Professor Trish
Current Events:
Lexis-Nexis (Academic)
Choose “General” and “Power Search” for most flexibility. Be sure to check the date range. “General” includes all Lexis-Nexis Academic areas—news, business, legal, biographical. Use “quotation marks” to search phrases. See instructions in the Power Search section for using connecting terms AND and OR and W/2 (etc.). These will help narrow down your search. The Source options also allow you to choose a language and/or a country.
Take advantage of the option to be selective with your sources—you can now limit your sources by type of and content of document—and then select titles.
If you want to see today’s news choose “Easy Search,” “Major U.S. and World Publications,” and select “today” in the date selection box.
To search a specific newspaper such as the New York Times or the Washington Post, click on “Sources” tab in the upper left hand corner of the screen and type the name of the newspaper or other source you'd like to search in the appropriate box. (Includes the New York Times full text back to 1980).
When choosing a source, after you have made all your selections, click on the red box that says "continue."
Access World News (foreign news sources and U.S. newspapers-national and regional)
Includes U.S. sources and sources from around the world. Foreign language sources are either originally in English or have been translated into English. America’s Papers provides coverage of many regional newspapers including Iowa papers such as the
Des Moines Register, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, and The Iowa City Press Citizen.
New York Times
****The libraries have the entire run of the New York Times on microfilm from 1851 forward. We also have a printed index to the entire run of the New York Times from 1851 to the present. This index is set up in a manner that allows you to follow the progression of a story over time. You may get some insight into a story to see how it unfolds and public awareness of details change. The New York Times is available through Lexis-Nexis and Access World News. You can also search the NYTimes Index at nytimes.com.
For more information on searching the NY Times see: http://www.lib.grin.edu/research/newyorktimes.html
The New York Times has recently opened up large sections of their archive--they are no longer charging. For details click on the link above.
Newslink--online access to all kinds of news sources
Includes an archive. If you use this, you may find articles freely available, but if not, you won’t know whether or not we have access to the papers online or not (or have them on microfilm for that matter). This works well as an index, but you’ll need to check the library catalog, use Lexi-Nexis or Access World News or check with a reference librarian to find out how to get access to the papers indexed.
And of course—
and many other news blogs . . .
Indexes and Abstracts (many databases either include the actual articles or provide links to articles. You may still have to go to the stacks for a printed copy or request an article on interlibrary loan) Connect to these through the Libraries’ Databases and Indexes page:
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts indexes articles published in the field of political science and related areas 1975 to the present.
PAIS-Public Affairs Information Service International
(two databases: PAIS: 1972-; PAIS Archive 1915-1976)
Polling the Nations--Compiles more than 14,000 surveys conducted by more than 700 polling organizations in the United States and more than 80 other countries from 1986 to the present. You can download results to an Excel file.
Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present. In print at Ref HA202 .H57 2006 and online
You can download tables in Excel, CSV, and zip files. Divided into the same categories as the Statistical Abstract of the Uniteds from which the statistics in this database are taken: Population; Work and Welfare; Economic Structure and Performance; Economic Sectors; Governance and International Relations.
CQ Voting and Elections Collection—data, analysis, explanations, historical documents on the American voter, parties, campaigns, and elections.
Lexis Nexis-Congressional Universe—full text access to Congressional documents and reports, Senate and House bills, laws, regulations. Take advantage of the extensive help screens and examples for searching this database.
Social Science Abstracts—broad coverage of select journals in covering all of the social sciences. It indexes articles published from 1984 to the present.
America: History and Life (United States and Canada)
Academic Search Premier—scholarly journals and popular magazines and newspapers covering all subject areas
JSTOR--limited collection of full text journals in the humanities and social sciences
Project Muse--full text collection of journals published by university presses—humanities and social sciences
Web Sites
We have cataloged many Web sites that may be useful for your research. Some of those are as follows:
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Data Archive
“ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction” (from the Web site)
Including data from:
American National Election Studies (ANES)
Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior
“The American National Election Studies (ANES) produces high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation to serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists who want to better understand the theoretical and empirical foundations of national election outcomes.” (from the Web site)
Politics 1.com
“The Most Comprehensive Online Guide to American Politics” Described as a non-partisan public service to promote informed decision making by the American electorate. Look here for information about who is in office State and Nationwide and who is running. As well as links to public opinion polls, information about the presidency, and the presidential elections.
Documents in the News: Current Events Research
See also our own Hot Docs site
Political Resources on the Net
“Listings of political sites available on the Internet sorted by country, with links to parties, organizations, governments, Media and more from all around the world.” It may link you to the Wikipedia for, for instance, information on elections in Greenland.
Roper Center, Fundamentals of Polling
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/education/polling_fundamentals.html
Internet Resources: Guide to Public Opinion Poll Websites: Polling Data from Around the World. C&RL News, October 2006. Vol. 67, No. 9
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2006/october06/opinionpoll.htm
A directiory to thousands of state agencies and city and county governments.
Information about all candidates voting records, position statements (for some candidates)—this is as useful as the information provided by each candidate. Still—it is a good source for finding out about candidates in local elections and from third parties.
Through a “word” or “title” search in our library catalog find the link to the online
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents for 2007 and earlier are located at the following URL:
The bound public documents of most other presidents can be found on the 2nd floor shelves at J 82.E and J 82.D . . .
http://library.cqpress.com/cqweekly/
This is online from 1983 forward. The library also has in print from 1960 through 2006 (3rd floor). We now only receive this as an online journal.
Information from this site is compiled into the CQ Almanac. It follows the activities of all branches of government.
(Mostly) Print resources (a few examples):
CQ Researcher
Ref H35 .C672
Takes timely subjects and presents both sides of the issue with bibliographical references for further research.
Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Almanac
Ref JK1 .C66
Earlier volumes in stacks, most recent volume in reference. Covers activity in the two houses of Congress during the previous years.
Statistical Abstracts of the United States
Perm Reserve & Ref HA202
Online version:http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
Washington Information Directory
Ref. F192.3 .W33
Budget and Economic Outlook
A link in the catalog will direct you to this online government resource. It is published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). There are many statistical resources at the CBO web site. http://www.cbo.gov/
America Votes (1956-)
Ref. JK 1967 .A8
Voting statistics for national and statewide elections. Much of this is duplicated in the online CQ Voting and Elections Collection. (Go to the libraries’ databases and indexes page, click on C, and then CQ . . .
American National Election Studies Data Sourcebook, 1952-1986-
Ref. JK 1967 .M54 1989 See link to online source above
http://www.electionstudies.org/
Rebecca Stuhr, Grinnell College Libraries, February 2006. Modified September 22, 2007
