Several state agencies oversee various aspects of the environment. Older Illinois government publications can be found using WestCat or I-Share. More recent Illinois state government publications can be found using Electronic Document of Illinois.
The following indexes can be used to help find general information:
IDEALS - the Institutional Repository for the University of Illinois. It contains digital and digitized reports from the Illinois State Geological Survey, Water Survey, and Natural History Survey and scanned historical topographic maps.
WIU University Archives - the Archives serves as the Regional Archive for the 16-county area in west-central Illinois. It includes regional materials, such as county and town histories, maps, photographs, and newspaper clippings which might not be indexed in major newspaper indexes. A card file contains citations to information about a wide variety of subjects, including articles on local land use.
Illinois State Archives - the depository of public records of Illinois state and local governmental agencies which possess permanent administrative, legal, or historical research value. It does not contain manuscript collections. It also administers the Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD), which manage the archival records of local governments.
Electronic Documents of Illinois - digital collection of official Illinois state government publications.
Laws of Illinois - early laws passed by the Illinois legislature impacted the environment of Illinois. For example, the index to the Laws of Illinois by Gross (1869) includes laws related to game, swamp lands and wolves (there were bounties on wolves in Illinois during the early 1800s).
WestCat - the online catalog for the Western Illinois University Libraries and I-Share Interlibrary loan can be used to find government and other publications related to a land use, including Illinois State Government Publications - can be found using WestCat or I-Share. When requested, they will be sent to any CARLI Library.