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    Academic Universe    Congressional Universe    Statistical Universe    GPO Access

    Pathfinder for Research in American Politics

    Finding General Information about American Politics Using the World Wide Web S

    U.S. Constitution page has the annotated full text of the Constitution with links to other full-text sources such as The Federalist Papers.

    American Government Resource Guide. is a course-specific guide to comprehensive sources in both traditional (paper) and electronic resources that consist mostly of WWW links.

    History Research Guide is an excellent resource for information on library resources in History, which includes Politics. To find, connect to the Library's Reference & Instruction Page: (Click on "Research Guides", then scroll down to the suject History and click.

    Finding Information on Members of Congress Using the World Wide Web

    Project Vote Smart Input your zip code and find out who your representatives are. This site even links to the US Postal Service zip code lookup site if you don't know the zip. Also finds members by state and name. This site returns information on both federal and state elected officials. It also gives biographical, contact and officials' response to their questionnaire on certain issues.

    U.S. Congress Web Page The web page of Congress provides links to many resources including member pages, committee pages, and addresses and email addresses of members. For finacial information on members of Congress and PACs (Political Action Committees) there are two useful sites.

    FecInfo is a non-partisan site from the Center for Responsive Politics that compiles campaign finance information from the Federal Elections Commission. It also contains information on PACs.

    Federal Election Commission is the official US Government Website for campaign finance oversight. It contains finance information for the Presidential and Congressional candidates, and PACs.

    Finding Information on Legislation Using the World Wide Web

    Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) This is a full-text database consisting of millions of articles covering the fields of business, law and legislation, and general news. Nexis consists of more than 650 full-text information sources such as newspaper articles, journals, newsletters, wire services, and broadcast transcripts, which are updated as often as daily. Lexis is primarily a legal-resource database, which contains primary sources such as cases, statutes, and regulations as well as secondary materials such as law review articles etc. There are restrictions on its use, and you must display a Claremont Colleges ID and sign up to use it. There are terminals available in the Reference, Government Publications, and Asian Studies departments. You may also Telnet through the Library Services Menu.


    Thomas (House of Representatives through Library of Congress). Includes: Bill Text, Congressional Record Text, Bill Summary & Status, Hot Bills, now called "Congress This Week" and "Major Legislation"), the Congressional Record Index, and the Constitution (now found, along with other historical Congressional documents, under the "Historical Documents" category on the THOMAS home page). Enhancements in the types of legislative data available, as well as in search and display capabilities, have been continuously added.

    Finding Statistical Information on American Politics

    Statistical Universe is a guide to U.S. Government Statistics that has replaced Statistical Masterfile. This resource is available only to users on the Claremont Colleges network. Statistical Universe connects to full-text information such as that found in Statistical Abstract of the United States. This database requires a password which you must obtain from the Government Publications Reference Desk.

    STAT-USA is a database which provides access to economic and trade statistics from the U.S. Government. It has information from several branches of government, and requires a password which may be obtains from the Government Publications Reference Desk.

    National Election Studies is a site which offers data on voting, public opinion, and political participation that serves the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, and policy makers concerned with understanding the theoretical and empirical foundations of mass politics in a democratic society.


    Guides to Citing Government Information


    Brief Guide to Citing Government Information A site which provides guides to citing government information, both in traditional and electronic format.

    Basic Legal Citation A site which provides guides to citing legal sources, both in traditional and electronic format.

    To Find Books and Articles Using The Library Catalog and Electronic Database Indexes

    Blais To locate books, search Blais,, the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges online catalog.The on-line catalog, is now available to students at the Honnold/Mudd Library using the World Wide Web Interface. Each citation found in footnotes, indexed, bibliographies, the card catalog, or the on-line catalog contains information that can be used by Blais to lead you to other sources. Expand such pieces of information by using them as "subject headings," authors' names or call number locations to help you find other sources that are grouped together. Then use these pieces of information to begin a "new" search in the card catalog, on Blais, or to "browse the shelf" in a particular call number location. Think of it as computerized free association, linked to concrete research data and information.

    Books can be searched by author, title, or subject. If you are unsure of the exact title or if your subject search doesn't produce the results you hoped for, try a "Words in title" search using two or three of the most significant words from the title or subject you are trying to find.

    Subject searching requires use of Library of Congress Subject Headings. Here are some typical subject headings in Government. The Government Publications department has a handout with directions on its use. Current, incoming U.S. documents are catalogued in Blais and older holdings will be added soon. Few California State documents are in Blais. Other databases and indexes must be used to access them. For further information on computer databases, see the handout on computer databases or consult a reference librarian.

    Selected Subject Headings in Government

    Affirmative Action
    Civil Rights
    Constitution - United States
    Constitutional Law - United States
    Ethnic Groups
    Human Rights
    Race
    Representative Government and Representation
    United States
    United States Constitution
    United States - 14th Amendment
    United States Race Relations
    United States Supreme Court

    Finding General and Popular Articles Using Database Indexes

    Use the following interdisciplinary print and CDROM indexes to find articles and other materials on specific topics. Many items are located solely in the libraries; some are available solely in print. Some electronic links are available only to staff, students, and faculty of the Claremont Colleges. All print items, unless otherwise noted, are in Honnold/Mudd. For questions, please do not hesitate to call Mary Martin, Government Publications and International Relations, at extension x18923.

    Firstsearch One can also telnet through the Library Services Menu. This database is a menu driven reference service consisting of dozens of databases, including the OCLC union catalog WorldCat. WorldCat contains more than 25 million bibliographic records, representing holdings of more than 9000 libraries. First Search can also be used to search approximately 2 dozen periodical and other reference databases. See category 11; News and Current Events, or 12, Public Affairs and Law.

    Newspaper Abstracts Includes citations from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal as well as many other newspapers. On FirstSearch, and as a telnet connection through the Library Services Menu.

    Pais Index to public policy and social issues, information in a wide range of subjects. Contains selected citations to journal articles, books, government documents and reports. Also indexes foreign language publications. Library has paper and electronic sources, although limited coverage in electronic format. Available on Ovid.

    Wilson Social Sciences Abstracts General scholarly index. On Ovid back to 1984; available also as Telnet connection through the Library Services Menu and in paper back to 1974; preceded by The International Index to Periodicals and The Social Science and Humanities Index, both located in the Honnold/Mudd Index Room.

    Wilson's Reader's Guide Abstracts to Periodical Literature General, multi-disciplinary index. Contains records for general and popular articles in all subjects. On OVID back to 1983; available also as telnet connection through the Library Services Menu and in paper back to the turn of the century, Honnold/Mudd Index Room/Table 1. Preceded by 19th Century Readers Guide covering 1890-1899, and Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, covering 1802-1906, also Honnold Index Room/Table 1.

    MM 2/23/98

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