Getting Help

Hi, I'm Krista Knapp, your friendly research/instructional librarian, and I'm here to help you!

How to get in touch with me:

• In my office, BL128 (best to make an appointment)

• By phone: 410-677-0118

• By email: kmknapp@salisbury.edu

Help is also available at the Research Desk in person and by chat.   You can also get help 24 hours a day/7 days a week through the Maryland AskUsNow chat reference service:  http://askusnow.info/

Legislation
 

THOMAS: House Roll Call Votes

House Roll Call Votes are recorded votes from the House of Representatives.

Includes:

• Roll call vote number, vote date, & title/description of the legislation

• Issue (bill/amendment number being voted on, quorum call or Journal approval),

• Question (description of the vote),

• Result (Passed, Failed, or Agreed to) and

• Detailed vote pages show individual member votes and vote totals by party.

• Coverage: 101st Congress, 2nd session (1990) through current Congress
   

To use THOMAS, try one of the three methods below:

1. Browse Alphabetical List of Bill Popular and Short Titles
    
2. Advanced Search
    
3. Browse all Roll Call Votes for 112th Congress from most recent
    

Articles

Articles from newspapers and magazines can be helpful when determining why this person was elected, and who supports them.

To find articles, use one of these databases:

• Lexis-Nexis Academic - a great source for full-text world news and legal information.
• National Newspapers - a source of U.S. news from major papers including The New York Times and The Washington Post
• CQ Weekly - Congressional Quarterly's magazine on government, commerce and politics.

And how about Polling Data? This could also be useful in determining why this Represenative was elected.

Try these websites:

• Gallup Poll
• CNN.com
• Pew Research Center
• Rasmussen Reports
• AP Poll Data

Or you can try Googling "poll data" AND [your topic].

Citing your Work

Plagiarism is not cool.  Of course you want to make sure you give proper credit to any source that you use to write your papers, whether you directly quote or paraphrase.  This guide helps students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it:

For citation help, check out the SU's Citation Style Guide.

or the Political Science dept's guide: www.salisbury.edu/politicalscience/ppr/index.html

Websites

Always make sure that internet resources are appropriate for your project.  If you have any doubts, check out the criteria listed on this website from UC Berkeley.

If the link above doesn't make things crystal clear, and you're still questioning the appropriateness of a website, please check with your professor or a librarian.

District Profile Websites:

• Maps of Congressional Districts:
  http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable/congress.html
  Find a zipcode: http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp
   
• List of districts for a state: Google "[state name] congressional districts"
   
• American FactFinder: demographic & economic census info
  http://factfinder.census.gov/home/cws/main.html

Representative Websites:

• House of Representatives:
  https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
   
• Online Directory for 112th Congress including websites:
  http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
   
• Congressional directory: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
   
• Congressional Biographical Directory: http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp

District interaction/analysis websites:

• Legislative histories from
• Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov/
   
• Washington Univ Lib guides http://libguides.wustl.edu/govtinfo
• Voting Record, Interest Group ratings, public statements and more:
  http://www.votesmart.org/
   
• Vote search by subject, month, member or vote number:
  http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/issuesdbq/votesearch.dbq
   

Financial Information

• Open Secrets: http://www.opensecrets.org/
• House Expenditure Reports Database: http://sunlightfoundation.com/projects/expenditures/