Political Science Guide

 
 
 

Subscription Databases

ABI Inform (some full-text in Business topics) - Go to the tab marked Advanced Search and click there to begin. Notice that in the Recent Search link (located to the upper right of the Advanced Search form after you have done at least two searches) you can combine searches you've already completed earlier in the same session. Notice also that your search results are divided by tabs into articles from Scholarly Journals, Magazines, Trade Publications, and Newspapers. Items you place in your Marked List can be printed, emailed or exported to citation management software. You may also format Marked List items, selecting from MLA, APA, Turabian or AMA.

Annual Reviews (some full-text) Most titles go back to 1995 only. Fill pull-down boxes with Boolean search terms, selecting the fields you want to search. You may limit by searching a particular title in the scroll box under Publications. To the right of your search results you have the option to Search Within Results, Save Search or receive an e-mail alert when new articles match your search.

Associations Unlimited (full-text) - Find organizations, worldwide, dedicated to any topic or field of interest. Use the Expert Search, which is located on the left menu bar. Above the Expert Search area, note that you can limit your search to National, International, Regional and IRS Exempt organizations. From your search results list, you may add up to 55 organizations to a "Keeper List." This is a list of organizations of interest to you. Once you log out of Associations Unlimited your Keeper List is deleted. You may also create unlimited mailing labels in this database, to facilitate your contact with the organizations you select.

Cambridge University Press Journals (mostly full-text) - The link at left will take you to the "Advanced Search" screen. If you do not want to do an Advanced Search you can use the simple search box in the upper right corner of the screen. If you want to use the Advanced Search, you probably want to set Journals to "All Journals" and Subjects to "All Catagories." Restrict search to specific article type is probably the best part of the Advanced Search. If you do not want book reviews, you can limit your search to articles only by holding down the control key and clicking to highlight only the article types you want.

Congressional Universe (full-text) - Search the Code of Federal Regulation, the Federal Register, testimony from Congressional Hearings, the U.S. Code, the Congressional Record, committee rosters, bill tracking, voting records for members of Congress on key bills, and a special feature called Inside Washington.

CQ Historical Documents Series Online (full-text) Thirty-two volumes of primary sources and growing. Each volume includes approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of the year. These documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions.

Credo Reference - (full-text) Tremendous number of full-text reference volumes with many unique search options. Browse by topic, use a concept map, or an advanced search. You can also rank search results by relevancy, by results with still and moving images, and by those with sound files.

Dolley Madison Digital Edition Letters 1788 - 1836 (full-text) Searchable archive of letters to and from Dolley Madison, the fourth First Lady of the United States.

Expanded Academic Index (some full-text) - After you click on the link at left, you will go to a list of databases at Gale. Scroll down and click on Expanded Academic for a second time. If you want to search for full-text articles only, be sure to look below the yellow box and find the words Limit the current search (optional). Here you will find a small square next to the words, "to articles with text." Place a check in that square and the system will find only full-text articles for you.

Factiva - (full-text) First, you have to remember to use Internet Explorer (not Netscape) to get into Factiva. Netscape will not work. On the first screen of Factiva, ignore everything before the words Free Text, which will be on the blue/grey bar. Type your search terms in the text box by the words Free Text.

Important: The default search on Factiva is a phrase search. If you want to do a Boolean AND search, you must type the word "and."

Click on Run Search. Select an item from your list of search results. To return to your list of search results DO NOT CLICK THE BACK BUTTON. Instead, look on the upper right side of the screen. Just above the top, right corner of your article you will see the words Return to Headlines in blue. Click there to return to your list of search results. (On an Apple computer, Return to Headlines may be located on the upper left.)

If you find an article that is perfect for your research, scroll to the bottom of that article and click "More Like This," which you will see in grey letters on the lower left. This will bring a new search results list of articles similar to the one that was perfect for your topic. Factiva offers online tutorials that will help you use their powerful, but complicated, search interface here.

Gale Virtual Reference Library - (full-text) Electronic version of West's Encyclopedia of American Law. This database also includes presidential inaugural speeches and many academic reference publications. Some documents includes images. By using the Advanced Search feature you can limit your search to documents with images.

Lexis-Nexis Company Profiles (full-text) - Find top officers, annual revenue and other facts about international companies.

Lexis-Nexis Congressional Publications (full-text) - Find congressional materials by searching abstracts, titles, indexing information and other bibliographic data. You can also search by publication number.

Lexis-Nexis Country Profiles (full-text) - Research business opportunities, economic and political news in foreign countries.

Oxford Reference Online Premium (full-text) Great quick reference for defining concepts, word translations, country flags and timelines in a wide variety of studies. Just plug your search term into the Quick Search. An Advanced Search is also available.

Oxford University Press (full-text from 1996) - OUP Makes you work before you can search! On the first screen of OUP, scroll to the bottom and see where it says Sort By on the lower right side. Set the radio button to Newest First. Notice also that you can limit your search to just one journal or to one subject area in the middle of the search screen. After you do a search, and select an article from your search results screen, in most cases a PDF will open in a window on the left side of the screen. You can return to your search results by clicking the back button or by clicking the blue button labeled Search Result on the right side of the frame.

Project Muse (full-text) Click on Search. Use the Advanced Search to limit to specific journals and to use Boolean Operators. When your search results screen appears, you click on the title of the article to see it in HTML. If you prefer a PDF version, click on the small words, "View in PDF" which appear to the right of the title of the article.

Wilson Web (some full-text) - The Advanced Search screen automatically loads. If you do no know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques. The blue Start button is on the right. Below the Start button, notice the option to Limit to Full Text. You may also use Subject Area, to limit your search to a particular area if you get too many results by searching ALL.

FirstSearch (citation only) - Enter your search terms in the "Search For" field. Then select a database to search. You can only search one database at a time. For that reason, it is better to use the scroll box to select a Database rather than a Topic. Use Jump to Advanced Search if you need to search on more than one keyword at once. To order an Interlibrary Loan from any of the FirstSearch databases, scroll down to the middle of the record for the item you wish to order and click the link next to this image: ILL.

Online Journals

Journal Finder is a list of all of the journals SBC has in full text through database subscriptions. Type in your journal title and the finder will locate the journal you need. For more journal subscriptions that are in print or on microform, connect to LION to check the SBC Library catalog for holdings information on the journals you need. If the journal is NOT held by the SBC Library, request the articles you need on Interlibrary Loan. The form is here.

Books in the Sweet Briar College Library

To find books on your topic, connect to LION and use the Subject Keyword search field. We can order books on Interlibrary Loan (ILL) from all area libraries. Please check LION before requesting an ILL book. If we have the book on campus your ILL request will not be filled. Check both LION and Journal Finder before requesting an ILL journal article. If the article is on campus or is available to you electronically through Journal Finder your ILL request will not be filled.

RefWorks

RefWorks is a database that organizes your "works cited" to create quick bibliographies for your papers. It allows you to change your entire bibliography from APA to MLA style (or many other styles) in a snap, without fussing with formats or punctuation.

Just go to RefWorks. The first time you go there you will have to "Sign up for an individual account." Once you sign up and login, click on the References tab in the upper left corner of the screen.

On the drop-down menu tool bar choose "Add New Reference." On the following screen, start by selecting your prefered bibliographic style (e.g. APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.) Then designate the type of reference you are entering (e.g. journal, book or dissertation, etc.) under Ref Type. Field names marked with a red asterisk indicate required information needed to produce an accurate bibliography for the selected output style and reference type. Click "Save" when finished.

You can Import references from selected databases. Importing allows you to bring in multiple references at one time. Check the RefWorks list of Supported Databases to see which products will allow you to export multiple references to RefWorks.

If you have any problems using RefWorks you can check out their helpful online tutorials or download the SBC Library RefWorks Handout. Please call a librarian at x6307, x6306 or x6315 for a one-on-one training session.

U.S Government On the Web

If you have comments, questions, or would like to add a site, write to me.
Lisa N. Johnston (email: lnjohnston at sbc dot edu), Associate Director/ Head of Public Services, Sweet Briar College LibraryRevised 1/08

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
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