Sustainable City Year: Salem

This guide supports the 2010-2011 Sustainable Cities Initiative on Salem, Oregon. See also the 2009-2010 final reports on the city of Gresham.

For more general approaches, you may want to consult the research guides for Planning, Architecture, or Landscape Architecture.  For further assistance, contact Tom Stave in the Document Center, at tstave@uoregon.edu.

Statistics

Community-level statistical data are produced by many different private and governmental organizations.  These resources can help locate the most useful series. Reference staff in the Knight Library's Document Center can assist with hard-to-locate data.

• Data for Local Communities
  Search a database of websites with demographic, social, economic and environmental data for Oregon communities.  Tip: DO NOT search for “Salem”.  DO enter search terms or browse by topic, then choose Geographic Level “City”.
• Census 2000 and 1990.  Census data published earlier than 1990 must be found in printed reports, which are maintained in the Knight Library's Document Center. For help using Census data, contact Tom Stave at tstave@uoregon.edu or Laura Wimberley at vmitch@uoregon.edu in the Knight Library's Document Center.
• Census: American Community Survey. 
  These data files contain the most recent (but not the most reliable) estimates of population characteristics, at the city level only.
  For the most recent estimates, choose 2008 ACS 1-year estimates.
  For a set of estimates that are more reliable (smaller confidence intervals), and include more variables, choose the 2006-2008 ACS 3-year estimates.
• Document Center's statistics page.

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News and opinion

Use these resources to find coverage of the City of Salem by news media and policy groups.

• Salem Statesman Journal
• Oregonian. Online access to full text articles in the Portland Oregonian, 1987-present. (UO only)
• Oregonian Index Index to articles in the Oregonian, 1851-1987.  Articles may be viewed, printed or scanned from microfilm in the Libraries' Microforms Collection (first floor, Knight).
• Portland Business Journal. Brief news articles; may be searched by key words or phrases, such as "downtown Salem" or '"Salem".
• Lexis-Nexis Academic. Search and view full text of 6,000 news, business and legal sources.
• Oregon Policy Directory Links to websites for 400 organizations that analyze or influence public policy in Oregon.  The full set of websites may be searched simultaneously, using terms such as "Salem".

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Government & Business

Use these resources to find information from and about Salem city government and local businesses.

GOVERNMENT

• City Government Brief overview, excerpted from the Official Statement by the City of Salem to meet full faith and credit obligations for bonds.
  • Full Official Statement, including water & sewage, tax revenue, budgets, and more technical financial information
• Salem planning documents. Just the Salem documents from the Local & Regional Document Archive.  Search full text, or browse "This Collection".
  • Local & Regional Document Archive (LRDA).  Search or browse over 2000 planning documents from ALL Oregon cities and counties.
• Key Salem documents:
  • Charter
  • Salem Revised Codes
  • Budget
  • Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports
  • Comprehensive Plan
  • Transportation Plan
  • Minto-Brown Island Park Restoration
• City of Salem website: http://www.cityofsalem.net.  To restrict your standard web search to this site, use the "advanced search" feature of your search engine (e.g. Google or Yahoo), and enter "cityofsalem.net" in the "site or domain" box.
• Search all Oregon state, city, and county websites simultaneously:


•  Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities Collaboration among the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development, the Dept of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency

LEGAL

• Salem Revised Code
• Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) and Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR)

BUSINESS

• Economy and Demographics Brief overview, excerpted from the Official Statement by the City of Salem to meet full faith and credit obligations for bonds.
  • Full Official Statement, including water & sewage, tax revenue, budgets, and more technical financial information
• Reference USA Database of U.S. business establishments, which may be searched by city, zipcode, type of business, and size.  Use to identify individual businesses, or to analyze the structure of the business community in Salem. (UO only)
• County Business Patterns Zipcode and county-level data on business establishments, including type of business, payroll, and employment.
• Daily Journal of Commerce (Salem, Or.).  Search in Lexis-Nexis Academic.
• Portland Business Journal. Brief news articles; may be searched by key words or phrases, such as "downtown Salem" or "Salem".

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Map and GIS resources

The UO's large collection of maps and aerial photography is located in the Document Center, on the first floor of the Knight Library. This is also the location for datasets for use in geographic information systems (GIS) applications. For expert help, contact the Science Librarian, Dean Walton, at dpwalton@uoregon.edu. 

• Map and Aerial Photography Collection
• Salem GIS Data - Public Access
• Historical maps

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Natural Setting

• Soil survey. Web Soil Survey (US Natural Resources Conservation Service) You may search for your area of interest via an interactive map, then display the soil map and soil type characteristics. A paper copy of the Soil Survey for Marion County (OR) is available in the UO Libraries’ Special Collections     (S599.O7 W54 1972).
• Watershed.
  Surf Your Watershed (EPA): data for the Lower Willamette Watershed
• Geologic maps for Salem area.
  “Salem East (OR)”  contains most of Salem
  “Willamette Basin (OR)”  Willamette Valley Lowland Aquifers
• Agriculture. Census of Agriculture 2007
  County level data for Oregon.Click by table title for specific crops, look for Marion County.

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Historical Resources

In addition to the catalogs, article databases, and newspapers described above, the following sources can be useful for researching the history of Salem.  For further assistance, contact the History Librarian, John Russell, at johnruss@uoregon.edu. 

• Index to the Oregon Historical Quarterly (REF KNIGHT F871 .O43)
  Three volumes covering the Oregon Historical Quarterly from the 1900 through 1980. The fourth volume, covering 1981-2000, is available online.
• Sanborn fire insurance maps.
  Historic large scale maps with building detail for Oregon cities. Salem coverage includes 1884, 1888, 1890, 1895, and 1926-1950.
• GLO maps and survey notes.
  General Land Office township plat maps for the Salem area were produced between 1852 and 1937.  The Salem site lies in three townships and three ranges: T6S R2W - T6S R3W, T7S R2W - T7S R3W, and T8S R2W T8 R4W. 
• Salem Online History. Links to Heritage Institutions and the Salem Historic District.
• Salem Historic Landmarks Commission. Links to Historic Preservation Projects.
• Oregon Parks and Recreation: Heritage Programs: National Register.  Site includes information on parks, state hospital district, State St. and Commercial St. District, and more on the National Register for Marion county.
• Heritage in Salem. Site includes a map of historic districts and current news pertaining to historic districts and historic plans for Salem.      
• Oregon Historic Sites Database.
  Beta version of a database of historic sites, which may be searched by city, building style or function.
• Census reports.  Census data published earlier than 1990 must be found in printed reports, which are maintained in the Document Center.  

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Journal articles

These journal article index databases are useful for searching the scholarly literature in such fields as planning, geography, sociology, transportation, business and public affairs.

• Academic Search Premier (UO only)
  Citations to journal articles, often accompanied by full text, from a broad array of disciplines.
• America: History and Life (UO only)
  Citations and abstracts for historical research relating to the Americas, including Native peoples. Covers more recent issues of local-interest journals such as the Oregon Historical Quarterly and Pacific Northwest Quarterly.
• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (UO only)
  References to literature in the fields of architecture and related fields such as city planning and historic preservation.
• Business Source Complete (UO only)
  Citations to business-related journal articles, often accompanied by full text.
• GEOBASE (UO only)
  Literature in geography, ecology, and related disciplines including urban and regional planning.
• Journal of Planning Literature DOCUMENTS REFERENCE HT165.5.J68 (through 2006).
  Current bibliography of books and articles in the field of planning. Search this journal, 1999 to date, in Academic Search Premier (limit search to SO Journal Name = Journal of Planning Literature). (UO only)
• PAIS (UO only)
  Citations to journal articles, books and book chapters, and other resources in the area of public affairs.
• SocAbstracts (UO only)
  References to literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences, including community development and the social aspects of planning.
• TRIS online (Transportation Research Information Service)
  References to transportation-related information in books, journal articles, technical reports and the media.
• Web of Science (UO only)
  The most comprehensive coverage of science and social science articles.

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Books, theses and terminal projects

• UO Local Catalog
  The most complete version of the UO Libraries' own catalog.
• UO WorldCat
  Books and other materials from the UO, its 35 partner libraries in the Northwest (Summit), and over 60,000 libraries worldwide (WorldCat).
• Summit Union Catalog
  Books and other materials from 35 Northwest libraries, which you can borrow directly (5-day delivery).
• WorldCat (UO only)
  Books and other materials from libraries worldwide, which may be requested through Interlibrary Loan.
• PPPM Theses and Terminal Projects.
  PPPM masters theses may be located through the UO Library's catalog. Terminal projects for PPPM and for other AAA departments may be found through special databases.