Saint Michael's College

Research by Subject

  Reference Sources

Credo Reference
Search Political Science encyclopedias and dictionaries

Encyclopedia of the American Constitution
REF KF4548 .E53 2000

Official congressional directory
REF JK1011 .C74

The Statesman's year-book
REF JA51 .S7

 Study Guides

Political Science Department

• General

American Political Science Association
http://www.apsanet.org/

How to Effectively Locate Federal Government Information on the Web
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/universe/dedecker.html
This "hands-on" workshop is designed to demonstrate how to maximize retrieval of federal government information on the Web.

• Federal / Government

Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress 1774-present
http://bioguide.congress.gov/
Search this site for biographical information about senators and congressional representatives. Also provides access to senate and house history.

CIA FOIA: Electronic Reading Room
http://www.foia.cia.gov/default.asp
Provides directions for the public wanting to request CIA information and electronic access to previously released declassified documents.

Congress Votes
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/
A Washington Post database that provides data on votes in Congress since 1991.

FedWorld
http://www.fedworld.gov
One stop shopping for government information. Links to information regarding the military, law, customs, tax, art, science, etc. along with links to departments and publications.

Federal Citizen Information Center
http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/
A clearinghouse for links for government services and programs and consumer problems.

Federal Judicial Center
http://www.fjc.gov
Principal research and education center for the U.S. courts.

FindLaw, Inc.
http://supreme.findlaw.com
An educational resource site focusing on the United States Constitution and its impact on society.  Designed with students and the general public in mind, the FindLaw Constitutional Law Center features an easy-to-read guide that leads visitors though historic documents, biographies, Supreme Court decisions, and the hottest constitutional law topics.

GPO Access
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs
The U.S. Government Printing Office offers searching of approximately 1,000 government databases for the text of official government documents and information.

Legislative Information
http://thomas.loc.gov

National Criminal Justice Reference Service
http://www.ncjrs.gov/
Provides access to the NCJRS Virtual Library as well as to the Library Abstracts database.

The Official home page for the White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov
Official home page with links to the President and Vice President, organizations, agencies, news, etc.

Supreme Court Decisions
http://www.law.cornell.edu
Supreme Court decisions since 1990. U.S. Constitution, Code, Code of Federal Regulations, state laws, international laws and more!

U.S. Government Documents Ready Reference Collection
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/usgd/rref/index.html
Subject listing of government documents selected the Columbia University Libraries.

U. S. House of Representatives
http://www.house.gov

U.S. Senate
http://www.senate.gov/

• International / Foreign Government Information

Brookings Institution
http://www.brook.edu

Canadian Government Information
www.collectionscanada.ca/8/4/index-e.thml
Excellent free online resource from the National Library of Canada.

Country Studies
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
Contains the on-line versions of books previously published in hard copy by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army.

Election Resources on the Internet
http://electionresources.org
Links to web sites containing publicly available election data and electoral information for over 120 countries; electoral overview and political party information for about 30 countries.

Intergovernmental Conference (IGC): Institutional Reform to Prepare for Enlargement
http://europa.eu.int/igc2000/index_en.htm
Provides links to the Treaty of Nice site, Archives of the IGC 2000 and the Future of Europe debate.

International Government Metapages from Northwestern University
http://www.library.nwu.edu/govpub/resource/internat/
Exciting links to information about foreign governments including links to country information, governmental organizations, maps and research guides.

Institute for Global Communications
http://www.igc.apc.org/igc/index.html

National Institute for Research Advancement
http://www.nira.go.jp/ice/tt-info/nwdtt99/index.html
World Directory of Think Tanks

• Political parties

Republican National Committee
http://www.rnc.org

Democratic National Committee
http://www.democrats.org

Minor Candidates
http://www.minorcandidates.com
Created by SMC journalism students to provide information about minor candidates running for the 2008 presidential election.

• Presidency

AmericanPresident.org
http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/amprez.html
IFeatures the "Presidency in History" section with biographies and timelines and a "Presidency in Action" section.  Transcripts of interviews are also available  through a tab labeled "Oral History."

The White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov
Includes the current President's biographical information, speeches, accomplishments, White House agencies, Vice President, First Lady, President's Cabinet, legislative and judicial branches of government.

Presidential Papers / Presidential Materials
http://www.nara.gov/research/all/presmats.html
Includes links to presidential records, historical materials for Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. Also, provides an overview on the Presidential library system.

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/nara003.html
Includes the Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, U.S. Government Manual, and a search engine for the public papers (http://www.gpo.gov/nara/pubpaps/srchpaps.html) of the Presidents.

Presidential Documents on NARA Web Sites
http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/presdoc.html
The National Archives and Records Administration provides access here to executive orders, proclamations, and other documents.

Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents
http://bartleby.com/124/index.html

• Biographies and Related Information

POTUS (Presidents Of The United States)
http://www.ipl.org/div/potus
Developed by the Internet Public Library, includes a list of the Presidents and inks to Presidential election results, cabinet members, notable events, biographies, documents, and more.

"Presidents"
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/index.htm
Includes links to speeches, biographies, papers--Developed by EDSITEMENT, a joint project of the National Endowment for the Humanities and Council of the Great City Schools, MCI WorldCom and the National Trust for the Humanities.

Library of Congress Online Catalog
http://www.loc.gov
Search for titles of books about and by the Presidents.

Alphabetical Index of the Library of Congress web site
http://lcweb.loc.gov/resdev/browse/h.html
Look under P (Presidents) for presidential links

• Voting information, Election Information, and Presidential Campaigns

ElectionGuide
http://www.electionguide.org
Published by the International Foundation for Election Systems.

Project Vote Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org/
Information on Presidential candidates including public statements.

Politics1.com
http://www.politics1.com/
Links to "Presidency 2000," political parties, primary calendar and results, issues and debates.

Polling Report
http://www.pollingreport.com
Presents results of numerous political polls. Polls about tax cuts, Presidential ratings, government ratings, presidential race ratings, violence in America, public schools, etc.

Presidential Impeachment

Presidential Impeachment and Censure; An Online Resource Guide
http://www.marshall.edu/library/balch/impeachment_guide.htmlx

• Primary Source Materials

Making of America, primary source materials from 1850-1900
http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa/

United Nations Documentation: Research Guide
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/index.html
A guide to UN documents, an overview and guidance on how to use them.