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Public Policy and Administration Research: Federal & State Resources

Tips, techniques & links to help you find answers for your research papers & projects

Federal Government Resources

Missouri Resources

University of Missouri Libguide on the subject of Missouri government with comprehensive information and links to official state documents. Sections include, but are not limited to Legislators' votes, Statistical Topical Gateways, and Historical Documents Browser. The guide also has information on resources for other states.

Libguide curated by the State Library with sections such as Digital Resources, Missouri Government Publications, Governor's Executive Orders, Training & Webinars, and Federal Government Information.

A Missouri State Library-curated listing of publicly searchable databases produced by agencies of the State of Missouri. Examples include Missouri Grown, Homeowner's Insurance Availability by County, and Child Care Rate Information.

Non-government source for Missouri-specific state news and general coverage of state and local government issues

The Missouri General Assembly's government website, which has sections information and tools to watch live debates and track bills.

Other US State Resources

Missouri Census Data Center
Choose 1990 or 2000. Generate a wide variety of 1990 or 2000 census statistics for states, counties, metro areas, towns, townships, census tracts, and zip codes.  

Mapstats
Selected demographic, business and geography statistics from the US Bureau of the Census.

Open States
Enter a U.S. address or select a state to start to research bills, review voting records, contact elected officials and more.

Stateline.org
Once at the stateline.org site, click on "States" in the top menu bar. This site does not have statistics as much as it does recent news stories on how all the states are grappling with a variety of problems.

USA Counties 1998
Choose this if you want statistics from the 1970s-1990s. Includes a very wide variety of statistics by state and county.

State government web sites  Sometimes you can find best what you need from a state agency's own website.

Book of the States. By the Council of State Governments. Yearly reports from 2000 to present. 

States Perform
Performance data for 50 states in six key areas: fiscal and economic, public safety and justice, energy and environment, transportation, health and human services, and education.

Statistical Abstract of the United States
Not strictly a state-by-state source, but many stats are broken down by state. Published annually. Paper versions dating back to 1878 are available in the library.

State Statistical Abstracts
Link for each state.

States in Profile Chose your state from the drop down list.  

State Agency Databases Produced by an agency of a state government or a political subdivision.

Blue Books

These will list all departments and divisions within state governments.  See link list of state Blue Books online, or check the bibliography of blue books for other states is provided in Chapter 2 of the book State Government Reference Publications: An Annotated Bibliography by David W. Parish (c1981).

Historical Media Databases
This page lists databases produced by states or their political subdivisions that provide online access to historical photographs, documents, video, or audio.