Listed and described here are sources sponsored by local governments or by organizations that support local government information. “Local” governments include municipalities, counties, and regional or inter-governmental organizations.

The work of municipalities is to administer and finance services that directly impact the citizens who reside within its boundaries. Basic services that affect daily life such as primary and secondary education, public safety, sanitation, water, street maintenance, libraries, and parks and recreation are among those provided. The municipal charter specifies the civic boundaries, government structure, and the limits of municipal authority.

The role of county government is three-fold. First, it carries out administrative duties required by the state and federal governments which mandate programs related to health, welfare, courts, corrections, roads, tax administration, vital statistics, and elections. Second, counties provide municipal services for unincorporated areas such as road repair, police and fire protection, and garbage collection. Third, county government often coordinates city services and programs across municipal boundaries. Services provided by the county include provision and administration of corrections facilities, courts, mental health programs, indigent health care, welfare programs, public health programs, property-value assessments, garbage disposal, pollution control, arterial and collector roads, vital statistics/records, and regulatory standards. The county code identifies the type of governing board established for that particular jurisdiction.

Regional relationships such as city to city, city to county, county to county, state to state and other configurations of partnerships provide the means to deal with inter-jurisdictional issues such as environment, transportation, economic development, employment training, housing, disaster preparedness and community planning. This regional team building may be referred to as development districts, intergovernmental councils, council of governments (COGs), or metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) depending on the jurisdictions involved.

General Information Sources:

State and Local Government on the Net by Piper Resources is a directory of more than 7,000 links to government sponsored resources.

Local Governments and Politics Created by Grace York at the University of Michigan Documents Center, includes links to directories, yearbooks, library holdings of specific publications, links to municipal codes, association and think tank web sites, and subject specific Web collections.

State and Local Governments Created by the Library of Congress provides links to meta-indexes of government information, supporting organization’s sites, and individual state’s government Web collections.

State and Local Task Force Information Created at the University of Arizona on behalf of the American Library Association, Government Documents Round Table, State and Local Task Force, provides links to guides to sources, state documents checklists, bibliographies of resources, city and county directories, meta-indexes, and related sites.

Municipal Government Resources:

Municode.com is a source of free online municipal codes and is a product of the Municipal Code Corporation.

International City/County Management Association strives to “enhance the quality of local government and to support and assist professional local government managers and administrators.”

National Civic League This non-partisan, non-profit organization takes a grassroots approach to government involvement by citizens and supports local government officials.

National League of Cities states that their purpose is to strengthen and promote cities as center of opportunity, leadership and governance serving as an advocate for cities and towns through lobbying activities.

U.S. Conference of Mayors is a nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more and represented by its elected mayor.

County Government Resources:

The National Association of Counties is the only national organization that specifically supports county governments and serves as an advocate for legislative, lobbying, educational, programming, technical support, and research endeavors.

The Innovation Groups is a nonprofit membership based organization, which supports communication and information sharing between city, town, and county governments.

Regional Government Resources:

American Council on Intergovernmental Relations was a nonprofit organization established for charitable and educational purposes serving as a non-partisan research body and policy forum. Documents from ACIR have been archived and made searchable by the University of North Texas Libraries to benefit the research community.

National Association of Regional Councils, Is a nonprofit organization that promotes and fosters cooperation among communities through advocacy, educational programming, research, and outreach activities.

Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations is a nonprofit membership organization that provides technical support to MPOs that have responsibility for planning, programming, and coordination of federal highway and transit investments.

Revised, M. Mason
May 2007