• Unpacking your topic, learning specifics, agency, history, trends, context
• Statistics
• Client information

Search Pathfinder, limiting to location DREF (Doe Reference)

Ask for advice at the Doe Reference desk (2^nd floor Doe Library)
Ask for advice at Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) library (109 Moses Hall)

• Help doing research in an area (where to look, books, online resources, strategies)
• Research guides exist for many areas of research

Government Information Research Guides

Where to find and how to use many kinds of resources: Campaign & election sources, Human Rights, Public Opinion Sources, some Policy Issues, United Nations, Immigration, California Legislative & Regulatory Sources, U.S. Congress, European Union, Censuses, and more

From IGS library

California Local Government Information, California Policy Inbox (current policy controversies in Calif.), and "Hot Topics" (Special Elections in California, Same-Sex Marriage in California, California High-Speed Rail, Driver's Licenses For Illegal Immigrants, California Education Reform, California Coastal Commission Reform, Pension Reform in California, Electronic Voting, Indian Gaming, and more ).

IGS Reference Books of Interest

CQ's State Fact Finder -- HN 60 .C68 2005

California Political Almanac 2007-08 -- JK 8701 C36 2007-08

State Legislative Sourcebook 2006: A Resource Guide to Legislative
Information in the Fifty States -- JK 2495 .S689 2006

State Yellow Book -- JK2403 S77 v.19 no.4

Municipal Yellow Book -- JS141 M86 v.17 no.2

• Background on your topic and related issues
• Possible source of evidence, statistics (use bibliographies and footnotes)
• Government publication titles in the library
• Means to locate call numbers or URLs for journals

At Berkeley:

Pathfinder - everything at UCB, but not IGS library or Boalt Library)

At all UC libraries:

Melvyl - includes IGS library (1983-present) and Boalt Library

• Analysis of your topic and related issues
• References to other research and data/statistics and other evidence (read the footnotes!)
• Points of view, arguments, style

Public Policy Electronic Journal Indexes and Other Resources

Links to some of the major ways to find journal articles

Indexes for Social Sciences Journals

Communication Abstracts (incl. Pub. Opinion)- 1977-Current

Communications Studies - full text of 19 communications journals, some back 23 years

Criminology - full text of 23 criminology journals, some back 23 years

ERIC - Education - 1966-Current

Education: full text of 26 education journals, some back 40 years

IBSS - Int'l Bibliography of Social Sciences - 1951-current

PAIS International & Archive - Public Policy, Political Science, Int'l Affairs - 1936-Current

Political Science - full text of 25 poli. sci. journals, some back 24 years

PsychARTICLES - full text of many APA-related articles

PsychINFO - index to may psychology journals - 1967-current

Psychology - full text of 35 psychology journals, some back 36 years

Social Services Abstracts - current research in social work, human services, social welfare, social policy, and community development

Sociological Abstracts - Sociology - 1963-Current

Sociology: full-text of 23 sociology journals, some back 24 years

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts - 1975-Current

SEARCH TIPS:

Words in each box searched as a phrase

Keyword, KW= is usually the best field to search

Click to find the full-text of an article or a call number if the article is not available electronically.

Expanded Academic ASAP - scholarly & popular journals, often with full text - 1980-current

SEARCH TIPS:

Adjacent words typed as phrase. Insert AND, OR, NOT, ( ) to break phrases.

* truncates.

Click to find the full-text of an article or a call number if the article is not available electronically.

Legal and law journals and indexes

Index to Legal Periodicals (1918-present)

LegalTrac (1980-present) - More legal resources

Indexes to Journal Articles in other subject areas - A-Z list by UCB academic program

• Analysis of your topic and related issues within a context of public policy
• References to evidence, formulations of arguments and evidence
• Points of view, arguments, style

PolicyFile - Gateway to text & websites for policy documents from many research organizations and think tanks, (including RAND, Brookings, Amer Enterprise Inst., Cato, Calif. Budget Project, and many more).

SEARCH TIPS:

Click SEARCH to start. Can limit to certain organization.

Use Organization Browse for descriptions and website links.

Enter one or more keywords(default AND)

Accepts AND, OR, NOT, NEAR (within 10 words), FBY (followed by, for phrase search)

* truncates. ? one-character wildcard

Congressional Quarterly Publications

CQ Researcher - For U.S. Congress, analysis/discussion or current and controversial issues of the day with complete summaries, insight into all sides of the issues, bibliographies - 1991-current.

CQ Weekly - Pre-eminent resource for Congress-watchers who need nonpartisan information on Capitol Hill - 1983-current.

National Journal Group's Policy Central - Leading non-partisan policy government-watch services. Committees, bill-tracking, polls, political ads, an much more.

California Gov't & Public Policy Links (IGS library) - Direct links to state agencies, research groups, advocacy groups, statistics, and more for California public policy

U. S. Gov't & Public Policy links (IGS library) - Direct links to state agencies, research groups, advocacy groups, statistics, and more for U.S. public policy

CIAO (International Affairs Policy) - Full text of conference proceedings, working papers, and books as well as journal abstracts, and links to international affairs internet sources.

NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks - from National Institute for Research Advancement, search or browse by country for think tank organizations. Descriptions and links to websites.
Associations Unlimited - search for an association or organization that may be working on your topic.

• Editorial and commentaries, sometimes transcripts of speeches and debates
• Events, specifics
• Often superficial, short-range view
• Client information (background, policies)

News Article Databases - List of over 40 UCB-licensed news databases indexing newspapers, newsletters, and news services worldwide. Most full-text online. Current coverage of major and many other papers.

LexisNexis Academic - Full text of approx. 6,000 newspapers, about 1990-Current.

SEARCH TIPS:

Use Guided Search to search full text and to limit to a specific newspaper. Organized into many "news categories" and "news sources" within categories. Pick one of each.

Click Source List to see what newspapers you're searching in each choice.

Accepts and, or, not, ( ) and w/s (same sentence), w/p (same paragraph), and more Boolean operators.

! for end truncation (femini! for feminist, feminine, etc.)

* for wildcard(s) within words (colo*r for color or colour)

Hot Bills & Hot Topics from LexisNexis - Text of current "hot" bills and legislative activity. News selections for current controversies (e.g. Abortion, Homeland Security, Same-Sex Marriage, Iraq, Current Congress Initiatives, Mideast Conflict, No Child Left Behind, North Korea, Prescription Drug Costs, Terrorism).

• Policy, practice, codes, laws, regulations, hearings
• Some evidence and data
• Client information

Doe Library Government Info top page - Overviews, links to branches, sections, and some issues within each level of government - U.S., Calif., Foreign governments, International organizations.

Doe Library Government Info Dabatases - UCB-licensed and selected public domeain indexes and other searchable databases for government info. California/Regional, US Federal, Foreign/International

LexisNexis Congressional - Index to many Congressional publications. Hearings (some full-text), prints, documents, reports, treaties, legislative histories, and the Serial Set. Also index to bill-tracking, laws, statues, US Code, floor votes. Committee members and activity. Text of laws, statutes; the Federal Register & Code of Fed. Regulations.
Hein Online - some full text congressional documents, regulatory information, and other legal materials.

Thomas - Congress guide from the Library of Congress.
Congressional Research Tutorials - Tutorials showing how to use LexisNexis Congressional and Thomas, along with current congressional news.

 

IGS Library's government links galleries and special collections:

U. S. Government Links

Calif. Government Links

California local government links

Index to Current Urban Documents

California Local Planning Documents collection

Finding Government Publications at Berkeley. The UCB library Pathfinder catalog provides access to many government publications. However, many specialized tools exist for government publications. For US Congressional publications in the library, try using the Quick Guide to what is where and where it's indexed in our library.

For additional assistance:

Please come to the Doe Reference Desk, 2nd floor Doe Library.

• Evidence, quantified information

Statistics sections in each of the Doe Library Gov't Info pages - Calif. and other states, US Federal, and International statistics.

Collections of links to some key online statistics resources:

U.S. statistics links - from IGS Library

California statistics links - from IGS library

Major Statistics Database:

Statistical Information via Lexis-Nexis - many data sources on many topics from many agencies, searchable in one place - index to fiche sets, with some data online.

Use footnotes and other references in books and articles for statistical sources

Not all data has been compiled or tabulated in ways you may need. You may have to build or extrapolate from what is available.

Ask for advice at Doe or IGS library reference desks.

 

Other Sources for Data

Library Data Lab

For those that want to do number crunching. Statistical software and assistance is available.

UC Data

Campus data center. Provides access to major datasets.

• Opinions and/or news from a particular agency or organization
• Short opinionated summaries of current events with thought-provoking links to items that
  are attracting widespread interests
• Breadcrumb link trails to other sites that you may not have already thought about pursuing to develop an area of policy or current events in which you have a focused interest.

Rose Report - news and commentary from the the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, Claremont McKenna College.
California Policy Inbox - news focused on California Public Policy, from IGS
GovBlog - highlights new developments and publictions from federal, state, local and international government agencies and organizations, from the Doe Library.
New West Notes-Provocative political commentary on California politics and public policy with frequent links to widely-talked about political video from a longtime former Democratic campaign advisor.
Capitol Roundup-More provocative daily commentary and links from the editors of Capitol Weekly and AroundtheCapitol.com.
Rough and Tumble-More of a daily news digest than a blog, but extremely useful in tracking the events and people that California's major newspapers are covering.
Calitics-A very irreverent and smart-alecky progressive California politics weblog.

• Agencies, organization pages & publications
  • Many free, some UCB licensed (proxy server or campus use)
• Advocacy Groups
  • Viewpoints, arguments
  • Challenges (rebut or acknowledge)
  • Precedents
• Current information on clients
• Some data/statistics
  • Require reliable source & date gathered

Google Web Search - largest, most thorough web search engine - CONTENT NOT EVALUATED

SEARCH TIPS:

Google Search Tips
Google Cheatsheet
Google Guide

Use to locate an organization or person whose name you know.

Search name with quotes to be more specific.
Use site: in your search to limit to a particular domain or site

Examples:

Jeremy Decisionmaker

"center for public welfare"
site:.org or site:berkeley.edu

Google Scholar - Focus your Google Search on available scholarly materials.

Click Preferences and add UC Berkeley to list of library access preferences to enable UC eLinks.
Library Drop-in classes on Google Scholar

IV. More HELP:

Reference Help

• Doe Library Reference Center (2nd floor Doe Library) - 642-6657 -
• IGS Library Reference - (109 Moses Hall) - 642-1472 - Hours: 9-5, M-F - Specializing in local governments and California state, city, and county governments
• Doe/Moffitt IM Reference - IM with a Doe/Moffitt Librarian (Hours Vary)
• Government Information IM Reference - IM with a government information expert (Hours Vary)
• Ask a UC Librarian - Chat with a UC Librarian (Hours Vary)

Bibliographic Citation Tools

• Refworks - Online bibliographic citation management tool. Available free to UCB students. Can format your paper for you. Limited functionality for complex citation styles and formats.
• Zotero - Firefox browser plugin that allows you to manage citations. Constantly upgraded with new features. Includes tutorial that walks you through the process. Tied to the machine you install it on.

Other Tools

• Proxy Server Tutorial - instructions on how to set up the proxy server so you can access Library Resources from home.

Librarian Contact Information

• Jesse Silva, Doe/Moffitt Library, jsilva@library.berkeley.edu
• Frank Lester, Institute of Governmental Studies Library, flester@library.berkeley.edu