The Trexler Library: Muhlenberg College

Research Methods

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)

Need help after hours?
IM the Library at TalkToTrexler (for Google Talk, AIM and Yahoo; add @hotmail.com for MSN)
Online Sunday-Thursday 2pm-10pm.
See Ask a Librarian for more information and other ways to get help.

Finding Articles: Databases & Indexes

SEARCHING FOR ARTICLES

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

Check the Subject Guides (linked from the Library Homepage in the Research box) for other recommended databases for this and other subject areas.

Use UlrichsWeb Periodicals Directory (linked from the Library Homepage -- Online Reference Shelf (in the Quick Links box)) to find out information about individual journals, including whether or not they are peer-reviewed.

Subject-Specific Databases: Political Science & International Relations

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.

PolicyArchive (Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis University Library and nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies)
http://www.policyarchive.org/
"PolicyArchive is ... digital archive of global, non-partisan public policy research. It [...] collect[s] and disseminate[s] summaries and full texts, videos, reports, briefs, and multimedia material of think tank, university, government, and foundation-funded policy research."

Interdisciplinary Databases

Note: These databases may include both scholarly and popular sources.

Academic Search Premier
Full text access to scholarly and non-scholarly publications in a wide variety of disciplines and subject areas.

ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts
Indexes journals in sociology, psychology, political science, health, social work, education, and more.

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

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

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

Sage Journals Online
Full-text access to over 500 journals published by Sage, providing wide coverage of scholarly publications in all disciplines, but particularly the social sciences.

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.

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 Government Documents

U.S. Government

Muhlenberg College receives about 30% of all materials published by the U.S. 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.

Documents Center (University of Michigan Library)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/
"Reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign or international."

Google U.S. Government Search
Google's search tool for state and federal webpages.

LexisNexis Congressional
Getting there: Library homepage -- Articles A-Z (in the Find box) -- 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.

Other Governments

Governments on the World Wide Web
http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/

World Legal Information Institute: Countries
http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/215.html

Finding Polling Information

American Attitudes: What Americans Think About the Issues That Shape Their Lives (6th ed., 2010)
Trexler Library Reference Collection 303.38 M685a 2010

American National Election Studies
http://www.electionstudies.org/
"Produces high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation."

Gallup
http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx
Presents daily briefings on a single current topic, as well as recent Gallup Poll findings.

Polling Report
http://www.pollingreport.com/
Biweekly overview of recent poll trends.

Public Opinion Quarterly -- "The Polls"
To access, go to http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.muhlenberg.edu/direct.asp?db=ufh&jid=POQ&scope=site or search the library catalog by journal title. Browse through each issue to access "The Polls" or search across the journal by topic to check for features on your topic.
Regular feature of preeminent scholarly journal on public opinion and polling, discusses recent surveys.

Citing Your Sources

For help using APA, Chicago, or MLA Style, consult the following resources:

Trexler Library Citation Guides
http://muhlenberg.edu/library/reshelp/citations.html
GETTING THERE: Library Homepage -- Citation Guides (in the Research box)

UW-Madison Writing Center Writer's Handbook
http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Documentation.html

For help managing your citations, consider using Zotero.

"Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways."

Download from (and more information via) the Zotero website
http://www.zotero.org/

Step-by-step instructions on getting started with Zotero
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library/help/techguides/zotero.pdf