Introduction
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.
General Information
Useful Databases | Country Information | Reports | Useful Websites
Thinking About Your Resources
It has become really easy for you to find a lot of information, whether you are using Google or any other search engine. But once you find it, what happens next? You have to decide whether it is useful, authoritative, and appropriate for your purposes. The most difficult part is usually deciding how authoritative the information is and how useful it is for you. We have created a brief introduction to assessing what you find HERE.
Article Locator: Looking for a specific article or journal? Do you have a citation? Try the article locator.
Online Journals and Databases: Looking for a specific database or journal? Would you like to browse databases and journals by subject? Try the Online Journals and Databases. Also, if you have a specific citation, enter it in the CitationLinker.
Useful Databases
These will lead you to scholarly journal articles on your subject, and often to other materials as well.
GEOBASE: GEOBASE is a database of research on geology, human and physical geography, environmental sciences, oceanography, geomechanics, alternative energy sources, pollution, waste management and nature conservation.
Global Health and CAB Abstracts: CABI Global Health and CAB Abstracts identifies scientific resources within the applied health sciences fields including biomedical life sciences, public health, health promotion, public health emergencies, epidemiology and biostatistics, environmental and occupational health, nutrition and food sciences, infectious diseases and parasitology, tropical and international health, diagnosis and therapy of disease and health systems.
Historical Abstracts – 1955 to present
Historical Abstracts covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present in over 40 languages with publications starting in 1955. Historical Abstracts started a project in 2006 to extend coverage through the late 1800s.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) – 1951 to present
IBSS provides comprehensive international coverage in 100 languages and countries identifying journal articles, books, reviews and selected chapters of works on economics, political science, sociology and anthropology.
JSTOR – dates vary
JSTOR identifies publications, research and content across disciplines. The dates of the materials found here go back to the very first publication date for any given title, but the most current articles will be no more than 3 – 5 years old due to the “moving wall” of coverage.
PAIS (Public Affairs Information Services) – 1915 to present
PAIS identifies articles, books, websites, statistics, yearbooks, directories, conference proceedings, pamphlets, reports, government documents, and microfiche on political, social, public policy issues from 1915 – present.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts – 1976 to present
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts identifies citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science, international relations, law, and public administration and policy.
Country Information
These items will provide you with basic information about the countries of the world including some social and economic statistics.
CIA World Factbook – current information
Provided by the U.S. government this resource provides current information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.
Europa World Plus – dates vary
This resource expands upon the factual information available from the CIA World Factbook and includes a breakdown of government offices, publishers, broadcast and print media, and other details in addition to statistics on the economy.
EIU Country Intelligence – frequent updates
Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Intelligence provides users with reports and analysis about political, business and economic issues by country, category and subject including risk ratings, licensing and trading information for the new economies, plus G-8 and regional forecasts. Users also have access to the Business Middle East online newsletter.
Political Handbook of the World – from 2005 electronically and in print from 1928 (Call No. 328 P759)
Lots of factual information and some analysis on a country-by-country and issues basis.
Reports
These resources although usually written by experts in the field, are not necessarily considered “scholarly publications” but can provide a lot of great information.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online): CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) includes comprehensive information on international affairs and policy studies from sources such as books, journals, policy briefs, the working papers of university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences.
CQ Researcher: CQ Researcher includes topic reports on global affairs issues from international viewpoints that users can search or browse for in order to learn more about that topic and find additional related resources.
OECD iLibrary: OECD iLibrary allows users to either search or browse for information in books, papers, statistics, fact books or glossaries on global studies topics.
Statistical Universe: Statistical Universe identifies statistical information and reports. Users can search and browse summaries, abstracts, tables, PDFs and other editions of reports.
Other Useful Resources
Listed here are a variety of newspapers and websites that might be useful for your topic.
Access World News: Access World News offers news from around the world in English from 1977 – present. Sources include articles from Newspapers, newswires, transcripts, online news, blogs, journals, college and university newspapers, videos and newsletters.
Nexis Uni: Nexis Uni identifies full text publications for users wanting to search news, US and international law, company profiles and SEC filings, countries or public figures or a combination of these.
United Nations Statistics Division: Collects and analyzes data from around the world.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): Works to make life better for children around the world.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): Researches the environment and promotes “green” environmental practices.
UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): Works to protect refugees and solve refugee problems around the world.
World Health Organization (WHO): A division of the UN providing leadership on global health matters.
World Bank: Collects knowledge to reduce poverty and support development.
International Monetary Fund: The IMF is mad cup of 187 countries. It works to assist economic cooperation, reduce poverty, promote growth and facilitate trade and economic stability.
European Commission Eurostat: The statistics division of the European Commission