Policy Researcher Tutorial

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23. Documents: State and Local Law

For access to state laws, see:

LexisNexis State Capital
Access via web:   http://web.lexis-nexis.com/stcapuniv/
1990-   (Most sections updated daily)
Quick Guide to searching LexisNexis State Capital.

• Provides the full-text of bills for all 50 states since 1991 and the legal codes, as well as state constitutions and administrative codes.
• Indexes official political journals of selected states and the newspapers of record for all states.

Michigan Legislature
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(2onx3g45xrqokcnrojvwdj55))/mileg.aspx?page=home

• You can search by citation or keyword in bills or Michigan Compiled Laws.
  • For example, a search of 2004 bills on continuing education for social workers reveals that the new law on social work licensure requires "a minimum of 45 clock hours in any 3-year license renewal cycle. A portion of those clock hours must be in social work ethics".
    Sec. 18516. (3) Public Act 61 of 2004 (Effective: 4/12/2004)
    http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2003-2004/publicact/pdf/2004-PA-0061.pdf
• You can find selected testimony under the names of individual committees
  beginning in 2007 at http://senate.michigan.gov/
• 
  

National Conference of State Legislatures
http://www.ncsl.org

• Newsletters, policies, and testimony on federal-state relations
• Organizational information, publications, and conferences
• Extensive links to state legislative web sites

National Governors' Association
http://www.nga.org/

• Extensive list and full text of policies on federal-state relations, economic development, human and natural resources
• Issue briefs, press releases
• Background and the administration of welfare reform
• Links to governors of the states and territories, their biographies, election status, and web sites

Stateline (PEW Research Center)
http://www.stateline.org/

• Summary of news articles about state legislative issues for all 50 states
• States can be compared and ranked on population, economic, crime, budget, and environmental factors

See State and Local Government for additional sources

Index to current urban documents, 1972+

• Indexes municipal, county and regional documents by subject and place
• Call number for index: Documents Center Z 7165 .U5 I38
• Reference to microfiche copy of publication (inter-library loan may be required)
  • Urban documents microfiche collection [microform] DOCUMENTS CTR. (GL) MICRO-F DoX20

Index to Current Urban Documents , 1999+

• Indexes municipal, county and regional documents in the U.S. and Canada since 1999
• Searchable by keyword, broad subject (recommended), city and/or state
• Reference to microfiche copy of publication (inter-library loan may be required)
  • Urban documents microfiche collection [microform] DOCUMENTS CTR. (GL) MICRO-F DoX20
• You can also use the general city web link under the entry to search for a copy of the document