Research Guides: Principles of Public Policy: Overview of Other State Documents

Basics

Book of the States The complete archive, 1935 to the present, of this standard reference tool for information about U.S. states and territories.
Court Rules, Forms and Dockets Sources for state and federal court rules, forms, and dockets. Browse or search by keyword. From the Law Library Resource XChange.
State Blue Books and Encyclopedias A compilation of links to state Blue Books (almanacs or other compilations of statistics and information) and encyclopedias. Because not all states have a Blue Book or encyclopedia freely available online, "efforts have been made to direct users to resources that contain at least some of the information."
State List: The Electronic Source of State Publications Useful for identifying recent publications, this site provides links to state government publication checklists and shipping lists that are currently available on the Internet.

Websites

50states.com Includes almanac type information on each of the 50 states (plus the Commonwealths and Territories) with links to a variety of official sites and related information.
Center on the American Governor The Center on the American Governor, an initiative of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, seeks to promote research and discussion on the role of the governor in the United States. The Center is building an extensive virtual archive on topics and issues relating to the office of the governor across the country, as well as the administrations of selected governors in New Jersey and other states.
GovEngine.com A directory of federal, state, and local government sites from all branches of government.
Governors Includes brief biographies and contact information for all current U.S. governors and governors' spouses. Also provides advanced search features and information on governors of the past. From the National Governors Association.
Lawsonline A well-organized directory of law sites, case sites, and other legal information. Covers all branches of the Federal government, plus state laws and state courts.
National Center for State Courts - Browse by State Includes links to state court web sites and related resources.
Plural Policy Aggregates bill, legislator, committee and event data from official sources for all 50 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
State Digital Resources: Memory Projects, Online Encyclopedias, Historical & Cultural Materials Collections A compilation of state and regional digital projects and collaborations. From the Library of Congress.
State Legislature Websites - Congress.gov Displays a map with links to the legislative bodies for all fifty states, Washington, DC, and U.S. territories.
State Legislatures, State Laws, and State Regulations: Website Links and Telephone Numbers Part of LLSDC's Legislative Source Book, the site provides direct links (when available) to each state's legislature, state statutory code, and state administrative or regulatory code. Also provides telephone numbers (when available) to each state government operator, legislative assembly, legislative reference center, and state law library.
Stateline.org Covers major public issues such as education, healthcare, land use, and welfare reform on a state level. Includes a daily news, plus links to state home pages, legislative information, and state data.
Vote Smart Information on current elections and elected officials for Federal and State governments. Includes biographies, campaign finance figures, voting records, etc.

Indexes and Full-Text Databases

State Agency Databases
- Links to publicly accessible databases produced by state agencies
Fastcase [Rutgers Restricted]
- Case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, constitutions, law review articles, and other types of legal content. The focus is state and federal primary source materials.
HathiTrust Digital Library A collaborative repository of millions of books, government publications, dissertations, journals, and other published and unpublished materials. Titles published prior to 1923 and those that are open access or Creative Commons-licensed are available full-text. Other materials include limited-access searching. -- Access to the resource is unrestricted, but Rutgers affiliates can log in to gain access to additional features such as full-text download and the ability to create permanent collections.
HeinOnline [Rutgers Restricted]
- Includes a suite of databases for U.S. states covering prestatehood legal materials, laws, Attorney General reports and opinions, constitutions, and historical archives of state reports and statutes.
Justia Free searching of US federal and state laws, cases, and regulations.
Law Library Microform Consortium Digital [Rutgers Restricted]
- Includes a wide range of full-text archival material broken down into U.S. Federal (executive, legislative, and judicial branches), U.S. States, U.S. Territories, Anglo-American Collections, Foreign Jurisdictions, International Law and Organizations, and Multi-Jurisdiction Subject Collections. Online collections are incomplete but new material is added each month.
LegiScan Monitors current legislation from all 50 states and the United States Congress.
NCSL 50-State Searchable Bill Databases Provides a series of topical databases for complete bill information. The status of bills listed in most of these databases is updated every week. Search by subtopics, year, status (e.g., pending, enacted, to governor, etc.) or enter keywords to identify bills.
Oversight.gov - All Federal Inspector General Reports "The role of federal IGs is to prevent and detect waste, fraud, and abuse relating to their agency’s programs and operations, and to promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the agency’s operations and programs." "The site includes a publicly accessible, text searchable repository of reports published by IGs." Use the clickable map to find reports relating to individual states.
Plural Policy Search for legislation, track bills, find legislators, and review votes.
U.S. Constitutional Law [Rutgers Restricted]
- Contains the full text of current and historical state and federal constitutions. State constitutions are accompanied by article-by-article commentaries.
United States Courts Opinions A joint project of the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to provide public access to opinions from selected U.S. appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. The content of this collection dates back to April 2004, though searchable electronic holdings for some courts may be incomplete for the earlier time period.
VitalLaw (formerly Cheetah) [Rutgers Restricted]
- A comprehensive database of documents related to taxation in the United States. The full text of federal tax law, Internal Revenue Service publications, and numerous interpretive tax guides are available online. Tax reporters for all fifty states are included, as well as current state and federal tax news. The database is fully searchable for free text or individual citations.
Women Elected Officials Database Includes full historical listings for women who have held office at the congressional, statewide elected executive, and state legislative levels nationwide. For each woman officeholder, the database includes geographic information, party identification, and race identification where available. From the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers.

Statistics and Data

Book of the States The complete archive, 1935 to the present, of this standard reference tool for information about U.S. states and territories.
Census of Governments Identifies the scope and nature of the nation's state and local government sector; provides authoritative benchmark figures of public finance and public employment; classifies local government organizations, powers, and activities; and measures federal, state, and local fiscal relationships
Follow the Money - National Institute on Money in State Politics Includes campaign-donor, lobbyist, and other information related to elections for all 50 states.
Nation's Report Card: State Profiles Find key data for state/jurisdiction performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments in mathematics, reading, writing, and science at grades 4, 8 and 12 (where applicable). View trends and demographics, download snapshot reports, and compare results for each state/jurisdiction to the nation and to the other states.
PolicyMap [Rutgers Restricted]
- An online data and mapping application that provides access to over 10,000 indicators related to demographics, housing, income, crime, mortgages, health, jobs, and more. Data is available at many common geographic entities (address, block group, census tract, zip code, county, city, state, metro area) as well as unique geographies such as school districts and political boundaries.
Project Vote Smart Information on current elections and elected officials for Federal and State governments. Includes biographies, campaign finance figures, voting records, etc.
QuickFacts "Provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more." From the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sage Data [Rutgers Restricted] Easy access to data from more than 70 organizational sources with over 4.9 billion datasets. Coverage includes US Federal, US State, International, and Nonprofit organizational sources.
Social Explorer [Rutgers Restricted]
- Interactive data maps of the United States, including Census tracts and historical data back to 1790. Some material requires a subscription.
PLACES: Local Data for Better Health "Provides model-based population-level analysis and community estimates to all counties, places (incorporated and census designated places), census tracts, and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) across the United States."
Statistical Reference Index (SRI) [Print resource] Print edition begins in 1980. This index covers USA private organizations and state government agencies. Includes annual reports, periodicals and monographs. Indexed by subjects, names categories, issuing sources, and titles. Alexander Library has the SRI collection on microfiche from 1980 to 2017.

Other Finding Aids

Guide to Law Online: U.S. States and Territories Guides from the U.S. Law Library of Congress to online sources of information on government and law for every state and territory.
Law Extensive information on federal, state, foreign, and international legal resources on the Internet, plus links to related sites.
Locating the Law, 6th edition, revised (2018) "A Handbook for Non- Law Librarians" in PDF format.
State Government Information Lists a variety of meta-indexes for state and local government information, plus links to information specific to each state. Provided by the Library of Congress.
State Legislative Websites Directory Includes "information gleaned from the home pages and websites of the fifty state legislatures, the District of Columbia and the Territories. You can select to view specific website content materials (such as, bills, press rooms, statutes) from all states, one state or a selected list of states."