Barnard College Library Research Guide

BC3761
Research Seminar in Political Science
Professor Lorraine Minnite

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Databases | Other Full-text Resources | Web Resources
EndNote | Request a Consultation | Request It (Borrow Direct & ILL)

Encyclopedias & Other Reference Books

  TITLE BARNARD REFERENCE
CALL NUMBER
  Civil Rights in the United States    E184 .A1 C47 2000
  The Encyclopedia of Democracy JC423 .E53 
  Encyclopedia of Education LB15 .E47 2003
  Encyclopedia of Government and Politics JA61 .C66 2003
  Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics E184 .A1 E574 2000
  Encyclopedia of Presidential Campaigns, Slogans, Issues and Platforms E176.1 R6 2004
  The Human Rights Encyclopedia JC571 .L523 2001
  International Encyclopedia of Elections JF1001 .I57 2000
  Vital Statistics on American Politics 2003-2004 JK274 .S74 200-04

 

Searching CLIO
 CLIO (Columbia Libraries Information Online) is the on-line catalog for materials added to the Columbia University Libraries since 1981.  
  • For a Keyword search, you must use Boolean searching - that is, use and, or or not between the terms, and quotes for a phrase
  • For a Keyword or Title search, you can limit to books in the Barnard library using the More Limits or Post Limits options
  • To find primary materials in CLIO, look for these subdivisions in the subject field:
         --ARCHIVES
         --BIOGRAPHY (this includes autobiographies)
         --CORRESPONDENCE
         --DIARIES
         --INTERVIEWS
         --SOURCES
    For example:
    DU BOIS, W. E. B. (WILLIAM EDWARD BURGHARDT), 1868-1963--CORRESPONDENCE
    JEWS--UNITED STATES--HISTORY--SOURCES
     
Other Library Catalogs
Those with Columbia ID have access to the libraries of Teachers’ College and Columbia Law School, but they are not included in CLIO; use the Catalogs list on CU LibraryWeb, or the following links:
  • EDUCAT for Teachers’ College Library
  • Pegasus for Columbia Law Library
  • CATNYP for New York Public Library research branches

 

Databases

Contemporary Women's Issues
A selected full-text resource (some material is abstract only) for information about women; particularly useful for material relating to current topics in the social sciences, such as politics, psychology, reproductive rights, and cultural studies. 

EconLit
Citations and abstracts for articles in economics periodicals.

Ethnic NewsWatch
Full-text database of articles from the ethnic and minority press in the United States, 1960 to the present.

Hispanic American Periodical Index Online
Citations to information about Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States-Mexico border region and Latinos in the United States, going back to 1970.

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
Social sciences and related materials from over 100 countries

International Political Sciences Abstracts
Covers 1989 to the present. Indexes and abstracts articles in the field of political science (including the sub-fields of public administration, political theory and international relations) published in journals (and yearbooks) all over the world; to limit to articles about American politics, specify USA in the DESCRIPTOR field.

JSTOR
An archive of full-text articles from more than 320 scholarly journals on anthropology, economics, education, finance, history, philosophy, political science, population studies, sociology, statistics, etc., from each journal’s first issue up to 2 to 6 years ago.  Contains 10 political science journals, including American Journal of Political Science (1973-1998), American Political Science Review (1906-1996), Philosophy and Public Affairs (1971-1994), Political Science Quarterly (1886-1995), and World Politics (1948-1995). 

Kvinnsam
An international index to journal articles and essays in books dealing with all aspects of women, feminism, and gender studies.

LEXIS-NEXIS
Full-text of domestic and international newspapers as well as news transcripts and news wires.

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Services)
Citations and abstracts to public affairs information, such as political science, environment, international relations; international in coverage. Indexes books, government documents, periodicals, conference proceedings.

Project Muse
Full-text articles from more than 100 scholarly journals published by Johns Hopkins University Press in the humanities and social sciences.  Political science journals include Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Human Rights Quarterly, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Washington Quarterly, World Politics.

ProQuest Direct
An interdisciplinary database representing titles found in ABI/INFORM, Periodicals Abstracts, and Newspaper Abstracts, indexing from 1971 to the present, with full-text back to 1995.  Select "Research Library" to search scholarly journals.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers 
Contains full-text articles from the Chicago Tribune (from 1890),  LA Times (from 1881), New York Times (from 1851), Wall Street Journal (from 1889), and Washington Post (from 1877).  

Social Sciences Full Text
Abstracts for journal articles on anthropology, business, community health, economics, foreign affairs, geography, international relations, law and criminology, medical care, political science, politics, psychiatry, psychology, public welfare, social work, and sociology, 1983 to the present.

Social Sciences Citation Index Expanded
Cited references, bibliographic information, and abstracts, with some links to full-text articles, in various areas including anthropology, communication, criminology & penology, demography, economics, education, ethnic studies, health policy & services, industrial relations & labor, international relations, planning & development, political science, psychology, public administration, public health, social sciences, transportation, urban studies, and women's studies, 1973 to the present.  Useful for tracing which authors cited a given article or book.

Women's Studies International
Citations for articles on women's studies, gender studies, employment, family planning, feminism, feminist studies, feminist theory & history, gender, gender studies, international feminism, political/social activism, racial/ethnic studies, reproductive rights, sex discrimination, women’s studies, 1972 to the present.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Abstracts of books and articles from professional journals and major news magazines, devoted to North American and international politics, 1976 to the present; to find articles about American politics, specify UNITED STATES in the DESCRIPTOR field.

World News Connection
Full-text summaries and translations of newspaper articles from around the world, 1994 to the present

 

Other Full-Text Resources Online
Here are some of the databases available through the Columbia Library system which provide access to full-text resources like government bills, hearings and reports, statistics, etc.  They are all on the list of Databases on the Barnard Library home page.

The Almanac of American Politics
Provides a brief political history of each state and Congressional district in the U.S., with profiles of each of the incumbent Governors, Senators and Representatives.

Lexis-Nexis Congressional
U.S. Congressional materials: bills, laws, documents, hearing transcripts, committee prints, the Congressional Record, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Code, Statutes at Large.

CQ.com on Congress
A legislative tracking and news service for the U.S. Congress, including Congressional Quarterly.

FactSearch
Facts and statistics about current social, economic, environmental, and political issues, 1984 to the present.

 

Searching the Web

Google

Some other search engines to try: Hotbot, Alltheweb, Yahoo (which allows you to search for pages from a specific country), and always use the Advanced search option

Evaluating Web Pages and Web Sites

These pages have some useful and amusing tips on why and how to take a skeptical approach to material on the Web :

 

Useful Web Sites for Primary Sources
These Web pages include primary materials, or links to primary materials, like government documents, transcripts of speeches and interviews, letters and diaries:

American Memory Collections: Topics: Political Science and Law 
Library of Congress documents online relating to political science and law.

The Herbert H. Lehman Suite & Papers, Columbia University 
The Lehman Suite (International Affairs, Room 406) houses the personal and official papers of Governor Herbert H. Lehman, as well as fifteen related collections, which include primary materials on McCarthyism, African American history, social work, and women's history.

NARA (The National Archives and Records Administration) 
Links to historical and legislative documents online, including an online exhibit, Treasures of Congress; and a research guide to using archives, Getting Started.

Oral History Research Office, Columbia University  (Butler Library, Room 801)
This collection contains tapes and transcripts of interviews, with a focus on United States political and cultural history.

Source Documents in U.S. History 
This page from Duke University lists online documents for primary research.

UC Berkeley Primary Sources on the Web 
Provides a list of Websites containing primary source materials.

United States Constitution
Guide to historical texts, commentaries and judicial decisions online from the Law Library of Congress.

 

EndNote

EndNote bibliographic software is available for downloading, free of charge, to all current Barnard and Columbia students from the AcIS software server at http://www.columbia.edu/acis/software/endnote.

EndNote allows you to
  • search for citations in library catalogs and databases using the EndNote software, or export results into EndNote from remote catalogs and databases
  • store the citations in libraries you create within EndNote
  • search through the citations you have stored using keyword searches
  • cite them in papers and bibliographies using any citation format you choose using the EndNote "Cite While You Write" feature

Consult the page EndNote at Columbia for more details, the EndNote Manual (particularly Chapter 3) that is downloaded to your computer along with the program, and the online tipsheets that deal with specific topics.

Using EndNote to Find References and Use Them in a Paper

For each project, open an EndNote library where you will put your references.  The default location for saving libraries is C:\Program files\Endnote\

Searching CLIO from within EndNote

  • go to Tools - Connect - CLIO
  • search in Any Field, not Keywords
  • references are put in a buffer and then you are asked if you want to copy them to your library
  • to open up a reference, double-click on it
  • if a book or journal is available online, the URL is in the EndNote record and you can click on it.

 

Searching Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) from within EndNote
  • both EndNote and Web of Science are made by Thomson ISI, so they work well together
  • go to Tools - Connect - Web of Science SSCI (ISI)
  • search for your topic in Title/Keyword/Abstract
  • if the article is available online, the URL will be in the EndNote reference

 
Exporting Citations from ProQuest into EndNote
  • this is one of the few databases that is set up to export into EndNote, at the moment
  • search for articles in ProQuest and check the boxes to the left of those to be exported
  • click on "View Marked Articles" at the top, then on "Export Citations into EndNote, ProCite, RefWorks or Reference Manager" and "Export Directly to ProCite, EndNote or Reference Manager"
  • the EndNote “Select A Reference Library” dialog box will open up, and you can select the library you want to save to
    •

 

Using Cite While You Write

  • keep both EndNote and Word open while you work on your paper, and open the EndNote library you want to use
  • choose the style you need to use for the paper; go to Edit - Output Styles - Open Style Manager, check the box, and the style will be added to the short drop-down list of styles
  • the style used for political science and the other social sciences is the APA (American Psychological Association) style - for more information see the Bedford Handbook online by Diana Hacker
  • when you are ready to insert a citation into your paper, on the Word menu bar, use Tools - EndNote 7 - Find Citation (the EndNote tools are added to Word when you download EndNote)

Modified 9/21/04
Lois Coleman
Reference Librarian, Barnard College Library