• Catalog: use this to find books, periodical titles (NOT articles ), government documents, reserve items, music,and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.

• Use the Basic Search to find material using Keywords
  • For example: search for "right to privacy" or right and privacy to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords
  • When you find an appropriate title, click on the Related Records tab located at the top of a catalog record to see which Library of Congress subject headings are discussed in that particular book/DVD/periodical

  OR

• Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress subject heading
• For example:
  • Political science--Methodology
  • Political statistics
  • Comparative government--Methodology
  • Public institutions
  • Democracy--United States
  • Political Culture--United States

OR

• Go to Advanced Search
  • The Boolean search terms are built in for your use:
    • AND: you are commanding the system to search for material on both terms you've entered
    • OR: you are commanding the system to search for meaterial on either of the search terms you have entered
    • NOT: you are commanding the system to search for material on the first term you have entered and to exclude any material on the second term you have entered
  • The catalog system will provide morre focused results

   Tips

1. Start with broad searches. It is much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Related Records tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
3. Can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

Top of page

 

• The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).
• Some useful materials for your projects:
   

United States
America at the Polls	Ref JK 524 .M33 2001
America Votes (v. 21, 1994+)	Ref JK 1967.A8
The Dorsey Dictionary of American Government and Politics	Ref JK 9.S42 1988
Encyclopedia of Governmental Advisory Organizations	Ref JK 468.C7 E5 2005
The HarperCollins Dictionary of American Government and Politics	Ref JK 9.S43 1992
Presidential Elections 1789-2000	Ref JK 524 .P6783 2002
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States	Print edition: Ref J 80 .A283
Statistical Abstract of the United States	Ready Reference HA 202 .U5 2006
The United States Government Manual	Print edition: Ref JK  421.A3 2004/2005
Vital Statistics on American Politics 2005-2006	Ref JK 274 .S74 2006
Dictionaries
The Blackwell Dictionary of Political Science	Ref JA 61.B43 1999
Brewer's Politics: A Phrase and Fable Dictionary	Ref JA 61.C663 1993
Dictionary of Political Thought	Ref JA 61.S37
Encyclopedias and Handbooks
Encyclopedia of Government and Politics	Ref JA 61.C66 2004
Handbook of Political Science Methods	Ref JA 73.G36 1976
Political Philosophy: Theories, Thinkers, Concepts	Ref JA 71.P6226 2001
Additional material
PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International and Archive	Online access

 

   Tips

1. Use reference books to browse for project ideas and to get started on your research
2. Use the bibliographies at the end of articles, books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries to locate more material on your topic

Top of page

Some useful Databases for your projects:

JSTOR	Comprised of the full-text of more than 500 academic journals
LexisNexis Academic	Covers top news, general news topics, and news transcripts; foreign language news sources; company, industry, and market news; and legal news
See also:
Gallup Brain	Contains records of 70 years of public opinion polls
America: History & Life and Historical Abstracts	Abstract databases, abstracts of articles and reviews in scholarly publications. NOTE: If a citation is not linked to the full-text article in JSTOR, click on the Primary Catalog link to see if the full text of the article is available in our collection in print or through another database.
CountryWatch	Provides political and economic surveys of 191 countries. Coverage is updated continuously.
CQ Researcher	Weekly publication providing original in-depth analysis of the most current major and controversial issues of the day with complete summaries, the pros and cons, and two bibliographies
Historic Documents	Published annually since 1972, includes 33 volumes of primary sources. Each volume contains approximately one hundred documents covering the most significant events of the year.
Academic Search Premier and Expanded Academic ASAP	Multidisciplinary databases that contains many full-text articles and citations. NOTE: When only a citation is indexed, click on the Check avaialbility [at Ramapo] link to see if the full text of the article is available in our collection in print or through another database.
Ethnic NewsWatch	A full-text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press
Historical NY Times	Full-text of the entire NY Times from 1851-2003

1. Switch to the Advanced Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
2. Use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) and Quotation Marks when running a search. For Example: democracy and (realist or realism) nd critique OR (democracy or "political science") and "human rights"
3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are zero.
4. Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus link, if available, to find the best terms to use in a database.

Top of page

• Interlibrary Loan: allows studens to borrow a book or article that the George T. Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder page.

 

• Journal Finder: locate the full text of articles in specific periodicalss (journals, newspapers, magazines)to which we have access either in our print or microform collection or through a full-text database.

 

VII. Preparing Bibliographies

The following are APSA (American Political Science Association) citation examples of a newspaper article, a book, a book section, and an academic journal article.

• Repeated citations only require author and year
• Note hanging indentation (1/2")
• Note the lack of URLS. URLs only belong if the online version is the only version, and you are directly quoting text.

 

Newspaper article:

Holden, Stephen. 1998. "Frank Sinatra Dies at 82: Matchless Stylist of Pop." New         York Times. May 16, A1.

Book:

Jacobson, Gary C. 2004. The Politics of Congressional Elections (6th ed). New

       York: Pearson Longman.

Section of a book:

Baker, Ross. 1993. "Sorting Out and Suiting Up: The Presidential Nominations," in

       Pomper, G. (ed.) The Election of 1992. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.

Academic journal article:

Gosnell, Harold F. 1950. "Does Campaigning Make a Difference?" Public

       Opinion Quarterly 14(3): 413-18.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you would like to use other citation styles, see the following:

• Citing Sources (Duke University) for examples of APA, ASA, Chicago, MLA, and Turabian citation styles
• Diana Hacker Online
• The Open Handbook Online ( by Ann Raimes with Maria Jerskey)
• Style handbooks are also kept on reserve at the Circulation Desk
• Always be consistent and follow the examples for the required style format

Top of page