INTRODUCTION

FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

SELECTED PRINT REFERENCE SOURCES

FIND BOOKS IN LAVERY LIBRARY AND BEYOND

FIND ARTICLES AND MORE

FIND WEBSITES

INTRODUCTION
This subject guide covers the major academic resources in Political Science. Many topics in this area are interdisciplinary, involving governmental, cultural and sociopolitical issues. Subject guides in History, Sociology, Anthropology or Religion might prove to be useful as well.

FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Reference Books are located on the Main Level of Lavery Library.

Reference books provide background information to help you understand your topic, narrow your topic, or prepare an outline of your topic. They also help define terms related to your topic, provide assistance in the selection of subject terms for your database searches, and contain factual information, such as, statistics, biographies, and maps.

SELECTED PRINT REFERENCES SOURCES:

Encyclopedias
H97.I574 1998 REF
International Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Administration

JF501.E53 1994 REF
Encyclopedia of the American Legislative System

E183.7.E53 1997 REF
Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations

JS303.5.H35 2002 REF
The Citizen Action Encyclopedia: Groups and Movements That Have Changed America

Dictionaries
JK9 .H54 2001 REF
The Facts on File Dictionary of American Politics

E183.7.F5 1989 REF
Dictionary of American Diplomatic History

E183.7,F58 1993 REF
Dictionary of American Foreign Affairs

Directories
JK1118.S688 1999 REF
Special Interest Group Profiles for Students

JK1011 REF
Official Congressional Directory

JK1.C14 REF
The CQ Guide to Current American government

Handbooks
JA61.O95 1993 REF
The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World

JK271.K87 1999 REF
Political Market Place, USA

D2.E8 2001 REF
The Europa World Yearbook

Chronology
E183.7.B745 1985
Chronological History of American Foreign Relations, 1776 to January 20, 1981

Biographies
E176 .G89 2000 REF
Encyclopedia of the United States Cabinet

E176.1 .P918 1996 REF
The Presidents : A Reference History

Statistical Sources
The most current statistics are found online. Please see “Selected Websites”, select “Government”. FedStats is a good beginning.

FIND BOOKS IN LAVERY LIBRARY AND BEYOND
The key to the library's extensive book collection is the Library Catalog. It may be searched by Author, Title, Subject, or Keyword. Subject headings are established by the Library of Congress. If you have any trouble selecting a Subject heading for your topic, try a Keyword search or check the listings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings red books (Z 695 .L69 2001 REF) in the Reference area near the main floor computers.

Subject Headings which may be useful to you for Political Science are:

Political science
Political science—Research
World politics
United States—Politics and government
Policy sciences
United States-Foreign relations
Comparative government

If you would like to browse in the Political Science section of the library, the main call numbers are: JA's, JC's

Circulating books are all located on the Upper Level.

Link to the Library Catalog from the library's home page http://library.sjfc.edu

Find books in Other Libraries by selecting Library Catalog from the library's home page, then select Other Library Catalogs.

Search the world for books by selecting WorldCat from the databases listed under Research Databases. From the library's home page, select Research Tools, select Research Databases, then select WorldCat from the alphabetized list.

To order a book from another library use the online Interlibrary Loan form, accessible from the library's home page http://library.sjfc.edu.

FIND ARTICLES AND MORE
Lavery Library subscribes to an extensive collection of Research Databases that may be used to search for articles on your topic in periodicals, newspapers, and book chapters. Periodicals include both scholarly journals and popular magazines. When researching for courses in your major, it is usually recommended that you use scholarly articles, also referred to as peer reviewed or refereed articles. Databases will often allow you to limit your search to scholarly articles.

If the article cited on the database that you are using does not appear in full-text on the database, check Periodical Holdings to determine if the periodical is either full-text on another database or available in hard copy in the library's collection. From the library's home page, select Research Tools, then select Research Databases.

Research Databases are listed both alphabetically and by subject on the library's home page. When starting research in Political Science, the following databases are recommended:

PAIS
SocialSciIndex
Expanded Academic
JSTOR
ABI-Inform
America History and Life

Link to Subject Listing of databases available for Humanities and Art

FIND WEBSITES
When using websites for research it is very important to evaluate their authority and content. Use the following checklist to evaluate sites before using them as references.

Evaluating Web Sites Checklist

Your liaison librarian has provided a list of quality websites for Political Science. They are available on the library's home page under Selected Websites. From the library's home page, select Internet Resources, then Selected Websites, then Government or Political Science.

To search for additional websites, start with Google - http://www.google.com.