Objective: Using
Library Resources in Conducting a Literature Search
I. Clearly define your
research problem
Use Reference Resources
to clarify your research problem and gather background information.
Selected resources in the WSU library are listed below. Look on the
shelves near these books; there may be similar books nearby with helpful information.
- Encyclopedia of Political Thought
Middle Level, Reference Shelves: JA 61 .E52 2001
- The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World
Middle Level, Reference Shelves: JA 61 .O95 2001
- The Encyclopedia of Democracy
Middle Level, Reference Shelves: JC 423 .E53 1995
- The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations
Middle Level, Reference Shelves: JZ 1160 .N65 2002
- West's Encyclopedia of American Law
Middle Level, Reference Table 2B: KF 154 .W47 1997
- American Political Leaders 1789-2000
Middle Level, Reference Shelves: E 176 .A513 2000
- The American Bench
Middle Level, Reference East Wall: KF 8700 .A19A17
II. Select your search terms
- State your research topic as a thesis statement or a question:
the development of voting rights in the United States
- Identify the separate concepts that make up your topic:
"voting rights"; "United States"
- Make a list of search terms for each concept. Be sure to
include synonyms, related terms, and terms that may be broader or narrower; also, put phrases in quotation marks:
"voting rights": suffrage, "election reform", "right to vote"
United States: America, U.S., Georgia, Florida, etc.
The Contemporary Thesaurus of Search Terms and Synonyms
- ask at Reference Desk
- Add appropriate official subject headings to your lists:
Thesaurus of Sociological Indexing Terms - ask at Reference Desk
Library of Congress Subject Headings - ask at Reference Desk
III. Devise your search strategy
Based on your list(s) of search
terms, devise your search strategy:
- use boolean operator OR; this tells the computer to search
for all the terms at the same time; put phrases in quotations marks:
"voting rights" or suffrage; "United States" or America
- use boolean operator AND; this tells the computer to
restrict retrieval to both concepts:
"voting rights" and "United States"
- use truncation (*) to broaden your search to include
variants of a term:
America* will retrieve America, american, americans
- use parentheses to group terms combined using OR:
("voting rights" or suffrage or "election reform") and ("United States" or U.S. or America*)
IV. Conduct a literature search
Finding Books:
To find books, search one
or more of the following library catalogs:
Be sure to check the shelves near
any books you find; there may be other books with similar information nearby.
You can also find books
in Political Science and related fields by browsing the shelves
in the Top Level of the library in the General Collection under
the following call numbers: J [Political Science],
KF [Law], E [General U.S. History],
F [Local U.S. History], HN [Social
History], HV [Criminal Justice], HX
[Socialism], B [Philosophy].
If the book you is not available in our library, use ILLiad (our online Interlibrary Loan system) to request a copy from another library. This usually takes 4 to 7 days.
Finding Articles:
To find magazine and journal
articles, search one or more of our article databases.
An article database is a searchable database of references to magazine and journal articles. Some article databases also provide links to the full-text of the article.
To find magazine and journal articles in Political Science, the best place to start is Academic Search Premier. It contains thousands of full-text articles from hundreds of magazines and scholarly journals, including many in political science, history, sociology, management, and related disciplines. To limit your search to scholary journal articles in Academic Search Premier, click on the box next to Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journals. You may also limit your search to articles available in full-text on the computer by clicking on the box next to Full Text. Some other article databases that you may want to search include World Wide Political Science Abstracts; America: History and Life; and ABI Inform Global.
To find newspaper articles on Political Science topics, use one of our News databases.
Obtaining Articles:
If the article is available as PDF Full Text of HTML Full Text in the article database you are using, download, email or print the article.
If the article is not available as PDF Full Text or HTML Full Text, click on the Linked Full Text or Find Full Text buttons to see if we have it in full-text in another database.
If there are no Linked Full Text or Find Full Text buttons, or if it says that no full-text is available when you follow any of the links, check the library's EJournals list to see if full-text for the journal containing the article is available in another article database. This list will also tell you if we subscribe to the journal in print format.
If the article is only available in print, do a Journal Alphabetical search in our Online Catalog to identify the call number for the print journal. Recent issues of print journals are shelved by call number in the Current Periodicals area on the Middle Level of the library at the south end. Earlier issues are shelved by call number in bound volumes on the Top Level of the library.
If the article is not available either online or in print, use ILLiad (our online Interlibrary Loan system) to request a copy of the article from another library. This usually takes 2 to 4 days.
When you find a good book or article,
check the bibliography to identify other books and articles on your
subject.
Finding Internet Resources:
To find Internet resources,
an excellent place to begin is the Stewart Library's list of web
resources in Political Science. Most of the sites listed will provide
links to additional sites, so explore! Use Internet
search engines to find additional information.
V. Carefully evaluate the information
you find
Need Help?
- Visit the Reference Desk or call 626-6415 and speak to a reference
librarian
- Online reference help via email: Ask-A-Librarian
Service