POL 452-01: The American Presidency

Fall 2006

Professor Bengtson

 

Finding Information in the Library On American Presidents

 

Useful Reference Books:

Facts about the presidents : a compilation of biographical and historical information. Joseph Nathan Kane. R 973 K16F
Dictionary of American history. Edited by J. T. Adams. R 973 D5541976
The Presidents, first ladies and vice presidents : White House biographies, 1789-1989. Daniel C. Diller, Stephen L. Robertson. R 973 D578P
Encyclopedia of American History. eEdited by Richard B. Morris and Jeffrey B. Morris.R 973 E561996

Finding Books on American Presidents

Use I-Share Online to find books held in the Elmhurst College library as well as books owned by 65 other Illinois libraries.

  • Quick Searches
    • A good way to start looking for books.
    • You can either look for particular items (such as a particular title), or you can do keyword searching.
    • Use the main words describing your topic.
    • For example, to find books about presidents, type the word presidents (with or without capitals).
    • The word presidents can be anywhere in the description of the item, like the name of the publisher.
  • Doing Subject Searches
    • A more precise way of searching.
    • I-Share Online uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (or LC subject headings) to arrange and organize information.
    • Subject headings are very specific; you can guess what they might be, but you can't make them up.
    • Some examples of subject headings:
      • Washington, George
      • Presidents--United States--Biography
      • United States--Politics and government--1909-1913
    • Some tips for subject searching:
      • Names have to be in Last name, First name order (Washington, George--not George Washington).
      • Try words like: biography, election, White House, policy, etc.
      • If one set of words isn't working try another!
  • Guided Keyword Searches
    • Allow you more flexibility.
    • Click the appropriate tab, and fill in the blanks as desired.
    • You can change your searching options to look for either some or all of the words you've typed in, and to look in different areas of the item's catalog record.
    • For example, select all of these and type Richard Nixon campaign .

Remember that if we do not have a book you need here in the EC library, it can take up to 10 days to get it through InterLibrary Loan. Plan ahead!

 

 

Finding Internet Resources on American Presidents

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 on the subject of American Presidents. Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia.It contains lots of information about American Presidents. 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. 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 useful websites:

American Presidents: Life Portraits (there is some useful stuff here, but you can't search by President)
Books on American Presidents and the White House
Librarians' Index to the Internet: Presidents
The American Presidency Project
The White House
The Presidents of the United States
Presidential Biographies (part of Whitehousekids.gov)

 

 

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.

  • Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia ~ Encyclopedias are good sources for general information. Start with this one to get some basic facts about your President.

  • History Databases This is the list of all the databases the Library has that relate to history research. Some of these may be useful as you research your President.
  • Military and Government Collection This database has some military journals, current news, and trade publications. It may be useful for information about historical presidents.

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

 

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 28th, 2006 by Peg Cook, Assistant Reference & Instruction Librarian

A.C. Buehler Library Website