Once you've logged in, you'll see the ICUD search form. From here you can browse by topics and municipalities.

By Topic [top]

Use the topic search to find documents based on the ICUD subject index. The 'Select A Topic' tool lists all of the subject headings used in the Subject Index. Click on a topic to use it in your search.

The topic A-Z pages also provide quick access to all documents on a particular subject:

[Note about Topic Index:
Each document in analyzed in depth, and may be indexed under as many as twenty subject headings. Citations which are obtained from accession lists are indexed according to the title and whatever additional information may be available. All documents issued by authorities, civic and citizen research organizations, regional councils, special districts and urban observatories are entered under these categories as well as under the subjects discussed in these documents.]

By Municipality [top]

The municipality, state or year searches can be used to further narrow your focus. Like the Topic A-Z lists, the Municipality A-Z lists provide quick access to all the documents received from a particular city.

By Keyword [top]

You can use the keyword search to locate documents by department, title, series, or index topic, as well as by city and state. The keyword text box searches for terms in the document's location, author, title, index topic and bibliograpic fields. A search for 'management and budget office':

returns entries for documents issued by management and budget offices and by budget and management offices, as well as documents issued by other departments on the topic of budget or management:

By Topic [top]

To find all documents on the topic 'city planning' issued by a New York City agency, for example:

That search returns:

[Note: Your search result may differ, depending on the current volume.]

Search Results [top]

place name issuing department or agency title of the document, as given in the original document Other essential information about the document which cannot be determined from the title is included in brackets bibliographic information about the document, including number of pages, date and a description of the content additional information may be included in a note, such as distinctive cover titles, brief summaries, explanation of terms, and whether a third party prepared the document. the pdf link to the document, if you've subscribed to that region index topics for the document from the collection's subject index web link to the agency submitting the document, if any document id

If your search returns a large number of results, they'll be presented in increments of thirty, listed alphabetically by state, city and department. You can use the page links to navigate through your results:

Use the 'New Search' link or your browser's back button to return to the search form.

Place names and index topics are linked:

To find all the documents issued from a particular location, or on a particular topic, click on the link.

Adobe Acrobat Reader™ is required to view the documents. The Reader is free of charge, and may be downloaded from Adobe's web site.

Clicking on the PDF link will open Adobe's Acrobat Reader. The configuration and version of your Adobe Acrobat Reader™ software will affect the way you access documents in the collection. If you have Acrobat Reader 4 you may either view the document in your browser or you may choose to download the document and view it later.

Consult Adobe's Reader Guide, available under the Help menu on your Reader toolbar, for additional information and detailed information on configuring, viewing and printing pdf files.

[Note: Many of the documents are large files. For example, a 97-page document could be 4.5MB or larger. We strongly suggest viewing the file first in Reader to ensure it is the document you want before printing it or saving it to a local disc.]

Acrobat Reader 6 [top]

You can change Acrobat Reader 6's configuration by opening it and choosing Edit/Preferences/Internet. To view PDF files within your browser, check the "Display PDF in Browser Box". For more information on configuring Acrobat Reader 6, go to Acrobat's User Guide.

Acrobat Reader 5 [top]

You can change Acrobat Reader 5's configuration by opening it and choosing Edit/Preferences/Options. To view PDF files within your browser, check the "Display PDF in Browser Box".

Acrobat Reader 4 [top]

To change Acrobat Reader 4's configuration, open it and choose File/Preferences/General. In the Options section of the dialog box check "Web Browser Integration;" this will allow you to view the documents in your browser. If you would rather save the documents, leave this option unchecked.

Acrobat Reader 3 [top]

The default configuration for Acrobat Reader 3 saves the document to a local disc. To configure Acrobat Reader 3 to allow PDFs to be viewed in a browser window, check your Acrobat Reader Help Files under the topic: "Using PDF on the Web".

You can print the documents from your web browser or from a saved file. However, please note that many of these documents are large; some are hundreds of pages long. Please consider saving the file to a disk to view on screen, or print only the pages that you need. If you want to print any of the records in the index itself, please keep the following in mind: Results from printing will vary depending on which browser you use. Below are some general guidelines for the two most popular browsers.

Netscape [top]

Before printing the information currently on your screen, you should either click with your mouse anywhere in the text area (with the white background) or right click and select "Open Frame in New Window." Also, Netscape may leave areas of blank space at the bottom of some printed pages. This is caused by some elements, such as images and tables, that occur too close to the bottom margin of the print page. They will be pushed down to the next page.

Internet Explorer [top]

Before printing the information currently on your screen, you should click with your mouse anywhere in the text area (with the white background).

For more information on printing pdf files, consult Adobe's Technical Guides for Windows and Mac.