Getting Help

Blackwell Librarians are here to help you with your research!  As crazy as it sounds, we enjoy doing research and we really enjoy working with students!  So PLEASE don't hesitate to get ahold of us in one of the following ways:

Krista Knapp (Political Science Liaison) - 410-677-0118 (also on Facebook)

Gaylord Robb (Gov Docs Guru) - 410-543-6234  

You can also stop by the Research Help Desk and ask any of the friendly librarians for help with your research for this class or any of your classes. 

Finding Books

Find books in Blackwell Library using our online library catalog.  Books in our library are arranged using Library of Congress Classification.  The books you can check out are located on the second floor of the library.  If you ever have trouble finding a book you want, PLEASE ask for help at the Research Desk!

You can also borrow books from any of the USMAI libraries by selecting the "choose campus" link at the top of the catalog page and then selecting "USMAI All Campuses."  When you find a book you want that is not in Blackwell, click the "request" button and use your ID number to login.  You can have the book delivered to Blackwell within 3 or 4 days.

Finding Articles

Ask yourself if you need scholarly sources or popular sources for your assignment.  Many times, your professor will insist on scholarly sources.  What does that mean?  Find out using this
handy-dandy chart.

Here are some databases that may be useful for topics in Political Science:

• Academic Search Premier - a multidisciplinary database containing both scholarly and popular sources, many of which have full-text available.  ASP is a good place to start your research.  Use the FindIt button to locate articles that are not available full-text.
   
• 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
   
• JSTOR - a huge, wonderful database of scholarly communication from a wide variety of disciplines, including Political Science.  All of these sources are full-text, but the newest documents are 3-5 years old.
   
• CQ Weekly - Congressional Quarterly's magazine on government, commerce and politics.
   
• America: History and Life  - U.S. and Canadian historical sources.  Use the FindIt button to locate articles that are not available full-text.
   
• Social Sciences Abstracts - covers all the social sciences.  It's an EBSCO database, same as Academic Search Premier, so the interface will look familiar.  There are some full-text articles; for others, use the FindIt button.

Find It button

  WHAT DOES THAT CUTE LITTLE FIND IT BUTTON DO, ANYWAY?

It's a bit like magic, really.  The Find It button does three things:

• Looks in all of our databases to see if the document you want is available full-text in another of our databases.  If so, it links you to it!

• Links you to the library catalog when we have the item you want in print or microform.

• Links you to ILLiad (interlibrary loan) so you can borrow the item from another library if we don't have access electronically or in print.

The Find It button is YOUR FRIEND!!!

Goverment Documents

 Government information links that you might like to try:

Everyone's favorite! Statistics!

• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Census Bureau
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Energy Information Administration
• Food and Drug Administration
• FedStats
• Uniform Crime Reports
• National Center for Education Statistics
• National Center for Health Statistics
• Vanderbilt University Government Statistics Website 
• Statistical Almanac of the United States 
• American Factfinder
• STAT-USA

And how about Polling Data?

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

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

Evaluating 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.

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.

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:

Check out the Political Science Paper Documentation Guide.