Compare what State Legislatures Are Doing - National Conference of State Legislatures
- National Conference of State LegislaturesProvides topic or issue-based research on bills and laws in state legislatures
Resources for Comparison of State Laws
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowState bills and laws for most states going back to mid 1990s.
- National Conference of State LegislaturesOpen access to all internet users.
- Subject Compilation of State LawsUse this resource to find books, articles or reports that compare laws across all 50 states.
- National Survey of State Laws2019 edition available online from HeinOnline
Compare what Governors are Doing - National Governors Association
- National Governors AssociationThrough NGA, governors identify priority issues and deal collectively with matters of public policy and governance at the state and national levels.
Comparing State Governments and Performance
- Book of the States OnlineComparisons for states and territories with tables, charts and figures illustrating how state government operates. It also includes more than 30 articles from state leaders, innovative thinkers, noted scholars and CSG’s in-house policy experts that analyze and report on the transformations taking place in state government.
- Book of the States in hard copy in the libraryVolumes back to 1935
- State Blue Books (ALA Godort)States publish "blue books" (they're often named for other colors too) that serve as guides to state governments.
Local level Policy
- North American City Reports This link opens in a new windowDocuments collection includes reports from over 600 North American city and urban agencies. Includes some regional documents also. Full-text reports on issues such as immigration, climate change and sustainability, transportation and urban planning. Includes budgets, case studies, planning documents.
- Overton.io This link opens in a new windowProvides the world’s largest collection of policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications and working papers.
- United States Conference of MayorsReports on cities, model legislation and best practices
Find an Association
One way to figure out what policymakers are doing in an area is to find their professional associations. Think about what level or branch of government and then search for a national association devoted to that group. Once you find the association see if you can find a resource or issues page
Another way to find association information is to use domain searching. In google, search for your keyword and then include site:[domain url]. The example below is searching for covid-19 information from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
Here are other examples of associations