Planning: Planning Resources Overview
Key Library Links:
- Libraries' Catalog – to locate any item that is available in our libraries, including books, journals, newspapers, and audio/visual materials.
- Everything – the tab is a great place to start searching through the library’s resources in one simple multidisciplinary search interface. The results will display books, articles, government documents, etc.
- Journals- is a database of electronic journals that are indexed in databases or found online. (Cannot search for articles, citation is needed)
- Reserve – or Course Reserve: a collection of books or articles (pdfs) set aside at the Circulation Desk by your professor.
- Top Planning Databases - Planning research databases
- Research Tips – an online guide designed to help you perform research at the University at Buffalo’s University Libraries, includes citation help. Center for Excellence in Writing - 209 Baldy Hall
- My Account & Delivery+ – use for book renewal and interlibrary loan. Journal articles and book chapters are delivered electronically to your email and physical items are made available for pick-up at the UB library of your choice. (free of charge)
Borrowing/Loan Periods: Your UB Card serves as your library card. Current UB students, faculty and staff may use their cards to check out books and other materials at any campus library.
UB Libraries & UB Quota for Printing: semester "allowance" free printing for UB students.
Best Starting Points:
Gale Virtual Reference Library - includes subject encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference works in broad subject areas, including issues related to planning.
Oxford Handbooks Online - a collection of Oxford Handbooks in four subject modules - Business and Management; Philosophy; Political Science; and Religion. Each handbook takes an aspect of its discipline and unpacks it, explaining the key issues, the classic and contemporary debates on those issues, and setting the agenda for how those debates might evolve.;
Best Basic Resources Guide (created by UB Libraries)
Statistical Information & Maps:
American FactFinder - American Factfinder is the primary source for finding US Census data, including population, housing, economic, and geographic data. Data provided includes selected statistics from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, such as population, education, ethnicity, and much more. Users can enter a zip code for a particular location and obtain a customized chart for the zipcode area. A text factsheet for the zipcode area can also be printed out. An outstanding place to begin a demographic profile.
Social Explorer -Reproduces statistical reports and maps based upon U.S. decennial censuses, the American Community Survey (ACS), and data collected by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA).
-Search by maps or tables or create customized thematic anc interactive maps using historical and census data. Data reports can be exported saved and printed.
-Census Data Available includes: 1790-1930: Covers county, state and national data. 1940-2000: Coverage varies depending upon the year. Geographies include tracts, places, counties, zip codes, Congressional districts, states, and the nation.
EndNote and Citation Guidance
EndNote: a software tool for managing references. EndNote helps you organize bibliographic references to journal articles, book chapters, Web sites and other information sources. References can be downloaded from UB Libraries' databases directly into a personal EndNote database known as a Library in EndNote terminology. Bibliographies can be created and formatted in over a thousand standard style formats including APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, and others..;
Annotated Bibliography: an annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
Literature Review: it is a product and a process.
As a product, it is a carefully written examination, interpretation, evaluation, and synthesis of the publisher literature related to your topic. It focuses on what is known about your topic and what methodologies, models, theories, and concepts have been applied to it by others.
The process is what is involved in conducting a review of the literature.
- It is ongoing
- It is iterative (repetitive)
- It involves searching for and finding relevant literature.
- It includes keeping track of your references and preparing and formatting them for the bibliography of your thesis.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): a detailed guide to APA, MLA, and Chicago citation styles, access "Research and Citation" on the left to for citation style help.