Gemstone E-Voter Team

Web page created by Gerri Foudy, Social Sciences Team, UM Libraries
Mentor: Dr. Paul Herrnson

The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research for your Gemstone E-Voter Team project. If you need additional information, please contact Gerri Foudy, the Team Librarian, or speak with a Reference Librarian at McKeldin Library's Reference Desk.

When accessing subscription databases from off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your last name and the 14-digit number on the back of your UM student id card.

Table of Contents

• Library Catalogs (Finding books, documents, and more)
• Government Information
• Secondary Sources (News, background information, analysis, etc.)
• News and Current Events
• Political
• Political - Scholarly/Academic
• Technological & Business
• Public Opinion Sources
• Finding Experts
• Citation Guides

Library Catalogs

• UM Libraries Catalog
  The Libraries' catalog provides information about the holdings of all libraries in the University System of Maryland.
  To search all of the UM System libraries, click on "multi-campus search."
  Books owned by other libraries in the system can be ordered at the computer for delivery to College Park (or elsewhere); click on the yellow "Request" button on the record's availability screen.

  Search the online catalog for books and documents on your topic. Start with a keyword search.
  Example: voting and technolog*

  Once you have found some relevant records by using a keyword search, you can use the subject headings in the records to find more materials.
  Example: Electronic Voting - Security Measures

  You can also use the catalog to find out whether the Libraries subscribe to a particular journal. Go into the journals search (at the top of the catalog page) and do a "title beginning with search" for the journal title, NOT the article title.
  Example: Campaigns & Elections

• WorldCAT
  Combined catalog of books and other materials in libraries worldwide, including the Library of Congress. Items not owned by University System of Maryland libraries can be requested online for borrowing through interlibrary loan; click on the "FindIt" button and then the link for "Interlibrary Loan" to fill out the Interlibrary Loan Request form.

• RLG Union Catalog
  Contains information on the collections of major research libraries; academic, public, corporate and national libraries; archives and museums; historical societies and international book vendors Items not owned by University System of Maryland libraries can be requested online for borrowing through interlibrary loan; click on the "FindIt" button and then the link for "Interlibrary Loan" to fill out the Interlibrary Loan Request form. .

Government Information

• Lexis-Nexis Congressional
  Comprehensive access to US legislative information including legislative histories and the CIS index of congressional publications from 1970 to the present, including congressional hearing testimonies and the Congressional Record.. A separate index, less exhaustive, is also available for previous congressional publications (1789-1969).

• Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports Search Engine
  The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research arm of the US Congress. It issues about 3,000 briefs, reports, short issue papers and longer position papers per year, but it does not make its reports available to the public. However, it cannot prevent members of Congress from giving them out individually and some government agencies from posting reports they find relevant. Perhaps 1000 of these reports have become available on the web.
  http://2act.org/p/576.html

  GPO Access: Search Across Multiple Databases
  Can search for documents from the three branches of government.
  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/multidb.html

• Federal Election Commission Record
  FEC's monthly newsletter. Searchable by keywords.
  http://www.fec.gov/pages/record.shtml

• Government Periodicals Index
  Provides indexing of full-text government publications from 170 current government publications as well as about 2500 articles from many Federal departments and agencies. 1988 to current.

• General Accounting Office (GAO) Reports
  The GAO is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress and publishes reports, testimony, and legal decisions on a daily basis.
  Find GAO Reports.
  http://www.gao.gov/audit.htm

• United Nations Search
  Search UN website for documents put online within the last year.
  http://www.un.org/search/advanced.html

Secondary Sources

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
  Mostly full-text access to US and international newspapers, journals, wire services, news transcripts, and legal news, including the Washington Post and the New York Times. Choose "Guided Search" to be able to search the different types of news sources.

• Alternative Press Index
  ndexes nearly 300 alternative, radical, and left journals, newspapers, and magazines and includes selected abstracts from research journals. 1991 to the present.

• Ethnic NewsWatch
  Full-text bilingual (English/Spanish) database of 200 publications of the ethnic, minority, and native press. 1990 to the present.

• Lexis-Nexis Congressional
  Go into the "Inside Washington" section for access to Roll Call, The Hill, and Section A of the Washington Post and into the "Members" section for biographical information on individual members of Congress, including key votes, floor statements, committee assignments, financial disclosures, and campaign finance information.

• CQ Voting and Elections Collection
  Full-text database of statistics, analyses, definitions, and historical material on the American voter, major and minor political parties, campaigns and elections, and historical and modern races for Congress, the presidency, and governorships..

• CQ Weekly
  Weekly legislative news and analysis, full text from 1983 to the present.

• National Journal Group's Policy Central
  Full-text, searchable database of the National Journal Group's publications (National Journal, Hotline, Congress Daily, Almanac of American Politics) plus markup reports, public opinion data, and an archive of television campaign ads with streaming audio and video.
  

Political - Scholary/Academic

• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  Citations, abstracting, and indexing of more than 1,300 international political science journals. Some full-text links are available. Many records from key journals published since 2000, also include the references cited in the bibliography of the source article. 1975 to current. Current articles have linked references.

• PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International
  The PAIS International database contains references to more than 460,000 journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed.

• CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online
  Mostly full-text database which publishes a wide range of scholarship including working papers from research institutes, occasional paper series from NGOS, policy briefs, case studies, conference proceedings and papers, course packs, book chapters and journal articles.

• Lexis-Nexis Academic - Law Reviews
  Go into "Legal Research" then "Law Reviews." Choose "Guided Search" and change "Search for" drop-down box to "Title."

Technological & Business

• ACM Digital Library
  Full-text repository of papers from publications that have been published, co-published, or co-marketed by ACM and other publishers. Publications include journals, magazines, transactions, special interest group (SIG) newsletters, proceedings, and publications by affiliated organizations.

• Business Source Premier
  Provides indexing and abstracting for more than 4100 periodicals and offers full text for more than 3000 journals.

• Business and Company Resource Center
  Provides Indexing and full-text information from major business directories, handbooks, encyclopedias and trade publications. Coverage: Offers both public and private company histories, chronologies, investment reports, brief industry overviews and periodical articles.

• IEEE Xplore
  Provides full-text access to IEEE transactions, journals, magazines and conference proceedings published since 1988 and all current IEEE Standards.

• INSPEC
  Indexes and abstracts 4,000 scientific/technical journals and conference proceedings in physics, electrical engineering, computing, and information technology. 1969 to present.

• Lecture Notes in Computer Science
  Established as a medium for the publication of new developments in computer science and information technology research and teaching. Selected volumes available from 1983 to current.

• Science and Social Science Citation Index (Web of Knowledge)
  A multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the sciences and social sciences. One of the few indexes for finding what papers have cited other papers. Cited references can be traced forward in time.

Public Opinion Sources

When accessing subscription databases from off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your last name and the 14-digit number on the back of your UM student id card.

• Roper iPoll
  This databank is a comprehensive, up-to-date source for questions asked on U.S. nationwide public opinion surveys since 1935. It provides question wordings, response percentages, and full survey-level citations. In order to start using iPOLL, click "iPOLL Login" and complete the "iPOLL New User Registration" page on the website.

• Gallup Brain
  Searchable database of Gallup Poll questions and responses back to 1935, plus current Gallup Poll News Service articles and replicas of news stories and press releases linked to the survey.

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
  Go into "Reference" and click on "Polls & Surveys" for information from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Includes sources in opinion polling such as Gallup, Harris, Roper; ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC; Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.

• National Journal's Policy Central
  Go into "Poll Track."

• American Public Opinion Index. Louisville, KY: Opinion Research Service, 1981 -.
  Index to opinion data contained in companion microfiche American Public Opinion Data.
  LOCATION: (Index) MCKREF STACKS, (Microfiche) MCKPER MFICHE
  CALL NUMBER: (Index) HM261.A463, ((Microfiche) HM261.A4632

• Harris Poll. Los Angeles: Creator's Syndicate, Inc., 1988 - .
  Issued weekly; polls on a wide range of subjects.
  LOCATION: MCK FOLIO (Latest issues in MCKPER CURPER)
  CALL NUMBER: HM261.A211

• Polling the Nations
  A compilation of questions and responses from more than 12,000 national, state, local and special surveys, conducted by 700 polling organizations in the United States and 70 other countries from 1986 through the present. Choose topic "Voting" and then do a keyword search in the "Question Box."
  

Finding Experts

• Washington Information Directory
  Contact information, descriptions, and organizational charts for over 10,000 federal, congressional, and state government offices, nongovernmental organizations, policy groups, and foundations. Ability to export contact information into letter templates and other formats, and to create your own profile of saved favorite documents.

• Congressional Quarterly's Congressional Staff Directory. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc.,
  Includes information on members, committees, staffs, and biographies.
  LOCATION: MCKELDIN REFERENCE STACKS (Older editions in McKeldin Periodical Stacks)
  CALL NUMBER: JK1012.C65

• Congressional Quarterly's Federal Staff Directory
  Includes information on staff in the White House, executive departments, independent agencies, quasi-official organizations, and biographies.
  LOCATION: MCKELDIN REFERENCE STACKS (Older editions in MCK Periodical Stacks)
  CALL NUMBER: JK6.F43

• Congressional Yellow Book: Who's Who in Congress, Including Committees and Key Staff. New York: Leadership Directories, Inc.
  Published quarterly.
  LOCATION: MCKELDIN REFERENCE STACKS
  CALL NUMBER: JK1010 .C68

• Ness, Immanuel. Encyclopedia of Interest Groups and Lobbyists in the United States. Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 2000.
  Includes information on group histories, current and future activities, finances, and bibliographies.
  LOCATION: MCKELDIN REFERENCE STACKS
  CALL NUMBER: JK1118 .N47 2000 vol. 1-2

• Political Advocacy Groups
  Kathleen Fountain, a librarian at CSU-Chico, has developed a comprehensive listing of links to U.S. lobbying organizations, arranged by subject area.
  http://www.csuchico.edu/~kcfount/

• Political Science Resources: Think Tank Directory
  "Think tanks" are policy research and advocacy organizations which usually have a political slant. This site from the University of Michigan Libraries gives an annotated list of links to think tank home pages. Most think tanks post research and position papers and other documents on the web.
  http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/psthink.html

• U.S. Government Manual
  "As the official handbook of the Federal Government, the United States Government Manual rovides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, and boards, commissions, and committees."
  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gmanual/index.html

• Washington Representatives. Washington, DC: Columbia Books, Inc., 2004.
  "A compilation of Washington representatives of major national associations, labor unions, governments, U.S. and foreign companies, registered foreign agents, lobbyists, lawyers, and special interest groups, together with their clients and areas of legislative and regulatory concern."
  LOCATION: MCKELDIN REFERENCE STACKS (Older editions in McKeldin Periodical Stacks)
  CALL NUMBER: JK1118.D581

• Zuckerman, Edward. Almanac of Federal PACs. Hedgesville, WV: Amward Publications, Inc.
  Published every two years. Includes information about every PAC which contributed $50,000 or more to congressional candidates during the election cycles.
  LOCATION: MCKELDIN REFERENCE STACKS (EARLIER EDITIONS IN MCK PERIODICAL STKS)
  CALL NUMBER: JK1991 .A744

Citation Guides

• Citation Guidelines: Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper
• Documentation Guidelines: Citing Sources Within Your Paper
• Brief Guide to Citing Government Publications
• Reading Legal Citations

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