INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Political Science 281 - Section TA

Spring 2009

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT LIBRARY RESOURCES? CONTACT:

Lynne Rudasill - rudasill@uiuc.edu
Office Hours:
Education and Social Science Library - 100 Main Library - Monday - 11-12 (244-1868)
Center for Global Studies - 306 International Studies Bldg. - Thursday - 4-5 (265-6879)
Other times by appointment

THE BASICS

The University Library is one of the largest in the United States. We own over 10 million titles and subscribe to thousands of electronic resources as well. There are people here who can assist you with your research. First and foremost - ask questions of us! There is always some confusion about which resources will be most useful, as well as where they can be found. This points to the two functions of library research - discovery and location. Although we can't read the material for you, we can certainly help you find it.

DISCOVERY

You first need to discover if there are materials available to support your research. Use the Online Catalog and the Article Databases, as well as readings from your class to discover what is out there. Sometimes, you will be able to locate the materials you need in the same step, especially if you are using databases that contain full-text documents.

Current Awareness

bullet 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.

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.

bullet 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.

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.

Policy and analysis

Beyond current awareness, you might want to search some databases that provide policy analysis and assessment. Try the following:

bullet Historical Abstracts - Identifies international articles and books on history since 1450, excluding the U.S. and Canada. Includes topics from the Renaissance to Tiananmen Square. A targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities is also provided. America History and Life is a companion database that covers articles about the United States and its history.

bullet Historical Newspapers - A large number of resources are listed here. The most helpful may be the New York Times - 1851-2001 - Historical coverage of events by the US "Newspaper of Record, offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

bullet 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.  

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 1972-present. 

  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. 

bullet  Worldwide Political Science Abstracts - This 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. 

Country Surveys

bullet  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.

bullett   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.

bullet Political Risk Yearbook - To access this title, click on the link provided here and type Political Risk into the search box. You can also type in the name of the country you are interested in reading about. 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.

open access CIA World Factbook - Frequent updates - includes map, overview, politics, economics, population, and more. Last section for entry usually includes "transnational issues" including internal disputes.

INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Before we explore the resources, we should define what we are looking at here. For the purpose of this page at least, we will define intergovernmental organizations (IOs) as bodies that promote voluntary cooperation in an among their members, or coordination between these members. The membership is comprised of sovereign states and these states remain autonomous. That is, the organization has neither the power nor the authority to impose its decisions on the member states. Examples of these are listed below.

blbullet 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 reseach guides to help you learn more about this organization and the work that it does.

blbullet AccessUN (1946-) - This is an index to the UN microfice/microprint collection that includes documents, Official Records, periodicals, periodical articles, and sales publications of the General Assemby, 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 Documents Library, ask the reference librarian about the changes that have occured 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.

blbullet 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.

blbullet Intergovernmental Organization Search Engine - A project supported by Stanford University and Indiana University to provide access to the websites of 340 intergovernmental organizations.

blbullet Non-governmental Organization Search Engine - A similar project that searches the websites of over 1,000 NGOs.

blbullet FOCUSS - A really neat mashup providing access to a huge amount of development organizations and information.

LOCATION

Since every information source is not yet online in full text, you will want to ensure that you can locate your items. The Online Catalog will tell you where a book or journal is in the physical space of the library. The catalog not only tells you where to look, but also whether the item is charged out to someone else. If you can't get the material you want on campus, click the ILSCO Libraries button to see where else it might be in the State of Illinois. If you still can't find the item, use the database WorldCat. In the last two instances you can generate an interlibrary loan from the same interface. Give the item a week or ten days to show up.

If you are looking for a specific newspaper or journal title, use the Online Research Resources page to search for the electronic version of materials. The ORR is also a great place to look for other resources in various disciplines. For this class, you can look at the resources listed under the subjects "Government" and "Political Science."