Print Sources:

Remember that often, the most effective way to narrow your paper topic is to look at reference books on the first floor of the library. For example, try:

• The United States Government Manual, 2007-2008 JK421 .A3 2007-2008
• Political Handbook of the World 2007 JF 37 .P6 2007
• Encyclopedia of American Public Policy JK 468 .P64 J33 1999

You can find information about our print books, newspapers, journals, DVDs and CDs in our catalog. When you begin to figure out your subject topic, try doing a subject search. You can do a subject search by clicking on the the "advanced search" tab on the library catalog page. Once you have typed in a few keywords (using different search boxes) be sure to select "subject words" in the boxes to the right of the screen following the "search by."

Confused? Here is a basic handout that explains how to search the catalog.

Possible subject searches for this class:

• United States --Politics and government
• Policy
• Affirmative Action
• Campaign funds

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Finding Database Articles:

With such a diverse group of subjects, you'll want to search many of our specialized databases in a range of different topics. Be sure to visit the database by subject page in order to get a sense of other databases available to you.

Some helpful databases for everyone:

• JSTOR is a full-text database of scholarly articles that covers a wide range of topics. Be careful to check the dates of your articles when using this database.
• Lexis Nexis provides about 20 years' worth of newspaper articles on a variety of topics. You can track congressional discussions, the effect of laws, and popular sentiment regarding laws through this databases.
• Academic Search Premier has good full-text coverage of current events and governmental news. As ASP has both scholarly and full-text sources, be sure that you know which you are looking at.
• Sociological Abstracts is an index database which gives citations to a wide range of scholarly articles.

Finding Articles not at NPU: If an article is available neither in full-text nor in print in our library, you can request articles in two ways. You can use the Interlibrary Loan form on our library webpages or the "Brandel Library Interlibrary Loan form" you discover when you click on the blue "Find Full Text" buttons in our databases. Be sure to allow between 2 and 3 weeks for articles to come in to the library.

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Helpful Webpages:

There are a lot of government websites with official statistics and reports available to you.

Here are a few places that will help you search government websites:

• USA.gov is a governmental search engine--it searches only government websites.
• Thomas is another governmental search engine that focuses on congressional legislation. Discover which congresspeople sponsored, debated, and voted for (or against) different proposals here.
• If you are absolutely wedded to Google, try using site:.gov as one of your search words to restrict yourself to official government websites.

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