Politics and Government Research Guide For help with your research, visit the reference desk (hours) on the second floor of Barnard Library, or contact a Barnard reference librarian:        Phone: 212-854-3953        Chat: IM BarnardReference        E-mail: refdesk@barnard.edu Request a one-on-one consultation with a Barnard librarian if you have an in-depth research need. Databases  |  Reference Works Web Resources: New York | National | International | Women and U.S. Politics Guide Columbia Subject Guides Major Databases CIAO : Columbia international affairs online -- working papers, conference proceedings, journals, books, a schedule of events, and links and resources. CQ.com on Congress -- a legislative tracking and news service from Congressional Quarterly. CQ Homeland Security --  a one-stop intelligence service for up-to-date and comprehensive homeland security information. Declassified Documents Reference System - U.S. -- full text of declassified U.S. government documents. Gender Studies Database -- citations for materials on women's studies, gender studies, feminist theory and criticism, from 1972 to the present.  International Bibliography of the Social Sciences -- citations for publications related to the social sciences. International Political Science Abstracts -- citations and abstracts for political science articles in journals and yearbooks published worldwide. Jane's Online Research -- the leading source for defense and military information. JSTOR -- full text articles from scholarly journals, excluding the most recent 3-5 years. Search title or full text - there are almost no abstracts.  Left Index -- citations, abstracts and some full-text to the literature politically on the left. LexisNexis Congressional -- indexes and abstracts for U.S. Congressional materials.  The Nation Digital Archive -- searchable full text and page images of a major U.S. journal of left/liberal opinion, 1865-1999. PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service --  citations and abstracts for publications related to public affairs. Polling the Nations -- poll/survey questions and responses. ProQuest Direct -- journal articles and citations, as well as the full text of the New York Times from 1857 to the present.  For historical materials or primary documents, click on "Databases selected" then select "Historical Databases."  Worldwide Political Science Abstracts -- citations and abstracts articles in political science journals.

Major Reference Works  available in Barnard Library Reference Area Title  The Almanac of American Politics -- political profiles for the U.S. CountryWatch -- up-to-date news, data, background briefings, & analysis on every country of the world.  Europa world plus -- Economic, political, historical, and geographic profiles of 250+ countries and global regions.   Web Resources New York New York City City of New York Home Page League of Women Voters, New York City a nonpartisan organization whose purpose is to promote informed and active citizen participation in government Public Advocate for New York City Read the Public Advocate's investigations and press releases. New York State Legal Information Institute from Cornell Law School New York State The state web site with the governor's press releases, links to government agencies, and much more. New York State has a lot of material available on the web; this site is a good starting point when looking for New York government information and current documents. New York State Assembly New York State Senate New York State Board of Elections is "a bipartisan agency vested with the responsibility for administration and enforcement of all laws relating to elections in New York State." The site provides information about voting, election law,  results, and district maps and representatives.  National Federal Elections | Executive | Legislative | Judicial | Other (non-governmental) Federal Elections U.S. Electoral College from the National Archives and Records Administration. This site has the 2000 electoral college results and the popular votes by state. It also has past electoral results by state, from 1789-1996, as well as general information about the Electoral College. Executive Branch Official US Executive Branch Web Sites has connections to the home pages of the White House, Executive Branch Agencies, and Independent Government Agencies. The White House includes information about the White House and the text of published remarks by the president, press briefings, and some statistics. Legislative Branch U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Senate A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation : U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1873 contains the full-text of published congressional records of the United States of America from the Continental Congress through the Forty-second Congress. From the Library of Congress' American Memory project. THOMAS, from the Library of Congress, provides links to the full text of legislation (going back to 93rd Congress, 1973-1974) and the Congressional Record (beginning with the 101st Congress, 1989-1990). In addition the web site provides the text to Public Laws and committee information  Judicial Branch Supreme Court of the United States provides Court information to the bar, the public, and the news media. FindLaw is a browsable and searchable archive of U.S. Supreme Court Court opinions from 1937 to the present. The FindLaw main page provides access to a variety of legal sources and information. U.S. Supreme Court Decisions from 1937 through 1975. Search over 7,000 cases either by case name or keyword. Other Sites (non-governmental) The Budget of the United States Government -- budget documents and spreadsheets for the U.S. government. Center for Responsive Politics " is a non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C. that specializes in the study of Congress and particularly the role that money plays in its elections and actions. The Center conducts computer-based research on campaign finance issues for the news media, academics, activists, and other interested observers of Congress."  CRP provides access to its databases, such as the PAC Database, the Incumbent Campaign Finance Profiles, and the Interest Group Categories Database. FedStats -- statistics in all subjects from U.S. Government agencies. Free-Market.Net  Sponsored by The Henry Hazlitt Foundation,    Free-Market.Net is a "comprehensive online database and virtual community for the international pro-freedom movement. It is designed to help libertarian advocates communicate online, and thereby help spread the ideas of liberty to every corner of the globe." Provides a very flexible search engine and easy-to-use directory to find information on the Web with a libertarian viewpoint. Links to  42 partners' and 285 members' home pages, plus thinks-tanks and clubs.  Jurist : The Legal Education Network is an academic gateway to authoritative legal instruction, information and scholarship online. Use Jurist to obtain up-to-date legal news on over 60 topics and search federal caselaw and legislation, among other things. A team of law professors (national and international) edit the site; it is directed by Professor Bernard J. Hibbitts, University of Pittsburgh School of Law. National Election Studies produces "high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation that serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, and policy makers..." This site links to the NES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior, which provides "immediate access to tables and graphs that display the ebb and flow of public opinion and electoral behavior and choice in American politics since 1952. The Guide presents responses to a small portion of the questions that have been asked in the 1952-1996 National Election Studies." The NES web page also links to other resources for studies and data. National Political Index The National Political Index "provides an index of substantive political information for voters, political activists, political consultants, lobbyists, politicians, academicians, and media editors with a wide range of products, information, services, simulations, games, and polling in an interactive communications environment."  This site links to approximately 3,500 political web sites.  The sites are arranged by topic. Newseum   Website of the interactive museum of news, located on Madison Avenue, which explores the history of news, showcases award-winning photojournalism, and examines the media's coverage of historic and current events.  Click on Cyber Newseum for online exhibits. International Politics and Government General | Governments on the Web | Human Rights General Department of State has speeches, publications and major reports, country reports on human rights practices, and other full-text documents. Foreign Affairs Online focuses on International Relations, International Law and U.S. Foreign Policy.  The site provides links to a large number of NGOs, official and non-official web sites of foreign governments, a number of think tanks, etc. The site loads VERY slowly. Lehman Library's General International Affairs Resources. This subject guide lists both restricted sites and web sites for researching International Affairs. A good starting place if you don't want to be overwhelmed with possible resources. Political Science Resources on the Web is a mega-site for national and international political science. From the University of Michigan's Documents Center. United Nations provides information about the U.N. and links to other U.N. System Organizations and non-U.N. International Organizations. US Census International Data Base allows the user to select one of 26 demographic, ethnic, and economic variables and any or all of the countries in the world and receive a table for that variable. Women in Politics Bibliographic Database contains bibliographic references to books and articles dealing with women in politics. The International-Parliamentary Union's, with the contribution of the United Nations Development Programme, is responsible for the database. The database allows for searching by type of document, geographic location, organization, subject, author, and periodical, year of publication, and language, as well as searching free-text. Governments on the Web Governments on the WWW is a "Comprehensive database of governmental institutions on the World Wide Web: parliaments, ministries, offices, law courts, embassies, city councils, public broadcasting corporations, central banks, multi-governmental institutions etc. Includes also political parties. Online since June 1995." International Constitutional Law provides the constitutions of a huge number of countries. International Documents provides pointer pages to over 60 country government pages and nearly 100 International Government Organizations (IGOs). Created and maintained at the Northwestern University Library's Government Publications & Maps Department.  Human Rights Human and Constitutional Rights from the Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School.  The site is divided into the following sections: Hot Topics, Country Reports International Links, Regional Links, National Links, Documents, Web Resources. Human Rights Library from the University of Minnesota. Treaties, U.S. Human Rights documents, U.N. documents, refugee and asylum resources, etc. This web site has a search function for its own web site and other human rights sites. Human Rights Watch acts as a clearinghouse of information for those interested in health, law, literary freedom, medicine, and war crimes. All institutional participants are independent, nongovernmental, non-partisan organizations. Other Subject Guides See also the Columbia University U.S. Government Documents page of links and resources. See also Women and U.S. Politics Guide   Return to Subject Guides list Updated 03/19/2008  Jenna Freedman, Reference Librarian

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