Political Science 202:

American State and Local Government

Professor Shumaker

Spring 2008

Find your state senator or representative

Who is my Illinois State Representative or Senator?

• Illinois State Board of Elections: Find District/Official by Address ~ you can type in your address to find out your district number and the name of your officials

What Assembly committees does my State Representative or Senator sit on?

• Illinois General Assembly: House Members ~ click on the link of the representative for biographical information that might give more insight into the person and his or her beliefs and voting strategies
• Illinois General Assembly: Senate Members ~ click on the link of the representative for biographical information that might give more insight into the person and his or her beliefs and voting strategies
• Project Vote-Smart: State Senate of Illinois ~ click on the link of the person's name for complete information, as well as a link to an official web site with contact information
• Project Vote-Smart: State House of Illinois ~ click on the link of the appropriate individual for complete information, as well as a link to an official web site with contact information

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Get some background info on your health or environment topic

Finding Journal Articles

• Academic Search Complete ~ contains articles from both popular and scholarly sources on a wide range of topics, many in full text.

• CQ Researcher ~ published by Congressional Quarterly, this resource weekly focuses on a particular topic, such as campaign finance reform or abortion; good for finding out background information or learning more about the topic at hand
  
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ~ this database accesses a wealth of legal news and information.

Is this a scholarly journal or a popular magazine?

Finding Newspaper Articles

• Chicago Tribune
• New York Times
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ~ also provides access to newspapers from all over the world
• Newspaper Source ~ another database providing access to newspapers both large and small

Finding Internet Sources

A word about Google and Wikipedia.

Google and Wikipedia are 2 tools that are available to help you find information on the Internet. Google is an Internet search engine. It will find websites for you. Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia.It contains lots of information about lots of topics. But you need to be careful when using these 2 tools. Google will just find sites for you. It will not tell you whether or not those sites are accurate, or unbiased, or current--or useful to you. Wikipedia can be useful to help you get started finding information. But because anybody can edit a Wikipedia page, you have to take information you find there with a grain of salt. Wikipedia is a fine source for some information--but always backup information you find there with another source.

Some potentially useful websites:

Council of State Governments-professional association of state governments. You will find white papers and other resources here, use the search box.

League of Conservation Voters-an advocacy group, lots of good information about taking action

Center for Health, Environment and Justice

EPA - Office of Enforcement and Complience Assurance - Environmental Justice

Environmental Resources on the Internet - comprehensive page with lots of good links to environmental resources on the web

Health Care - White House web page with information about the President's health care policies

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Finding legislation and voting information on your topic

How do I find out what legislation was passed on my topic?

• The Illinois General Assembly website has links to Previous General Assemblies. Pick a general assembly number from the drop down menu, click go, and then look for "Public Acts" and click the "search" button. This will take you to a screen that lets you keyword search for passed legislation.

How has my representative/senator has voted on similar bills?

• First, locate the original bill number from the text of the Public Act (in the upper left corner, starts with either "HB" or "SB"). Then, from the box on your Previous General Assemblies page, look for Senate (for a state senator) or Representative (for a state representative). For Senators, click the Voting link, type in the bill number and search--you will get a pdf document that you will need to look thru. For representatives, click "Roll Call" and do the same. If you need help, please ask Peg or another librarian!

Did my representative write, sponsor, or cosponsor this bill?

• You can check the legislation they are involved with on their info pages.

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Contacting your representative

How do I write a letter to my Senator or Representative?

• Letter Writing for Advocacy ~ from the Reading Recovery Council of North America; also look at the information on faxing and emailing
• Letter Writing ~ from the League of Women Voters from New Jersey

How do I find contact information for my senator or representative?

• Project Vote-Smart: U.S. Congress Members of Illinois ~ click on a person's name to get biographies and contact information; the most effective way to contact your representative or senator is by using their Illinois address
• United States Senate: Illinois Senators
• United States House of Representatives: House of Representatives Member Web Site Listing

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Writing and Citing Information

For help with writing, try the Elmhurst College Writing Center online help page.

You can also try these online resources

Developing an Outline From OWL at Purdue University
College Writing and Citing
Citing Electronic Resources
ONLINE! Citation Styles
Citing Sources from the Duke University Libraries

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

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Web Pages for Courses: Political Science

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