POLI SCI 190: The Obama Presidency in Historical Perspective

Some of the political science databases most relevant to this course are listed below -- or you can see the complete list.

• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  Core resource for political science research.
  
• PAIS International
  Strong international coverage, focus on government information and public policy.
  
• Academic Search Complete
  Interdisciplinary -- lots of articles are available here fulltext.
  
• America: History and Life
  American history (including recent history), political science and ethnic studies.
  
• LexisNexis Academic
  News and law reviews are two strengths of this database, and both could be helpful for this assignment.
  
• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
  Not just articles, also policy briefs and working papers from research institutes worldwide related to international affairs.
  
• Index Islamicus
  Indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world.
  

Sometimes the database you search doesn't link to the fulltext -- it only gives the citation. Click the button to see if Berkeley has it online, and if not, it will check for a print version.  And if we don't have it at all, it lets you request it through Interlibrary Loan.

What if there isn't a button??? Sometimes you find an article in a bibliography, a book or a footnote -- and you want to see if we have it. The Citation Linker searches through our online databases to see if it's available fulltext. If not, it sets up a search for the paper journal in Melvyl. And if we don't have it at Berkeley, it lets you request it through Interlibrary Loan.

UCB: Use OskiCat to find books related to your topic at UC Berkeley. Oskicat will show you where it's located, and will also show you the Library of Congress Subject Heading -- which can help you find material other relevant books.

UC: Not enough books  at Berkeley? Use Melvyl to find more books at other campuses in the UC system.  Click on the REQUEST button  to get through  Interlibrary Loan.

World: Still want more? You can search thousands of libraries through WorldCat on FirstSearch and then request the material through UC e-links or directly via Interlibrary Loan. 

Google Books: Library catalogs don't search inside of books. Google Books can help you identify the book you need, then click on "Find in a Library" to see if we have it.

• Oxford Scholarship Online: Political Science
• Oxford Handbooks Online: Political Science 
• ebrary Thousands of books on a wide array of social science topics. 
• Social Theory -- Fulltext collection 
• U.S. Government Manual  

These resouces can help you discover and locate information from the government.  More resources can be located in the Library's Government Information pages.

• American Presidency Project
  Contains all major publications of the U.S. Office of the President, including: Public Papers of the President, Inaugural Addresses, Executive Orders, Signing Statements, and other information such as radio addresses, party platforms, videos of debates, and popularity polling data. This project was developed by two political science professors at UCSB.
  
• ProQuest Congressional
  One stop shopping for U.S. congressional publications. Provides index and abstracts of congressional publications back to 1789, including full text Congressional Hearings from 1824-present, full text Committee Prints from 1830-present, full text Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports from 1916-present, full text United States Congressional Serial Set from 1789-1969, and legislative histories from 1970-present.
  
• CQ Electronic Library
  A reference source on American politics and government that includes the following modules: CQ Congress Collection, CQ Political Handbook of the World, CQ Researcher Plus Archive, CQ Supreme Court, CQ Voting and Elections, CQ Washington Information Directory, CQ Weekly. Access individual modules or search across all CQ collections.
  
• CQ Weekly
  Provides nonpartisan information about US government and congressional affairs and subjects of concern. This online version also provides access to some articles prior to when they appear in the print version of CQ Weekly. Part of the CQ Electronic Library collection.
  
• Living Room Candidate: Historical Presidential Campaign Commercials
  An archive of historic and current political advertisements from television and the internet. Most clips include transcripts.
  

Here are some general news and newsmedia databases.  For a full listing of the Library's news resources, check this list.

• LexisNexis Academic
  Thousands of international, national and local newspapers and wire services.
  
• ProQuest Newspapers
  Indexes the New York Times (1999-present), Los Angeles Times (1985-present), Wall Street Journal (1982-present).
  
• World News Connection
  Want to know what is being said in languages you don't read? WNC provides the news in translation from nearly every country in the world.
  
• Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)
  Includes Chicago Defender (1910-1975). Chicago Tribune (1849-1988). Los Angeles Times (1881-1988). San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922). New York Times (1851-1994) with Index (1851-1993). Wall Street Journal (1889-1994). Washington Post (1877-1995).
  
• Ethnic News Watch
  Indexes over 200 ethnic, minority, and native press publications.
  
• Alt-Press Watch
  Alternative, radical, and independent magazines, newspapers, and journals in North America.
  
• Alternative Press Index
  Alternative, radical, and left magazines, newsletters, and journals -- approximately 90% of publications included are not indexed elsewhere.
  
• GenderWatch
  Includes magazines, academic journals, newspapers and newsletters on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
  

"Cheat Sheets" -- very handy guides showing examples of the different types of citations formatted according to APA 6th, from Purdue and Harvard.

The fulltext of APA 6th is not available online, but we do have print copies in the reference collection of the Social Welfare and EdPsych Libraries at BF76.7 P83 2010, and it's available at other libraries on campus as well.

APA Style & Format from Capella Writing Center, is designed to help you quickly understand the fundamentals you need to write a course paper that meets the APA guidelines. It also has a very helpful guide to how to handle those confusing DOIs.

Basics of APA Style -- tutorial from APA on how to how to structure and format your work, reduce bias in language, avoid charges of plagiarism, cite references in text and it  provides selected reference examples. The APA Style Blog --  is searchable by topic and contains weekly posts by APA experts . 

Research Advisory Service for Cal Undergraduates

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