Environmental Design Library
Finding Local Information: American Cultures

The Basics Research Tools Directories Finding Books Finding Journal Articles Special Resources Encyclopedias General Plans Newspapers Statistics & Data Codes Maps Images Special Collections Local Guides & Sources Historical Societies & Museums Local & UCB Libraries

Finding Local Information: American Cultures is a bibliographic research guide to finding U.S. community-specific information in the UC Berkeley libraries, the community, and on the web, in the context of the built environment and with an emphasis on San Francisco Bay Area and California ethnic communities. This guide is intended especially for the use of UC Berkeley City Planning 118 AC and Landscape Architecture 141 AC students.  For further assistance, please consult the Environmental Design Library reference staff, 210 Wurster Hall.

UC Berkeley faculty, registered students, and staff who are off campus may use items marked UCB Only or UC Only by using The Library's off-campus access services.

Contents reviewed : 11 December 2008

THE BASICS

Research Tools  Reading the Physical Environment | Interviewing | Researching Local History

Reading the Physical Environment See also Finding Information on Buildings & Places for stimulating questions to ask about places, and tools to find answers.

1. Architecture everywhere: investigating the built environment of your community, by Joseph A. Weber. Tucson, AZ: Zephyr Pr., 2000.
EnvDesign NA705 W43 2000
2. Close-up, how to read the American city, Grady Clay Phoenix, ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1980.
EnvDesign HT153 C585 1980
3. Getting to know your 20th-century neighborhood, by Greta Terrell. Washington, DC: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1996. Historic Preservation Information Booklet. Focuses on American neighborhoods developed from 1900-1950; identifies architectural styles and landscaping trends.
EnvDesign NA7208 T47 1996
The Hieroglyphics of space: reading and experiencing the modern metropolis, Neil Leach, ed. London: Routledge, 2002.
EnvDesign HT111 H45 2002
4. Looking at cities, by Allan B. Jacobs. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1985. See especially Chapter 3, "Clues," pp.30-83. Very useful presentation of the physical indicators that help the observer interpret an urban environment.
EnvDesign HT166 J262 1985 Reserve & circulating
5. Observing and interpreting the urban environment: case study, Prescott & South Prescott, Oakland, California, by Allan B. Jacobs. Berkeley: Institute of Urban and Regional Development, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1982. Working paper  no. 374. A case study demonstrating techniques of community observation and anaylsis.
EnvDesign HT393 C2 C25 W6 no.374
6. What style is it?: a guide to American architecture, by John C. Poppeliers, S. Allen Chambers, Jr. Rev. ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2003.
EnvDesign NA705 P6 2003
7. Real places: an unconventional guide to America's generic landscape, by Grady Clay. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1994. Includes 124 common places, for example, bypass, district, hangout, lovers leap, parade route, porno district, shortcut, and skyline.
EnvDesign E169 04 C57 1994
8. [Stylistic] glossary, IN: The Guide to architecture in San Francisco and northern California, by David Gebhard, et al. Rev. ed. Salt Lake City: G.M. Smith, 1985, pp. 553-583. Guide to San Francisco Bay Area architectural styles.
EnvDesign NA735 S35 G831 1985 Reference Desk, Reference, & circulating

Interviewing

10. Interviewing for social scientists: an introductory resource with examples, by Hilary Arksey and Peter Knight. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1999.
Main Stack HM526 A75 1999
11. Interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing, by Steinar Kvale. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1996.
EnvDesign HM48.9 K9 1996
12. Learning from strangers: the art and method of qualitative interview studies, by Robert S. Weiss. NY: Free Pr., 1995.
EnvDesign HN29 W42 1995

Researching Local History

13. Discovering the history of your house and your neighborhood, by Betsy J. Green. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Pr., 2002.
    EnvDesign E159 G686 2002 Reference
14. Doing community history, prepared by the San Francisco Community History Project. San Francisco: The Project, 1983.
EnvDesign F869 S3 S305 1983 Reference
15. Nearby history: exploring the past around you, by David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty. 2nd ed. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Pr., 2000. Excellent, well-organized manual.
EnvDesign E180.5 N98 2000
16. Public places: exploring their history, by Gerald A. Danzer. Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1987.
EnvDesign E180 D36 1987

Directories  Community web sites are good sources of directories of contact people. Local telephone books can be helpful, too.

17. abagOnline (Association of Bay Area Governments) Includes well-organized links to San Francisco Bay Area cities, counties, and regional organizations.
http://www.abag.ca.gov/
Bay Area directory: city and county governments. Oakland: ABAG.
EnvDesign JK8731 A78 latest ed. Reference Desk
California local government  information website  (UC Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies Library) A well-organized web site of links to California local governments' web sites, including directories of city & county web sites.
http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/research/web_resources/local/
State and local government on the net: a directory of official state, county, and city government websites
 U.S. only.
http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm




Finding Books & Related Materials Tip: Start with Current Melvyl® for the most complete coverage of UC Berkeley library holdings. For additional tips, see the Guide to Library Catalogs.

Here are selected subject terms for searching the online catalogs. Remember that you can combine subjects or subjects and keywords.:

Acculturation Alienation (Social psychology) Americanization Assimilation (Sociology) City and town life--[place name] Community Community life--[place name] [Ethnic or racial group], e.g.:  Afro-American# Asian-American# European American# Hispanic American# Indians of North America Italian American# Japanese American# Racially mixed people [Ethnic/racial group]--Cultural assimilation [Ethnic/racial group]--Economic conditions

[Ethnic/racial group]--Segregation [Ethnic group]--Ethnic identity Ethnic neighborhoods--United States Ethnicity Gentrification Hispanic American neighborhoods Human geography [Religious or sexual orientation group]--Identity Immigrants--United States Landscape--Social aspects Landscape architecture--Psychological aspects Landscape architecture--Social aspects Minorities--[place name] Minorities--[place name] --Economic conditions Minorities--Housing-- [place name] Minorities--United States--History Multiculturalism--[place name]

Neighborhood Parks--[place name] Plazas--[place name] Popular culture Public spaces [Racial group]--Racial identity Racism Segregation Social ecology [Place name]--Social life & customs Social values--United States Streets Suburban life--[place name] Suburbs--[place name] Trails Urbanization--United States Working class whites--United States Zoning, Exclusionary


Here are examples of ways to search for specific areas or neighborhoods within a city:

Aquatic Park (Berkeley, Calif.)  Chinatown (San Francisco, Calif.)  Embarcadero (San Francisco, Calif.) Haight-Ashbury (San Francisco, Calif.) Hunters' Point Naval Shipyard

Mission Bay (San Francisco, Calif.)  San Antonio District (Oakland, Calif.)  South Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.) Telegraph Avenue (Oakland, Calif.)  Treasure Island (Calif.)

Finding Journal Articles   The selected indexes listed here may be helpful; in addition, the following lists of journal indexes and abstracts may be useful:   Architecture, City Planning, Environmental Planning, and Landscape Architecture.   To boost your article retrieval skills take a drop-in class at Moffitt Library.  For UC or UC Only indexes and databases, go to The Library's home page; go to Find Information and select Articles.

21. Academic search complete via EBSCO - UC Only  Indexes articles in more than 1,500 general interest journals and scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and general sciences. Abstracts and full text available for many titles indexed. There are many book review citations, especially in the humanities and social sciences.
Coverage: 1980--.
Alternative press index and archive via FirstSearch/OCLC - UCB Only   Citations are drawn from roughly 380 alternative, radical, and left publications.  Useful for identifying community-based and alternative public policy perspectives on housing, land use, the environment, etc., outside of the mainstream.  Most journals aren't indexed elsewhere.
Online coverage: 1991--; paper ed.: 1969--; Doe Stack HM101 A12 A55
22. AltPress watch via ProQuest - UCB Only A full text resource that covers newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press. Good for environmental justice and environmental policy issues. East Bay Express is included starting 6/01.
Coverage: 1995--.
23. America: history and life via EBSCO - UC Only  Contains article abstracts and bibliographical citations of reviews and dissertations on the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. Excellent index for American cultural history and popular culture.
Online ed.: 1982--; paper ed.: 1954--; Doe Stack E3 A43
24. Anthropology plus via Eureka/RLG - UC Only  Contains citations to articles and essays in the fields of anthropology and archaeology. Subjects covered include art history, landscape history, ethnohistory, geography, folklore, geology, and history. Useful subject terms include: cities and towns history [name of place]; city planning history; extinct cities; land settlement patterns [name of place]; and, urbanization history.
Coverage: 1984--.
25. Avery index to architectural periodicals via CSA - UC Only  Indexes articles in 1,000+ periodicals in architecture, planning, urban design, & related disciplines.
Online ed.: 1890--; paper ed.: 1890-1995, EnvDesign fNA8 C64 1973 Index
26. Bibliography of native North Americans on disc  (CD-ROM Network) - UCB Only Includes 70,000 citations from books, journal articles, essays, conference papers, and U.S. government documents covering 17 broad regions comprising 290 ethnic groups of native North America, from the 16th century to 1992.
Online ed.: Library networked workstations; paper ed.: Ethnographic Bibliography of North America, 1941-1990. Various editions and locations.
27. Black studies database - UCB Only Digital version of indexing from The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library. Indexes over 150 journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, pamphlets and reports relevant to the Black experience and the African Diaspora.
    Coverage: 1948-1986.
    
    -----. Black studies on disc (CD-ROM Network) - UCB Only Provides current access to the Catalog of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Index to Black Periodicals.
    Coverage: 2004--; Library networked workstations.
28. Chicano database via Eureka/RLG, Univ. of California. Indexes all types of materials on Mexican-American topics, and since 1992, materials on other Latino cultures.
Coverage: 1967--.
29. Geography via Ovid - UCB Only Covers the international literature in physical and human geography, providing access to information from over 2000 journals, monographs, books, conference proceedings reports, and theses.
Coverage: 1990--.
30. HAPI online; Hispanic American periodical index - UC Only  Includes citations to articles, documents, book reviews, and original literary works in more than 500 social science and humanities journals on Latin America, the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and Hispanics in the U.S. Links to selected full text articles via Ingenta or JSTOR.
Coverage: 1970--.
31. IngentaConnect - UCB Only Provides full-text access to domestic and international scholarly & academic publications, in a wide range of subject areas, including city planning.
Coverage: Varies.
32. International index to Black periodicals (IIBP) - UCB Only Includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from 150+ scholarly and popular journals, newspapers and newsletters from the U.S., Africa, and the Caribbean, and full-text coverage of core Black studies periodicals, 1998 forward.
Coverage:  Varies, 1910--.
33. Journal of planning literature. This excellent publication lists and abstracts recent books and journal articles, arranged by subject, including community development, discrimination, and urban sociology.
Online ed.: 1997--; paper ed.: 1985/86--; EnvDesign NA9000 J687 Index
34. JSTOR - UCB Only  A full-text archive of interdisciplinary scholarly journal literature, including sociology, African-American studies, and political science.
Coverage: Varies.
35. Left index via BiblioLine - UCB Only   Provides access to international leftist and radical scholarship, including citations and abstracts and some full text from journals, books, links to internet documents, etc. Topics include ecology & environment, race & ethnicity, social & cultural theory, sociology, etc.
Coverage: 1982--.
36. Native North Americans on disc (CD ROM Network) - UCB Only Includes 70,000 citations from books, journal articles, essays, conference papers, and U.S. government documents covering 17 broad regions comprising 290 ethnic groups of native North America.
Online ed.: 1984--; Library networked workstations.
37. Sociological abstracts via CSA - UC Only Indexes journal articles, book chapters, & reviews from over 1,900 journals, books, book chapters, and reviews in the social sciences. Excellent source for public policy topics.
Online ed.: 1963--; paper ed.: 1952--; Main Stack HM15.5 S6 Library use only
38. Urban studies & planning via CSA - UCB Only. Provides indexing to and full text of 12 journals published by SAGE Publications and participating societies, some journals going back 37 years.
Coverage: Varies.