The Trexler Library: Muhlenberg College

Introduction to Comparative Government and International Relations

Need help with your research? Contact:

Jen Jarson
Social Sciences Reference Librarian
phone: x3552
email: jarson [at] muhlenberg [dot] edu
IM: jjarson1 (AIM, Yahoo, add @hotmail.com for MSN)

Bibliographic Essay

See information in course syllabus.

What Is a Bibliographic Essay? (University of Northern Iowa)
http://www.uni.edu/~drbill/professional/teaching/dr/assignments/bibliographic_essays.pdf

Selected Reference Materials

REFERENCE BOOKS AND WEBSITES

CIA World Factbook
Online Location: https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

Credo Reference
Online Location: http://0-www.credoreference.com.library.muhlenberg.edu/ or search the library catalog by title.
Credo Reference is a collection of hundreds of reference works, including general and subject specific dictionaries, encyclopedias, guides, companions and more--all online, all searchable from one search box.

The Europa World Year Book
Online Location: http://0-www.europaworld.com.library.muhlenberg.edu/ or search the library catalog by title

Political Handbook of the World
Online Location: http://0-library.cqpress.com.library.muhlenberg.edu/phw/ or search the library catalog by title

US Department of State: Background Notes
Online Location: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn

LIBRARY NEWS DATABASES

LexisNexis Academic
Full text of thousands of newspapers, magazines, broadcast transcripts, business publications, legal materials, and more.
Access: Library Homepage -- Databases A to Z -- LexisNexis Academic

OTHER WEBSITES: Governments and International Organizations

United Nations
http://www.un.org/english/

International Monetary Fund
http://www.imf.org/

International Court of Justice
http://www.icj-cij.org/

The World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org/

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
http://www.aseansec.org

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)
http://www.ecowas.int/

European Union Online
http://europa.eu.int/

The Organization of American States
http://www.oas.org/

OTHER WEBSITES: Metasites

Foreign Affairs Online
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjb3v/rjb.html
Includes annotated links to the following topics: US Government, Foreign States, UN, NGOs & IGOs, International Law, Human Rights, International Realations, Think Tanks and the Digital Divide.

WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
http://www.etown.edu/vl/
Compiled by a professor of International Studies at Elizabethtown College, this gateway site is organized into helpful categories. It contains a great depth of high quality information and it has been reviewed and highly ranked by several respected Social Science sources.

Political Resources on the Net
http://www.politicalresources.net/
Organized geographically, this site asks you to choose a region, then a country to research its politics. This arrangement makes it easy to compare to countries within a region, or to compare two regions against one another.

Finding Books

TREXLER LIBRARY

Search the Trexler Library Catalog to find out what books, government publications, journals, videos, etc. the library owns.

GETTING THERE: Use the shortcut search box on the Library Homepage or Library Homepage -- Library Catalogs (in the Quick Links box) -- Trexler Library Catalog

OTHER LIBRARIES

To find books held by other libraries, search WorldCat, a database of over 60 million library records from around the country and world. Use the ILL button to request a book from another library. (ILL can take 10-14 days.)

GETTING THERE: Library Homepage -- Library Catalogs (in Quick Links box) -- Other Library Catalogs -- WorldCat

Finding Articles: Databases & Indexes

SEARCHING FOR ARTICLES

See a list of all databases via the Library Homepage -- Databases A to Z (in the Quick Links box).

International Relations & Comparative Politics Databases

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
Full text of working papers, policy briefs, conference proceedings, journal articles and more in the area of international affairs theory and research.

PAIS International
Citations from 1972 to the present from scholarly journals, gray literature, government publications, and more from 120 countries on political, economic, social and public policy issues.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Indexes international serials literature in political science and complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy.

General / Interdisciplinary Databases

Academic Search Premier
Large and diverse database that covers most academic disciplines, including Political Science. Contains both scholarly and non-academic resources. Includes many articles in full text.

JSTOR
Full text of scholarly journals from most academic disciplines. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years ago.

Omnifile (Wilson Web)
A database with some full text articles covering various academic subjects including general sciences, humanities, social sciences, and business.

News

LexisNexis Academic
Full text of thousands of newspapers, magazines, broadcast transcripts, business publications, legal materials, and more.

GETTING THE ARTICLES

When searching for articles in library databases, you may find the full-text of an article linked in the database.
If not, you need to search the Trexler Library Catalog to see if we own the journal in which the article is published.
- Most databases have a Get It! link embedded. Click the link to check our holdings.
- Otherwise, search the catalog by journal title or by ISSN. Verify that we have online, print, or microform access to the year/volume you need.
If we do not own the journal you need, request the article via Interlibrary Loan.
- Some databases have a Request on Interlibrary Loan link embedded. Click the link to fill out the form. Click Submit.
- Otherwise, use the Interlibrary Loan Journal Article Request Form (Library Homepage -- Interlibrary Loan (in the Quick Links box) -- Articles request form). Fill out the form with as much information as possible. Ask for help, if you have questions.

Government Information

Muhlenberg College receives about 30% of all materials published by the Federal Government. These items cover a wide range of subject areas--from legal materials and the records of Congress to health and education information and in-depth research conducted by the Smithsonian. All of the government documents that we receive have records in the Trexler Library Catalog.

Google U.S. Government Search
http://www.google.com/unclesam
Google's search tool for state and federal webpages.

Government Documents Center (University of Michigan Library)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/
"The Documents Center is a central reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign or international. Its web pages are a reference and instructional tool for government, political science, statistical data, and news."

Government Information -- International Documents Web Search
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=4173
"This is an experimental web search that you can use to find information from intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the United Nations, World Bank, IMF, and related organizations. "

Legal Information Institute (Cornell University Law School)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/world/
"The LII collection of world legal materials gathers, country by country, continent by continent, the Internet-accessible sources of the constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, and related legal material from around the globe (excluding the U.S. material held in the LII's other collections). It also holds resources and document collections of International law. "

LexisNexis Congressional
Information on the U.S. legislature, including full text of bills from 1989 on, public laws from 1988 on, committee reports from 1990 on, House and Senate documents from 1995 on, Congressional Record from 1985 on, Federal Register from 1980 on, and more government information.

World Legal Information Institute
http://www.worldlii.org/

Citing Your Sources

For help using Chicago style, consult the following resources:

The Chicago manual of style, 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Reference Desk Reserve 808.027 C632m (at Reference Desk)

Trexler Library handout on using Chicago style
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library/reshelp/chicago_example.pdf
This and other style guide handouts available via Library Homepage -- Citation Guides (in the Research box).

Writer's Handbook (Writing Center, University of Wisconsin--Madison)
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChicago.html