Barnard College Library Research Guide

BC3761 Senior Seminar in Political Science

Professor Séverine Autessere
Librarian Jenna Freedman

Dorothea Lange for Farm Security Administration/WPA. Public Domain

 
This guide is intended as a starting point in your research; the databases and reference tools listed here are a selective list. Always remember that you can ask for assistance at the Barnard Reference Desk at any point in your research, and you can always request a consultation.

CLIO

BOOKS AND REFERENCE MATERIALS

Searching CLIO
CLIO (Columbia Libraries Information Online) is the catalog for materials added to the Columbia University Libraries since 1981.  

To find PRIMARY SOURCES, use these terms in your search: ARCHIVES, BIOGRAPHY (this includes autobiographies), CORRESPONDENCE, DIARIES, INTERVIEWS, SOURCES. Enter them as "any of these" in a Guided Keyword search, selecting Subject from the In: menu.

Reference

E-JOURNALS
Many scholarly journals are available on the Web. They are often included in searchable collections of journals supplied as a package by a publisher or by another vendor. These collections are included on the list of databases. If you have a citation or particular journal that you want to access electronically:

• Enter the title in CLIO
• In the Quick Limits box below the Search field, select All Electronic Resources
• Choose Search Type: Journal Title
• If we have an online subscription or database access, this search will reveal it/them

DATABASES FOR ARTICLES AND MORE

• Access these indexes and databases from the Find Databases interface.
• Using these resources to find journal articles is sometimes a two-step process.
  First, find citations in the index
  Second, click on to find the full text online or a print copy.   
• Law, Politics & Government database recommendations.

Subject specific databases, based on the class's research topics:

• AccessUN 

• Africa-wide: NiPAD

• Armed conflict database

• Bibliography of Asian studies

• Caribbean abstracts

• China Academic Journals

• China core newspaper databases

• EconLit

• HeinOnline -- legal and US governmental publications

• Index to legal periodicals & books

• Peace Research Abstracts
• Readex AccessUN
• Social Science Research Network : SSRN -- business and economics
• United Nations treaty collection : Collection des traités des Nations Unies.

   

General and multidisciplinary databases:

• Academic Search Premier

• Alternative press index

• America, history & life -- U.S. and Canada

• Business full text

• Business source complete

• CIAO : Columbia international affairs online.

• Historical abstracts -- world history, excluding the U.S. and Canada.

• Humanities Full Text

• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences

• International political science abstracts

• JSTOR -- most articles published five or more years ago.

• Left index

• LexisNexis Academic -- Legal news and articles from U.S. and international newspapers, radio, blogs, etc.

• The Nation Digital Archive

• Project Muse -- full-text articles from scholarly journals

• ProQuest Direct -- includes Alt-PressWatch, Digital Dissertations, Ethnic NewsWatch, and GenderWatch, which can also be searched separately. 

• Readers Guide Full Text -- popular magazines

• Social Sciences Full Text

• Web of science -- citation index for articles in arts, humanities, and social science, as well as science.

• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

FINDING DATA & PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIALS

• AccuNet/AP Multimedia Archive
• Columbia: Electronic Data Service
• Digital National Security Archive
• International data base (IDB)
• iPoll databank
• Polling the nations
• Television News Archive

• United Nations common database (UNCDB) -- statistical tables covering many topics for countries worldwide.

Other Library Catalogs

Those with Columbia ID have access to the libraries of the Columbia Law School, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Teachers’ College, and Union Theological Seminary, but they are not included in CLIO. CUID also provides access to the libraries of New York University. Anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in New York is entitled to a New York Public Library card. Use the Catalogs list on CU LibraryWeb, or the following links:

• BobCatPlus for NYU libraries
• CATNYP for New York Public Library research libraries. LEO for branch libraries. NYPL Databases--require library card number for access.
• Pegasus for Columbia law school library
• WorldCat a catalog of catalogs, has holdings from libraries all over the world. New free version.

USEFUL WEB SITES

Course syllabus, slides from library research class

Barnard Subject Guides

• Africana Studies
• American History and American Studies
• History
• Politics/Government

Columbia Subject Guides

• Foreign Countries
• Foreign Press Translations
• Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs: Information Resources
• International Security Policy and Military Affairs: Information Resources
• Polling, surveys, public opinion
• Think Tanks and Policy Centers
• U.S. government documents. Campaigns & elections

Beyond Barnard/Columbia

• Google scholar -- be sure to use the Columbia link, rather than just typing scholar.google.com.

• Librarians' Internet Index -- search engine where all results have been vetted and abstracted by a librarian.

BIBLIOGRAPHY RESOURCES

RefWorks and EndNote are bibliographic software packages that are available, free of charge, to all current Barnard and Columbia students, faculty and staff. 

Bibliographic software allows you to

search for citations in library catalogs and databases from the software or export results into it from remote catalogs and databases store the citations search through the citations you have stored using keyword searches cite them in papers and bibliographies using any citation format you choose

Consult the page EndNote at Barnard and Columbia for more details.

The Bedford Handbook is a free online guide to APA, Chicago, CSE, and MLA styling.
 

Last Modified 09/19/2008
Jenna Freedman
Coordinator of Reference Services / Zine Librarian