This pathfinder is a guide to help you begin your research. As sources and topics in the political science field are vast, these are only representative examples of the research paths you can pursue. For more assistance, you may contact the librarian.
Yuba College Library Online Catalog
Polaris is Yuba College Library’s Online Catalog system. Students can perform searches of the Library’s holdings, find related texts, using the column on the left panel on the returned listings page, and check on the availability of texts, among other things.
Additionally, at the top of the home page, in tabular format, the student can search a dictionary and thesaurus. There are also additional search functions available.
http://yccd.polarislibrary.com/search/default.aspx?ctx=3.1033.0.0.3&type=Default
Browsing Areas In Yuba College Library Shelves
The Library uses the Dewey Decimal System to catalog its holdings. If students are browsing the Yuba College Library shelves for their American Government paper, the following sections of the Library would be most helpful:
301.5
320.03
320.09
329
330
350
973.9
REF 328.73
REF 342.73
Yuba College Subscription Databases
Credo Reference
“Credo Reference is an online reference service made up of full-text books from the world’s best publishers. Whether you’re working on a research paper, trying to win trivia or just curious, Credo Reference has something for you.”
http://www.credoreference.com/home.do
Students can use the general query field to do searches on, for instance, American Government, or they can access the Advanced Search page and return more detailed results. The Advanced Search page is here:
http://www.credoreference.com/advanced.do
In the Advanced Search, students can narrow their article searches by relevance, date of publication, subject, and types of media.
Ebrary
Students may search with a general query or through Subjects, including US History. If one chooses US History, a student can change the Keyword on the next page to suit their paper’s topic.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/yuba/home.action
JSTOR
Used by millions for research, teaching, and learning. With more than a thousand academic journals and over 1 million images, letters, and other primary sources, JSTOR is one of the world’s most trusted sources for academic content.
The Advanced Search key allows the student to narrow the dates of articles, and use multiple query fields at once.
ProQuest
Students may access multiple databases on ProQuest by clicking on the drop-down arrow on the Database field, allowing searches across subject databases. Searches can additionally be narrowed by Date of Publication, Full-Text Documents, and/or Peer-Reviewed articles.
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=302&cfc=1
Abc-Clio
ABC-CLIO is an award-winning publisher of reference, contemporary thought, and professional development content, created to help students, educators, librarians, and general readers of all ages wrestle with complex challenges. A great database for searching in History and Government.
CQ Researcher
CQ Researcher reports on political, economic, and social issues.
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/
NetLibrary
NetLibrary provides access to your library’s eContent collection. eContent is the digital version of books, journals, and database content. Sign up for a free account on campus to have off-campus access.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,url,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=nlebk
California Government
RAND
RAND contains more than 150 databases, ranging from employment to annual spending per pupil to population projections. Much of the data are available at the national, state, county, city, and zip code levels. California and US public policy statistics. Data are updated on a regular basis.
California State Government
The official state government website is here:
Anthologies (print
Dissent in America—The Voices That Shaped A Nation: 400 Years of Speeches, Sermons, Arguments, Articles, Letters, and Songs That Made A Difference
Yuba College Library shelf location: 303.484 Y83
Online (Free Web) Sites
Library of Congress Authorities
Using Library of Congress Authorities, you can browse and view authority headings for Subject, Name, Title and Name/Title combinations. Students will be able to generate additional Subject areas concerning American Government, to aid them in narrowing the focus of their papers.
United States Department of Labor—Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is an independent national statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the American public, the U.S. Congress, other Federal agencies, State and local governments, business, and labor. The BLS also serves as a statistical resource to the Department of Labor.
American Fact Finder—United States Census Bureau
Provides highly searchable database for population, housing, economic, and geographic data.
http://factfinder2.census.gov/main.html
Google Scholar
Provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles.
Google Uncle Sam
U.S. government search:
http://www.google.com/unclesam
Fedstats.gov
Federal statistics from more than 100 agencies are available to citizens everywhere.
USA.gov
Home page of the U.S. Government’s Official Web Portal for all government transactions, services, and information.
Online (Free Web) Video
C-SPAN video library:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/
The White House—Live Stream:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live
Online Supplementary Help
Citing and Writing/Style Manuals
Offers links to current information on the main citation manuals: APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian.
http://library.sjsu.edu/citing-writing-0
BibMe
BibMe is a free automatic citation creator that supports MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian formatting. BibMe leverages external databases to quickly fill citation information for you. BibMe will then format the citation information and compile a bibliography according to the guidelines of the style manuals. If you prefer, you can enter your citation information manually. BibMe also features a citation guide that provides students with the style manuals’ guidelines for citing references.
This is the official blog of Yuba College Library. Contact the library for your information and research needs. E-mail: ycref@yccd.edu
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