UC Political Science Consortium

JSC Survey Report, 2001

TO:	Lucia Snowhill
	Joint Steering Committee for Shared Collections, California Digital Library
FR:	UC Political Science Bibliographer Consortium
	Nancy Koller, Survey Coordinator
RE:	Survey Update for CDL, Political Science and International Relations Resources -- July 2001

The UC political science bibliographers have only met virtually. From these discussions, the following databases are recommended, in priority order -- albeit some titles have caveats.

International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA)

This database has been mentioned previously on our political science surveys. It, as its title suggests, is international in scope and includes areas of the world not covered well elsewhere. It is exceptionally good for pure political science as opposed to policy issues. More reasonably priced than many databases.

International Political Science Abstracts, 1989+ 2-4 users: $3128, 5-8 users $4170,13+(unlimited) users $7298 (From Silverplatter for single site -- just as a guideline for negotiation for CDL)

IBSS Extra (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences)
http://www.silverplatter.com

British Library of Political and Economic Science of the London School of Economics. 1981-

Multidisciplinary index covering the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology. Includes over 2600 periodicals from more than 100 countries in 70 languages, as well as books, book reviews, and book chapters.

IBSS, 1981+ (they also offer 1951+) 2-4 users: $1875, 5-8 users: $2500, 13+ users: $5000 (From Silverplatter for single site -- just as a guideline for negotiation for CDL)

Alt- Press Watch (Softline)

Coverage of newspapers, magazines, and journals of independent and alternative presses, it includes full text with coverage (currently for the last ten years) on political science, social and cultural issues, and economics.

Most members of this group think it important that this database add more core titles (such as ones in Alternative Press Index [API]). Softline hopes to incorporate them, and are progressing in this direction.

** However, UC should pressure the Softline people to increase the number and quality of titles, including full text for everything in API. With these improvements, it will be of great value for political science and several other social sciences discipline.

**Updated title list for Alternative PressWatch FULL TEXT. (Electronic Word attachment of list sent separately to Lucia).

Nation Digital Archive --1865 to present

This valuable resource, presently in print in nearly every library, is very brittle. Having the online version would facilitate use of material covering all social sciences, history, and literature.

CDL might want to negotiate for a better interface (presently requiring Adobe Acrobat 4.0) and for a more reasonable pricing structure.

NISC package

We understand that this package may have completed negotiation by the time this survey is completed, However, we have mentioned this group of databases in the past and still think they would be a good addition.

Another type of material, mentioned in our surveys in the past, is still of critical importance. We think poll data is a resource which is applicable to many of the social sciences and should be given serious consideration by CDL as a high priority whether other disciplines name these particular databases or not. (In other words, these titles are not going to get the highest marks on a rating grid. That does make them any less valuable to a large group on each campus, yet not affordable campus by campus to a large extent.)

Polling the Nations
http://www.silverplatter.com/catalog/poln.htm

Covers data from more than 6500 national, state, local and special surveys in the US and over 60 other countries with data going back over a decade.

1986+ 2-4 users: $900, 5-8 users: $1200, 13+ users: $5000 (From Silverplatter for single site -- just as a guideline for negotiation for CDL)

POLL: Online Service of the Roper Center for Public Opinion
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/

Most comprehensive full-text collection of public opinion in the United States. Covers question-level archival polling data back to the 1930s in politics and government, public institutions, international relations, business, social affairs, and consumer behavior and preferences.

Includes poll data from Gallup, Harris, Roper; the major television network polls of ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC; and major newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Provides both full survey-level information as well as complete questions and full-text answers. Includes demographic breakdown of respondents, sponsoring organization which is conducting poll, number of respondents polled, interview dates, survey population, and more.

California Field Poll, 1979-1999

For a look at this:
http://gort.ucsd.edu/calpol/

Well respected opinion surveyors with a proven track record of reliability, long before their data was available online.

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