GOAL: To introduce students to various methods and sources used to acquire scholarly journal articles and current news stories related to a country-specific topic.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will . . .

• List the differences between scholarly and popular publications
• Find background information on the country they are researching
• Use library search tools to identify scholarly articles on 2 country-specific government institutions
• Use the Internet and library search tools to find sites on government, international humanitarian organizations, and newspapers originating from their topic country
• Locate materials within the library or use Information Delivery Services to access materials owned by other libraries

 

COUNTRY BACKGROUND:

CIA World Factbook	ref G122 .U56a
Country Studies (Library of Congress)	Direct link on the Internet or for print copy, search GLOCAT, title=name of country and title=country study
Country Background Notes	U.S. State Department
Europa World Yearbook	ref JN 1 .E85 (most current year is located in Reference, older years are on 3rd floor, Milne Library, under JN 1 .E85)
Governments on the WWW	Links to the official governmental homepages of various countries. Some sites may not be translated into English, depending on chosen country.
Nations of the World	Information about the constitution, executive, judicial, legislative, as well as legal guides, on various countries. Links to general sources on each country are also included.
Portals to the World	Background information for various countries
UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office	Click on Policy (left), then Countries and Regions
World Bank	Click on Countries (upper left corner)

FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES:

To access any of the databases listed below, go to Resources by Subject, and choose Political Science

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts	* Indexes and abstracts journal articles in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy. * Covers from 1975 to the present.
PAIS International	* Cites articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical directories about public affairs. * Covers from 1971 to the present with article summaries for most records from 1985.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)	* Working papers, conference proceedings, full-text book chapters, journal abstracts and other scholarly materials dealing with all aspects of foreign affairs. * Resources are gathered from 45 leading institutes around the world.
AfricaBib	* Lists articles from periodicals that specialize in African Studies or consistently cover the African continent. * Indexes articles from over 246 English language and multi-lingual journals and periodicals.
Academic Search Premier	* Provides access to over 8,000 publications, with more than half of those in full-text format. Covers all areas of academic study.
JSTOR	* A multidisciplinary database offering full-text articles from scholarly publications. Full-text access dates as far back as 1665.
PA Research Library (ProQuest)	* Abstracts from 1985 for over 1,800 periodicals ranging from popular magazines to scholarly journals. * Full text for over half of the titles.

FINDING NEWSPAPER STORIES:

LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic Universe	* Access to nearly 6,000 titles in news, business, and legal information. * Includes foreign newspapers
ProQuest Newspapers	* Abstracts from 1985 for 30 U.S. newspapers, with full text for 15. * Includes the latest 90 days of the full text of the New York Times.

News and Newspapers Online

NewsDirectory.com

World Newspapers

World-newspapers.com

OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES:

Amnesty International

Human Rights Library, University of Minnesota

Human Rights Watch

MADRE: Women's Human Rights

United Nations

UN Links

US Institute for Peace

World Health Organization

 

For any unanswered questions, please ask a librarian for help!