UIC library-- This library has some very valuable tools for doing research on Chicago buildings notably a microfilm copy of the city building permits to 1954 and the Chadwyck Healey microfilms of Sanborn fire insurance atlases.

http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/

Chicago Historical Society--Clark St. at North Avenue, Chicago 60614. This is probably the single best place to study the built environment of the Chicago area. In the printed collections of the library are the city directories. You will be able to find regular, alphabetical directories, classified directories (a list organized like the yellow pages according to what professional people, companies and organizations do) and criss-cross directories that allow you to look up buildings by address and see who was in them. The CHS library also has many original fire insurance atlases and an enormously rich collection of printed materials. The photographic collection, where views of the city are arranged primarily by location, is the most comprehensive in the area. In the Architectural Collections are many drawings, photographs and other documents related to buildings.

http://www.chicagohs.org/chshome.html

Chicago Public Library-- Harold Washington Library Center: 400 S. State Street, Chicago 60602. Among the most important collections at this library are the Chicago neighborhood historical collections with documents and photographs of a number of Chicago's neighborhoods as well as the contents of the Municipal Reference Library.

http://www.chipublib.org/CPL.html

Ilinois Regional Archives Depository--Northeastern Illinois University Archives. 5500 St. Louis, Chicago, 60625. Among many documents relating to northeastern Illinois, Cook County and the City of Chicago is a nearly complete set of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps.

http://orion.neiu.edu/~neiulib/about/libcollections/irad.html

National Archives- Chicago Branch--7358 S. Pulaski Road, Chicago, 60629. This branch of the National Archives contains many records created by federal agencies operating in the Midwest, for example circuit and district courts and local offices of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Public Roads.

http://www.archives.gov/facilities/il/chicago.html

Newberry Library--60 W. Walton Street, Chicago 60610. The Modern Manuscript Division contains a large number of documents relating to the history of the Midwest. The maps collection is particularly rich and includes county atlases as well as the archives of the Rand McNally Company.

http://www.newberry.org/nl/newberryhome.html

University of Chicago--5701 S. University, Chicago, 60637. In addition to a superb general collection, the Special Collections division has extensive materials on Chicago including the papers of Robert Park, Ernest Burgess and other members of the Chicago School of Sociology.

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/index.html

Other Archives--Among the other, more specialized, archives are those of the Archdiocese of Chicago, 5050 Northwest Highway, Chicago; the Chicago Jewish Archives at the Spertus College of Judaica, 618 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, and the Dusable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Place, Chicago

Suburban libraries

Cicero Public Library--includes Town of Cicero Historical Collection
http://www2.sls.lib.il.us/CIS/

Elgin Public Library--this includes the Historical and Genealogical
Collections and the Elgin PHotographic Heritage Society
http://www.library.elgin-county.on.ca/

Evanston Public Library--includes a special collection of local history
called "Evanstoniana"
http://www.evanston.lib.il.us/

Naperville Public Library--Naperville Public Libraries' Nichols Library houses a Local History Collection, which is devoted exclusively to Naperville and DuPage County sources. The collection includes materials that are rare and/or out of print, as well as reference and circulating materials.
http://www.naperville-lib.org/

Schaumburg Public Library--This library includes the Illinois Collection, which includes books, maps, pamphlets, pictures, local government documents, Chicago and Illinois travel books, descriptive histories of towns and counties and a newspaper clipping file of Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg-related articles.
http://www.stdl.org

Waukegan Public Library--includes Waukegan newspapers, City directories, year books, local biographical information, superseded plat books and atlases, local history file, and genealogy resources.
www.waukeganpl.org