Welcome! We are providing this site to assist you in exploring library resources on your topic. Our library is one of the largest in the United States and it can be very intimidating. We will try to make things a little easier for you, but you have to ask questions. It takes patience, curiosity, and a sense of adventure to use our resources and facilities so think of this page as a road map for your travels with us.
The processes involved in library research are those of discovery and location. We provide a wide variety of tools to help you discover the materials that exist on your topics. Once you have discovered the works that exist in this area we help you to locate the texts you need to learn more about the topic.
First, a few very basic suggestions:
come with a basic understanding of your topic
be flexible when you search for terms
be creative in your use of language
read voraciously
don't give up
We many departmental libraries on our campus. The libraries you will find most useful include the Education and Social Science Library, Reference, Research and Government Information Services, and the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library. All can be found in the Main Library building.
The process of discovering materials that are useful to your research involves the use of a variety of databases, traditional print materials and web sites. If you already have an article or book that deals with your topic you can use what we refer to as the citation pearl research process. Look at the cited references, the author, and/or the subject tracings of the work. Use these terms to search widely for more information. If you do not already have a work in hand, start with encyclopedias, reviews, or even your texts to discover these clues. All three of these should provide you with good leads.
Guides to Other Library Resources - Find tutorials and virtual guides to the materials best suited for your research in specific classes as well as to a variety of more general resources.
Access World
News - This is a great resource for current events. In addition to indexing and providing full
text for many local, regional, national, and international newspapers, you can find newswire
stories, broadcast transcripts, and current issues of the New York Times, Newsweek, and more.
Electronic
Newspapers - A large number of newspapers are available electronically through the Library
Gateway. This link will provide the entire list for you to choose from. They are both national and
international in origin.
Mideastwire Service - Offers
a daily email newsletter of concise, translated briefs covering some of the key political,
cultural, economic and opinion pieces appearing via the print, radio and television media of the 22
Arab countries, Iran and the Arab Diaspora.
Library PressDisplay - One of the most interesting newspaper
resources, this provides access to a large number of titles with digital facsimiles of the page you
are looking at. The database has images in most cases for the last sixty days.
One of your first tasks should be to find basic information about the country you are interested in working with. We have two excellent resources for this type of information, both of which are available online.
EIU - Economist Intelligence Unit- Country
Intelligence supplies in-depth analysis of current political, policy and economic trends with an 18
month outlook. Quarterly and annual statistics with at least 150 data points picked from the most
reliable sources and reviewed by analysts for over 195 countries. Country Intelligence
contains country reports and profiles, risk ratings, licensing and trading information for the new
economies, plus G-8 and regional forecasts.
Europa World Plus -
Combines the Europa World Yearbook and the Europa Regional Survey of the World in an online
resource. An absolutely fantastic site for country information including current news on elections,
recent events, and even allows you to compare statistics between countries of the world.
Political Risk Yearbook
- This wide-ranging resource provides information concerning political and business stability in
106 countries. A standard format provides information on each country including a country forecast
and a country review. Data sections are followed by entries providing comment and analysis,
forecast scenarios, a forecast data summary, players to watch and political players and parties.
The country overview provides basic data, a political overview of the people, history, government,
and political conditions. To access the resource, click on the link and enter "political
risk" into the search box. Look at the list provided and choose your country, and the type of
report you would like to have.
CIA World
Factbook
- Frequent updates - includes map, overview, politics, economics, population, and
more. Last section for entry usually includes "transnational issues" including internal
disputes.
Use the databases in your subject area to find the articles you want.
Online Research
Resources - Here is where you will find the electronic databases, journals, newspapers and
reference materials that the Library purchases. You can search by type of resource (index,
e-journal, reference work, etc.), by subject (select from the drop-down list), by exact title of
the resource in the search box provided, or by a word in the description of the resource.
If you are working from off-campus you can get into most of these resources by logging into the proxy server. Just select the database you need and you will be automatically prompted for your netid and login. These are the identifiers you use for your e-mail or to register for classes. If you are working from a campus computer you should be able to connect without identifying yourself.
WHICH DATABASES WILL WORK BEST FOR THIS CLASS?
CIAO (Columbia
International Affairs Online) - Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is designed to be
the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. It publishes a wide
range of scholarship from 1991-on that includes working papers from university research institutes,
occasional papers series from NGO's, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from
conferences.
EBSCO -
EBSCO online offers general, business, newspaper and health-related information. Provides
full text for over 1,250 journals covering the social sciences, humanities, general science,
multi-cultural studies, education, plus 960 journals covering business, management, economics,
finance, banking, accounting and selected full text articles from 143 U.S. and international
newspapers.
International Political Science
Abstracts - IPSA indexes and abstracts articles from periodicals published throughout the
world. The abstracts summarize the source articles. Coverage of the database is 1989 to the
present.
JSTOR - Includes the full-text of over
100 journals in the areas of African American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, ecology,
economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science,
population studies, sociology, and statistics. Most include full texts of complete journals from
their inception up to a “moving wall.” The moving wall is a fixed period of time ranging, in most
cases, from 2 to 5 years, that defines the gap between the most recently published issue and the
date of the most recent issues available in JSTOR.
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe -A comprehensive source for news, business, and
legal information, with full text and abstracts. Includes foreign news sources, major U.S.
newspapers, regional U.S. news services, radio and television transcripts, federal and state case
law, medical, legislative and industry news, annual reports from Securities and Exchange Commission
and many other sources. Newspapers are updated several times daily, and wire services hourly.
Use this site to access Congressional Universe as well.
P.A.I.S. (Public Affairs Information Service) - This
is a bibliographic index with abstracts covering the full range of political, social, and public
policy issues. Topics covered include economic, political, and social issues, business, finance,
law, international trade and relations, public administration, government, political science, and
any topics that are or might become the subject of legislation. The database covers selected
journal articles, books, statistics, yearbooks, directories, conference proceedings, pamphlets,
reports, government documents, and microfiche. More than 1,600 journals and over 8,000 monographs
are indexed each year. Coverage includes documents published worldwide in any of six languages:
English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The subject headings and abstracts are
in English. Covers 1915-present.
Worldwide
Political Science Abstracts - This database is built upon the merged backfiles of Political
Science Abstracts, published by IFI / Plenum, 1975-2000, and ABC POL SCI, published by ABC-CLIO,
1984-2000. The database provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials
literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations,
law, and public administration / policy.
Once you have discovered materials that are of use, you need to locate the text. As we mentioned earlier, some article exists in full-text on the databases and electronic journals we provide. You can find these by doing a search in the "Words in resource Name or Title of E-journals" search box. More often, however, you will need to find the article in paper form. To accomplish this part of the research task, you will need to use the catalog.
An additional function of the catalog is the discovery of books. Again, you will find it most helpful to have an author, a subject, or a specific title in mind when attempting to discover more materials using this resource.
ONLINE CATALOG - Our very
own list of holdings plus much more. Look here to find titles to books that you want to read,
titles of magazines or journals containing articles that you need, and the location of these
items. In addition to the over 11million volumes we have on this campus, you can connect to
over 70 libraries within the State of Illinois and request books be sent to you at a specific
library circulation desk.
WORLDCAT -
Still can't find it? Look here to see if it exists.
Search for books and articles related to your subject in a group of general resources.
Learn to
Use the Library - A great place to go for information about library orientation, research
assistance, the Library video network, FAQs, and tutorials
RefWorks - All the information you need to
start using the RefWorks bibliographic citation software.
My Library
Account - See what you have checked out and renew books.
Ask a
Librarian - You can use IM/Chat, email, phone, or SMS to get help with your research, or you
can call me - see my contact information at the top of the page
United Nations - As you
will see if you choose this link, the United Nations provides a wide variety of information about
itself and its constituent units. Choose any of the headings such as
Peace and Security,
Economic and Social Development,
Human Rights,
Humanitarian Affairs, or
International Law to find information in these distinct areas.
Most of these links provide a section on documents and research guides to help you learn more about
this organization and the work that it does.
AccessUN (1946-) - This is
an index to the UN microfich/microprint collection that includes documents, Official Records,
periodicals, periodical articles, and sales publications of the General Assembly, Security Council,
Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice and the
Secretariat.
United Nations Documents Index (UN.ST/LIB/Ser.N - Documents Library) - The main print index to the documents and publications of the UN and its subsidiary bodies. While you are using these in the Reference, Research, and Government Information Services library, ask the librarian about the changes that have occurred over the years if you are interested in pre-1998 items. While you are there, ask them about the Index to Proceedings of the General Assembly, Index to the Proceedings of the Security Council, Index to the Proceedings of the Trusteeship Council, and Index to the Proceedings of the Economic and Social Council.
UN-I-QUE - This is a
database created by the United Nations/Specialized Agencies Reference Desk of the Dag Hammarskjold
Library in response to frequently asked questions. It emphasizes access to special documents that
are sold by the UN.
Intergovernmental Organization Search Engine - A project supported by Stanford University and
Indiana University to provide access to the websites of 340 intergovernmental organizations.
Non-governmental Organization Search Engine - A similar project that searches the websites of
over 1,000 NGOs
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University LibraryFor comments on this page contact: Education and Social Science Library
Last modified by: Lynne Rudasill on 11/3/09