Ethnic Groups and Neighborhoods in New York

Getting Started: Reference Books

• Bobst Library has a number of books on New York City, New York City neighborhoods, and ethnic groups in New York City. Most books are in the 1st floor Reference area at the call number F 128.

Finding New York News

• LexisNexis –New York News Sources [NYU-Only]
  This pre-defined category searches the New York Post, Village Voice, New York Magazine, New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, and more. For more LexisNexis search tips see the LexisNexis post.
• Factiva [NYU-ONLY]
  Like LexisNexis, Factiva covers tons of news sources. There is overlap, but Factiva tends to be better on the trades. (Factiva also includes Time Out which is not included in LexisNexis.)
  • TIPS–Use the hlp command to tell it to find your keywords in the Headline Lead Paragraph Ex. hlp=nolita
  • Click on Custom to see all of the searchable field abbreviations.
  • Use the Region menu to limit your search to sources/articles identified with that region.
• EthnicNewsWatch[NYU-Only]
  Includes ethnic newspapers from NYC communities. Note some newspapers may be non-English. Sources include: El Diario, El Prensa, New York Jewish Weekly, India in New York, New Voice of New York, etc.
• Gotham Gazette
  Includes “New York City News and Policy” articles as well as links to tons of NYC resources.
  • Check out the Links Section (lower left side bar) for links to Org(anizations) and News Sites (local weeklies, non-English press, etc.)
  • Click on Manhattan in the Boros section to find out more about neighborhood resources. NYC Blogs are also listed.

Neighborhood Information

See also Community/Neighborhood Information

• Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit: Community Boards (available via the NYC.gov site)
  Use this to identify your community board. Lists contacts, as well as websites (when a board has a website).

• Department of City Planning (available via the NYC.gov site)
  Use the Reference area to identify your community district and get a statistical community district profile. Use Projects and Proposals to see what projects are in the pipe.
• InfoShare
  Provides more in-depth statistics for neighborhoods including immigration stats. Search by neighborhood, zipcode or community district number.
• My Neighborhood Statistics
  Allows you to visualize land-use, as well as data for a neighborhood. See where post-offices, schools, etc. are located in your neighborhood.
• EveryBlockNYC
  Combines news stories, civic information (building permits, restaurant closings, complaints, etc), and web content (photos from flickr) by location. Search for your neighborhood to see what’s going on.
• Search BobCat for books
  • Search by the neighborhood’s name ex. Fort Greene
  • Select “Subject Heading (LCSH)” from the pull-down menu
  • Click on a subject heading to see the titles NYU owns
• Check out your neighborhood branch of the public library
  Click on the Map on the left sidebar to find branches in your neighborhood. Branch libraries often have information about the neighborhood they serve.

Immigration/Ethnic Groups in a Community

• Newest New Yorkers 2000: Immigrant New York in the New Millennium from the NYC Department of City Planning, Population Division. Access via the Index to Current Urban Documents (NYU-ONLY). Once in the database, search for “Newest New Yorkers”.
• Search BobCat for books
  • Try a subject heading search for Immigrants–New York (State)–New York OR the specific ethnic group, ex. East Indians–New York (State) –New York
• Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs
  Includes a directory of services for immigrants in NYC (including associations, etc.)
• IPA-NY -IndyPress
  Includes Voices that Must Be Heard series (which includes translated articles) and a link to a map of Ethnic Press in NYC.