PO 248 – Public Policy Professor Scala Spring 2006 Contents Find Background Information Find Articles Find Books/Government Reports Selected Web Sites How to Cite Your Sources

Online Reference Resources CQ Researcher Weekly reports offer "in-depth, non-biased coverage of political and social issues, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy." The reports include background information and chronology, tables or maps, pro/con statements from opposing groups, and a list of key sources. (1991–current) NationalJournal.com Search this database for full-text articles in the areas of politics and public policy. Based in Washington, D.C., its publications include: National Journal, CongressDaily, The Hotline, and Technology Daily. Other links include Capital Source, Bill Status Reports, Ad Spotlight, Almanac of American Politics, Buzz Columns, Campaigns (at a glance), and book reviews. (Searchable Archive covers 1977–current.) Congressional Digest This monthly publication on current issues before Congress covers background information, recent legislation, and pro and con arguments from Congressional debates and testimony from committees. Print Reference Resources General The Book of the States This resource contains comparative information about state policies. REF JK2403 .B6 2005 Congressional Quarterly Almanac An annual overview of legislation considered by Congress including summaries of key arguments. It also includes important Supreme Court actions and Presidential vetoes. REF JK1 .C66 Encyclopedia of American Public Policy Cutting through the complexities of this vast and often ill-understood subject, this unique reference work illuminates important concepts, terms, actors, legislation, and milestones of American public policy. REF JK468.P64 J33 1999 Encyclopedia of American Social History 3 vols. REF HN57 .E58 1992 Encyclopedia of American Social Movements 4 vols. REF HN57 .E594 2004 Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics 4 vols. Includes a number of relevant entries, including whistle-blowing, corporations-environmental compliance, and business ethics-corporate responsibility. See an online list of topics. REF BJ63 .A66 1998 The Encyclopedia of Democracy 4 vols. REF JC423 .E53 1995 Encyclopedia of Interest Groups and Lobbyists in the United States 2 vols. REF JK1118 .N47 2000 (Online table of contents) Encyclopedia of politics : the left and the right REF JA61 .E54 2005 Encyclopedia of the American Legislative System : Studies of the Principal Structures, Processes, and Policies of Congress and the State Legislatures since the Colonial Era 3 vols. REF JF501 .E53 1994 IssueWeb : a guide and sourcebook for researching controversial issues on the Web REF ZA4228 .D53 2004 Program Evaluation : An Annotated Bibliography REF JF1411.D85 1987 Criminal Justice Encyclopedia of crime and justice 4 vols. REF HV6017 .E52 2002 (also available online) The Handbook of Crime & Punishment REF HV6789 .H25 1998 Environmental Issues Beacham's Guide to Environmental Issues & Sources 5 vols. REF GE 115 .B43 1993 Annotated lists of resources in a variety of areas Encyclopedia of Environmental Issues 3 vols. REF GE 10 .E52 2000 Encyclopedia of Global Change : Environmental Change and Human Society 2 vols. REF GE 149 .E47 2002 Environmental Encyclopedia 2 vols. REF GE 10 .E58 2003 International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics REF GE170 .I55 2002 Health The Concise Encyclopedia of the Ethics of New Technologies REF QH332 .C66 2001 Encyclopedia of Bioethics 5 vols. REF QH332 .E52 1995 Online Statistical Resources CenStats Databases Demographic, business and trade statistics from the Bureau of Census. Census2000 Newest census information. FedStats An easily navigable gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies. PopNet: Population Reference Bureau Includes access to articles in the journal Population Today as well as other articles and statistics compiled by PRB staff. Population Index on the Web An online version of Population Index. Coverage is from 1986-2000. SocioWeb: Statistics Includes links to survey and statistical gateways Statistical Abstract of the United States Provides current summaries of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions in the United States and issued by the US Bureau of the Census. Print copies are also available in the Reference Department (Ref HA202.U5). Statistical Resources on the Web There is a link to useful sociology statistics on this web site which is maintained by the Documents Center at the University of Michigan. Print Statistical Resources Atlas of American Society REF HN 60 .A5 1995 Census of Population See Government Documents Compensation and Working Conditions (monthly) Periodicals Collection (June 1996 - December 2000) Current issues are available online County and City Data Book REF HA 202 .A36 County and City Extra : Annual Metro, City, and County Data Book REF HA 203 .C68 Handbook of Labor Statistics REF HD 826 .U55 Kids Count Data Book: State Profiles of Child Well Being REF HQ 792 .U5K53 2000 Official Guide to American Attitudes REF HN 90 .P8 M58 1996 Official Guide to the American Marketplace REF HA 214 .A6 1995 Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics REF HV 7245 .N37 Statistical Abstract of the United States REF HA 202 .U5 (Annual) State of Working America, 1996-1997 REF HD 8066 .M57 1997 Statistical Handbook on Adolescents in America REF HQ 796 .S8237 1996 Statistical Handbook on the American Family REF HQ 536 .S727 1999 Uniform Crime Reports REF HV 6787 .A3 Vital Statistics of the United States REF HA 203 .U55 V58

• Use truncation (i.e., *) at the end of a word to find all variants of that word stem. For example: controvers* will find controversial and controversy
• Try combining your topic with words such as ethic*, controvers*, moral*, debate, dialogue, attitude*, view*, dispute*, "public opinion", statistic*, or issue*. For example: "mandatory minimum" and debate
• Use synonyms or words with similar meanings to be sure to find all references to your subject. For example: (decriminalization or legalization) and drug*

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Search this database for citations and abstracts from literature in political science and its related fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy. Coverage includes books, dissertations, international journals, and book and software reviews. One special feature of this database is linked reference citing: references cited in the bibliography of the source article accompany the citations that have been added to the database since 2001, and for all journals added since 2004.
Database Guide

Alternative Press Index
Provides citations (some with abstracts) from over 250 alternative, radical and international periodicals, newspapers and magazines, covering cultural, economic, political and social change. Search this index for citations on topics such as: socialism, national liberation, labor, indigenous peoples, gays/lesbians, feminism, ecology, democracy, and anarchism. (1991 - present).

Alternative Press Index Archive
This database extends and complements the coverage of the Alternative Press Index. (1969 - 1990)

LexisNexis Academic
This database includes full text of many U.S. and international news sources. It would be a useful source for checking local or regional news sources for information relating to state-level legislation and public policy matters. (The truncation symbol is this database is an exclamation point (!) rather than an asterisk (*).

Wall Street Journal
Full text access to the Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition) from 1984 to the present.

New York Times
You can get full text of every page of the New York Times, from 1851 to 2002. The searchable collection includes digital reproductions, so that even advertisements and political cartoons from every available issue may be viewed.

Newspaper Source
Get full text for several national and international newspapers here (including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Times-London, etc.) and selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers (including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, and The Detroit Free Press, etc.) In addition, full text television and radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, and NPR.

Criminal Justice Abstracts
Search here for titles of articles and books in criminal justice, including these areas: crime trends, crime prevention and deterrence, juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, police, courts, punishment and sentencing. Coverage also includes governmental and non-governmental reports, dissertations, and unpublished papers on criminology and related disciplines. (1968–current)

NCJRS Abstracts
Use this database, one of the largest related to criminal and juvenile justice, to find citations on criminal and juvenile justice, forensic technology, and drug policy and related fields. There are summaries of more than 150,000 publications, including Federal, State, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and more. (1970–current)

SocINDEX
This sociology database provides full text from journals, books, monographs, and conference papers. Coverage is of all subdisciplines of sociology, including criminal justice, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, social psychology, urban studies, and more. (Coverage varies with publication; with some, it goes back to 1895.)

Business Source Premier
Business Source Premier with Business Searching Interface 
If you want information on management, marketing, economics, finance, accounting, or international business, this is the best place to go for full-text articles and abstracts from more than 7,400 scholarly business journals. This database also holds country economic reports, company profiles, and 1,600 industry reports from Datamonitor. (Coverage varies with journal. Click on Publication tab for dates.)

EconLit
This international bibliography from the American Economic Association (AEA) has citations and abstracts from economics journals, books, working papers, and dissertations. (1969–current)

ERIC
ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center) is the site to search for full-text articles from educational and education-related journals. It is "the world's largest source of education information" and is updated monthly. (1966–current)

CINAHL
CINAHL indexes all the English-language nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association, and is therefore the best link to search for citations on nursing and allied health disciplines. You may also find full-text articles from several journals, legal cases, and clinical trials, to name a few sources. CINAHL also covers health care books, nursing dissertations, conference proceedings, standards of practice, and more. (1982–current) See also Pre-CINAHL (most current).    User guide

Health Source
Not only does this database provide full-text articles from 550 scholarly medical journals, it also includes a link to Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary. (1975–current)

Medline
This is the first place to search for article titles and summaries related to medicine, pre-clinical sciences, veterinary medicine, the healthcare system, dentistry, and nursing. Created by the National Library of Medicine from thousands of biomedical journals. (1934–current, though coverage varies with publication.)

America: History and Life
A useful resource when researching the historical background and development of American public policy issues. (1964–present)  

Search the library catalog to locate books in Geisel Library. Search by keyword if you are unsure of the title you are looking for.

WorldCat
This database is a close as you can get to a simultaneous search of thousands of libraries' catalogs from around the world. You can see at a glance whether Geisel Library has the book or other materials, and by clicking on the Libraries Worldwide link, you can find out if any nearby libraries own it. If we don't have it, there is also a link to submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request.

Selected Web Sites

Almanac of Policy Issues

A Guide to Social Policy Resources from The Catholic University of America

Public Agenda

Godort Public Policy Issues and Groups

HealthWeb

Librarians' Internet Index: Social Issues

Librarians' Internet Index: Society and Social Science

New England Public Policy Center from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Policy Library
The Policy Library website has policy papers and more on public, social, economic, and foreign policy; papers have been contributed by member institutes from around the world. Search the Policy Paper Database to find online policy papers on a topic, or browse the Resource Sites for a list of papers on a specific topic.

Annenberg Public Policy Center

Centers for Research & Policy Development from Kennedy School of Government Library

Think tanks page from University of Michigan

Vera Institute of Justice

Stateline.org

Congressional Research Service Reports from UNT Libraries

Public policy matrix from University of Michigan

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Some of the research from the AEI deals with social issues, especially social welfare matters.

Gallup Organization
Access to the Gallup Poll surveys as well as other public opinion research.

General Social Survey Data and Information Retrieval System
Provides access to GSS information which surveys U.S. households on a broad range of topics such as abortion attitudes and television viewing habits.

See the library's How To Cite Your Sources guide for resources on how to properly cite research materials. Always confirm the style required by your instructor.