business are covered, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, banking, and finance. There are instructions available for finding company and industry profiles. - EconLitPublication Dates Covered: 1969 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Produced by the American Economic Association, EconLit provides comprehensive indexed coverage of a wide range of economics-related literature. Topics include economic development, forecasting, and history; fiscal and monetary theory; business and public finance; international, health care, regional and urban economics, agricultural economics and more. Includes book reviews from the Journal of Economic Literature.
These resources span topics on U.S. and international history. See also our complete list of database subscriptions categorized under History as well as database titles tagged with Newspapers.
- America: History & LifePublication Dates Covered: 1964 - present Simultaneous users: 6 Paid for by K-State Libraries
Indexes and abstracts for approximately 1,800 journals in the field of United States and Canadian history. Full-text coverage for more than 280 journals and more than 80 books. Contains citations and links to book and media reviews. Can search by time period. - Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersPublication Dates Covered: 1756-1963 Free Resource
Search U.S. newspapers (or just Kansas Newspapers) published between 1777 and 1963.. Excellent database of primary source material. - New York Times, HistoricalPublication Dates Covered: 1851-2020 Paid for by K-State Libraries
Digitized version of The New York Times since its first issue in 1851. Search the full text of articles to find articles on a wide variety of topics. Full name of the database is ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times with Index.
These resources address the relationships between the natural and built environment. See also our complete list of database subscriptions tagged with Sustainability.
- GreenFILEPaid for by K-State Libraries
Non-K-Staters: use this link
GreenFILE resources examine the connection between humans and the environment, from both positive and negative perspectives. 200 scholarly and general interest titles covering agriculture, education, law, health and technology are included. - Environmental Studies (Gale In Context)Paid for by K-State Libraries
The resources cover topics like food safety, sustainability, healthcare, the impact of economic development on international relations and include news articles, videos, government documents and other primary source materials as well as interactive maps, refereed case studies, multimedia and so on. The information is arranged in 3 sections – issue, organization or country.
This list is comprised of selections from our database subscriptions listed under Sociology and Political Science.
- ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social ResearchPaid for by K-State Libraries
The ICPSR data archive houses more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields. ICPSR also collaborates with U.S. statistical agencies and foundations on data stewardship and creating thematic data collections.
ICPSR requires the creation of a free personal account using your K-State email to download data and access full site features. If you are on-campus, please use the link above to access ICPSR and create an account. If you are off-campus, please use this link to create your account, then access ICPSR content using the link above. - Social Services AbstractsPublication Dates Covered: 1980 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Search research focused on social work, human services, social welfare, social policy, and community development. - Sociological AbstractsPublication Dates Covered: 1963 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Search international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Indexes journal articles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. - World Development Indicators: WDIPublication Dates Covered: 1960 - present Free Resource
Access international development information such as national economies, population, natural resources, the environment, and more. Includes 54 time series indicators from more than 200 countries and 18 country groups, since 1960.
General Topics
This list includes general databases, each of which covers a broad range of topics. Of our library database subscriptions, Academic Search Premier and ProQuest Research Library are the most interdisciplinary in scope, with JSTOR focused more on topics in the Arts & Humanities, and Web of Science weighted more heavily to the sciences and social sciences. Google Scholar is another excellent tool for discovery and utilizing the link from our Libraries' page will enable you to use the Get It button in your search, to connect by to K-State Libraries holdings.
- Academic Search PremierPublication Dates Covered: 1975 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
A good place to start searching for almost any topic. It provides full text for more than 4,600 journals, including full text for nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. - Google ScholarFree Resource
Google Scholar is a useful tool for searching through a very broad scope of articles; however, be aware that they aren’t actually all “scholarly.” Look for the text “Get It @ KSU” instead of the usual “Get It” button to search for the full text of articles that don’t have an included PDF. It is sometimes found under the “more” link below the record. - JSTORPaid for by K-State Libraries
A full-text collection of more than 550 core journals ranging from history to business to literature to science and mathematics. Coverage begins with the first issue of a title, but the most recent three to five years of each title are usually not available. The full article text is searchable. - ProQuest Research LibraryPublication Dates Covered: 1971 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
This is a good starting point for finding journal articles on almost any topic. Over 150 academic subject areas are covered, and most articles are full-text. Searches can be limited to scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. - Web of Science Core CollectionPublication Dates Covered: Science 1945 - present; Social Sciences 1956 - present; Arts & Humanities 1975 - present; Emerging Sources: 2015 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Online version of four Citation Indexes: Science, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Emerging Sources. Be sure all indexes are selected in the "Editions" pull-down menu above the search boxes. In addition to searching by keyword, subject, author, etc. for articles in over 8,000 journals, one can do a “cited reference” search to see how frequently and where an article has been cited.
These resources include quick reference titles. Regarding Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory, see the 'Using Ulrich's' box at the bottom of this page for more information.
- Britannica Academic
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Paid for by the State Library of Kansas
Britannica Academic is a comprehensive, authoritative reference tool, containing e-books, primary sources, full-text journal and magazine articles, World Atlas and World Data Analyst, Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, quotations, and full-text classics. - CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) World FactbookFree Resource
The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map. - CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Researcher Plus ArchivePublication Dates Covered: 1923 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Single-themed reports on current issues from Congressional Quarterly Press dating back to 1923. Topics include social trends, health concerns, the economy, education, and technology. Reports provide overview, background, pro/con arguments, chronologies, current situation, and bibliographies of additional sources. - Oxford English Dictionary (OED)Paid for by K-State Libraries
Online edition of one of the most authoritative sources for the English language. More manageable than the print edition and updated quarterly. - Ulrich’s Web: Global Serials DirectoryPaid for by K-State Libraries
Provides information about periodicals, covering more than 210,000 regularly and irregularly published serials including over 47,000 cessations since 1979. It includes purchasing and contact information for over 90,000 publishers in 200 countries. The Abstracting and Indexing Services (AI) field contains an abbreviation for any abstracting and indexing services that review the publication. The Special Features (SF) field lists abbreviations for components that are available in the periodical, such as indexes, abstracts, illustrations, and whether the journal is refereed.
Each of these titles support research methods.
- ProQuest Dissertations and Theses GlobalPublication Dates Covered: 1861 - present; full text varies by school Paid for by K-State Libraries
Includes full text for many dissertations written after 1996, including some master’s theses. Copies of dissertations not available in full text in this database may be requested via interlibrary loan and/or purchased as microfilm or as unbound copies from UMI. You can limit the search to K-State dissertations only. - SAGE Research MethodsPaid for by K-State Libraries
SAGE Research Methods helps users create research projects and understand the methods behind them. It includes over 600 books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the “Little Green Book” and “Little Blue Book” series. Journal articles and videos are also included. - ScopusPublication Dates Covered: 1800s - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Scopus is a good starting point for finding articles on almost any topic. It contains over 47,000,000 records to scholarly publications, trade publications and conference proceedings. Scopus is an excellent database for cited reference searching. It does not contain full text articles, but users can get access to full text by using the Get It button.
Using Ulrich's
Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory provides information about more than 210,000 journals. If you are unsure if an article you found is scholarly or whether it has been through the peer review process, Ulrich's is a great place to look up the title of the journal to find out more information.
Titles that are peer-reviewed are indicated by the black and white referee's jersey ("refereed" is another term for peer-reviewed). Note that there may be some parts of the journal (e.g. letters to the editor, book reviews, etc.) that are not peer- reviewed.
