Political Science 201: American Federal Government

Fall 2006
Professor Bengtson

 

    Locating Articles in Library Resources

     

    Which article databases are good starting places for my search?

    • Academic Search Premier ~ A good place to start. Includes references to scholarly as well as popular periodicals.

    • Periodical Abstracts ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and some full text for magazine and journal articles.

    • WilsonSelectPlus ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and full text for a variety of magazines and journals.

    • CQ Researcher ~ An excellent source for current hot topics. Each individual issue contains historical background, a timeline, current status, and potential future developments. The bibliographies are especially helpful in finding useful sources.

      •  

    Where can I find newspaper articles?

    • New York Times ~ full text back to 1999, with indexing available back to 1990.
    • Chicago Tribune ~ full text from 1985 to present.
    • Lexis-Nexis Academic ~ accesses a variety of news and business sources, many of which are full text
    • Wall Street Journal ~ full text from 1985 to present.

    • Newspaper Source ~ full text from more than 100 U.S. and international newspapers. Includes sources such as USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The (London) Times, and transcripts from NPR's Morning Edition

 

Internet Sources for articles

It's important when you are looking for articles on political issues on the Internet to be careful about what the source of a website is. Many websites (especially blogs) are mostly opinion. You want to stick with sources that are more journalistic.

Why should I evaluate web sites? Can't I just trust everyone's website?

Using and Evaluating Information Sources

Using Search engines to find Internet articles

We all use Google. There's nothing wrong with using Google. It's very useful for certain kinds of searching. The problem is that for the kind of articles you need to find for your assignment, Google won't help you figure out what kind of article you are looking at, whether or not it's a blog or journalism. Also, although Google is a great way to start looking for information about a topic, it's not very efficient when looking for news articles on a topic--which is your assignment.

 

Online news sources

Most news sources have websites with articles on them. Some of these online magazines will let you read articles for free, some of them want you to pay. You should never pay for an article you find in a news source on the Internet. If you find an article on a website and the site wants you to pay for it, check our list of journals and newspapers available online; then search for your article in the appropriate database. If you still can't find it ask a librarian for help!

Here are some links to online news sources:

American Spectator 
Against the Current 
Dissent
Insight on the News* 
MSNBC
Monthly Review 
Mother Jones 
The Nation* 
National Review* 
New American 
New Republic*
Newsweek* 
Policy Review 
Time* 
U.S. News and World Report* 
Weekly Standard

 

* Current issues of these magazines are also available for browsing at the library. Journals and magazines are arranged alphabetically by title.

 

 

Writing and Citing Resources

Here are some resources at the library that will help you write your paper:

If you need any help finding articles or writing, you can also contact the Reference Desk any time the library is open:

 

Reference: 630-617-3173
Email: ref[at[elmhurst[dot]edu
AIM: elmhrstcollibref   |   Yahoo!Messenger: eclibraryreference   |   MSN Messenger: ref[at]elmhurst.edu

 

 

This page was created on August 22nd, 2006 by Peg Cook, Assistant Reference & Instruction Librarian

A.C. Buehler Library Website