Building a city profile with government information and open access resources.

1. EH-300
Creating a City Profile:
Open Access Research

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES
 Students will be able to list open access resources
in order to analyze their chosen city.
 Students will describe the demographics, history,
cost of living and more of their chosen city through
mining the census and other resources covered.
 Students will apply resources chosen to build a city
profile.

3. RESOURCES
 Census.gov
 American Fact Finder:
 http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
 Online Rankings: EG., Forbes
 http://www.forbes.com/best-places-for-business/
 http://www.bestplaces.net/ >Compare costs of living
 http://www.nlc.org/build-skills-and-networks/resources/cities-101/city-
factoids/city-rankings
 Local Chamber of Commerce
 Secretary of State Website
 State Department of Education
 Interactive Social Sites
 US Small Business Association:
 https://www.sba.gov/

4. THE CENSUS
 CENSUS.GOV
 The Census Bureau collects :
 Population and housing census, every ten years
 Economic census every 5 years
 Census of governments every five years
 The American Community Survey annually

5. ONLINE RANKINGS
 Online Rankings: EG., Forbes
 Forbes:
 http://www.forbes.com/best-places-for-business/
 Rankings of cities specifically focused on job and business
culture.
 Best Places:
 http://www.bestplaces.net/
 Compare costs of living and more!
 City Rankings
 http://www.nlc.org/build-skills-and-
networks/resources/cities-101/city-factoids/city-rankings
 Many different lists of city rankings.

6. INTERACTIVE SOCIAL SITES
 Street Advisor: http://www.streetadvisor.com/
 Neighborhood and city reviews
 City Data: http://www.city-data.com/
 Information profiles around the country.
 Very rich source!
 Social & Data
 Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/

7. CRIME
 Crime Reports: https://www.crimereports.com/
 Really cool resource!
 Spot Crime: http://www.spotcrime.com/
 Crime data.

8. EDUCATION
 Great Schools: http://www.greatschools.org/
 Rich rankings of schools.
 School Digger
 Information on different schools and districts.
 State Department of Education:
https://www.alsde.edu/
 Information about public schools, school systems
charter schools, magnate schools and more.

9. LOCAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
 A local association to promote and protect the
interests of the business community in a specific
region:
 Great place to find the local job market, business
culture, local government information, and more!
 EG Huntsville: http://www.hsvchamber.org/

10. STATE RESOURCES
 Secretary of State: http://www.sos.alabama.gov/
 Business information and more.
 State Department of Education:
https://www.alsde.edu/
 Information about public schools, school systems
charter schools, magnate schools and more.

11. SMALL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION
 US Small Association: https://www.sba.gov/
 Great resource for small business owners, jobs, local
and national, and more!

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