Pathfinder to Resources in the Wilson Libraries
- Reference Works
We call reference works these books, periodicals, and databases that provide basic information on a subject (encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks), basic statistical data (yearbooks), combendia of documents or indispensable texts on a subject , and on what has been written in a discipline or on a subject (bibliographies and indexes). Most hard-copy reference works at the Wilson Library are housed in the first floor Reference Collection, except for bibliographies. Specialized subject bibliographies are shelved in the Wilson Library stacks under the appropriate place for the call number assigned to them. Most indexes are now available in electronic editions through the University of Minnesota Libraries Web Page. The following are representative reference works for research in political science and international relations.
- Periodicals and Newspapers
The Wilson Library has an extensive collection of periodical publications, including journals of analysis, periodicals of general interest, and current events magazines. The Wilson Library also has an extensive collection of newspapers, both national and foreign. In some cases the Wilson Library has old runs of newspapers and current events magazine, useful for research in political science and international relations. For example, the Wilson Library owns the Times of London on microfilm as far back as 1788, and The New York Times as far back as 1851. Most periodicals in the Wilson Library are in the Periodicals Collections, arranged by title in alphabetical order, and most newspapers are in the Newspapers Collection arranged in the same way. But there are exceptions to this rule, and therefore, when one is looking for a specific periodical or newspaper, it is better to search for it under title in the University of Minnesota Libraries online catalog, known as MNCAT. The Wilson Library owns prominent journals of political science and on international relations published in many countries, but its periodicals collection in these areas is strongest in journals published in the United States and Great Britain.
- Primary Sources and Documents
The Wilson Library owns a considerable number of sources that could be considered primary sources for research in political science and international relations, such as memoirs, collections of letters, official statistals data, and government publications. Some of these are in discrete areas within the Library designated as special collections, such as the Government Publications Library (housing United States government documents, Canadian government documents, United Nations documents, and European Union documents), the Ames Library of South Asia, and the East Asian Library. But many sources of this kind are available in printed editions in the stacks fo the Library, or in microtexts in the Microfilm Collection and in the Microfiche Collection. Several are available in digital editions through the University of Minnesota Libraries Web Page.
- The University of Minnesota Libraries Catalog and Other Electronic Resources
The University of Minnesota Libraries Catalog (MNCAT) includes all cataloged resources owned by the University of Minnesota Libraries regardless of where they are physically located, and each record indicates its location within a library building. But it does not include records for journal articles, which can be searched in indexes. In order to make this search easier, the University of Minnesota Libraries Web Page has a direct access point to indexes named ARTICLES AND MORE, with several links to facilitate finding either specific indexes by title (Select and index to search) or listings or indexes appropriate for research in a certain discipline or subject (Select an index by subject). Important electronic indexes for research in history available through ARTICLES AND MORE are: Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, PAIS International, CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online), Academic Research Premier, the J-STOR index, and LEXIS-NEXIS (Academic, Congressional and Statistal). Those doing research for a dissertation subject should consult Social Sciences Citation Index, and Digital Dissertations.
Related University of Minnesota Sites
- U of M's Human Rights Library
The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library was inaugurated December 1988 on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The principal focus of the Human Rights Library is to help train effective human rights professionals and volunteers. The Human Rights Library assists human rights advocates, monitors, students, and educators.
- Law Library
Legal materials
including state and federal statutes, reports, regulations, treatises, foreign and comparative international
legal sources.
• Hours • Map
Internet Resources
- American Government and Politics
- C-SPAN.org
Besides live programming, this site provides audio and video of past programs, until they are moved to the C-SPAN store, where 100,000 titles are for sale.
- Thomas
This web site maintained by the Library of Congress contains the full-text of U.S. Public Laws, bill texts, committee reports and other legislative information from the 101st Congress (1989) to the present and citations to the same from the 93rd Congress (1973) through the 101st.
- Data Archives and Statistical Resources
- CESSDA Integrated Data Catalogue
The Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) has created an integrated data catalog that allows searching across many of their members' data collections.
- Data on the Net
Search or browse the listing of Internet sites of numeric Social Science statistical data, data catalogs, data libraries, social science gateways, addresses and more.
- Stat-USA Internet
STAT-USA/Internet, a service of the US Department of Commerce, is a single point of access to authoritative business, trade, and economic information from across the Federal Government.
- Electronic Journals and News Sources
- Star Tribune.com
Use this to find daily news stories plus articles in the news archive back three weeks. If you want an article older than three weeks, then go to the paid archives, where you can search and preview a story for free, but you will be charged $1.95 when you retrieve the full text of an article.
- St. Paul Pioneer Press
Full text coverage from 1988 to the present of the daily newspaper for the City of St Paul. Besides articles about the Twin Cities, coverage includes western Wisconsin and the state of Minnesota. Due to recent legal restrictions, free lance authors may not be included in the online version.
- Wall Street Journal
Contains the full-text Wall Street Journal newspaper which has extensive coverage of stock
markets, finance, investments and business-oriented news.
Database version from Proquest includes business and financial news and analysis, company news, regular columns, special reports, articles on the national and world economy, editorials and opinion, interviews, and Reuters news stories. Excludes charts and free standing tabular data, such as stock tables and other exchange listings.
- Legal Information Institute
One of the most linked to resources in the field of law. An excellent starting point for legal research on the web.
- Background Notes
Issued by the US Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, these electronically accessible publications include facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states and other territories. The Background Notes are updated and/or revised as they are received from the Department's regional bureaus and are added to the database of this Department of State website.
Paper copies of earlier editions are available in the Government Publications Library in Wilson.
- Foreign Affairs Online
Organized collections of several thousand links to sites for the study of international relations.
- Foreign Relations of the United States
The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian. The years 1863-1958 have been selectively digitized by the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with the intent of eventually creating a complete online edition).
The State Department also makes available the volumes from 1945 - present at Volumes Online.
• Location(s): TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Docs) S 1.1: Regular Loan 1870 - present
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- UN News Centre
Maintained by the UN's Department of Public Information with searchable press releases, links to the press releases of the UN's specialized agencies, full-text access to some of the UN's Web periodicals, and documents about current world events.
- Gallup Organization, The
The Gallup Organization, is an international management consulting business, perhaps best known for its public opinion polls, which provide "measurement and analysis of people's attitudes, opinions, and behavior." Their Web site provides general information on public attitudes in various areas from lifestyle to business to politics to social and economic trends. A full-text archive of past polls is available in some areas of their work. A special FAQ is included as well as a section on how Gallup conducts their surveys.
- Professional Organizations
Page Coordinator: Rafael Tarrago r-tarr@tc.umn.edu
This URL: http://www.lib.umn.edu/libdata/page.phtml?page_id=1736
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