Libraries Research Guide for POL 429-Race & Politics
Purdue Libraries, particularly the Humanities, Social Science, and Education (HSSE) Library have numerous resources that can be used to conduct scholarly research for this class. The Libraries website is a gateway to a wide variety of resources. Books can be found through the libraries online catalog using Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) searches. These LCSH searches can be used to find books on specific topics and specific individuals and organizations. Examples of useful LCSH searches you can use include:
Civil Rights United States
Crime and Race United States
Obama Barack Political and Social Views
Poverty United States
Poverty United States Statistics
United States Commission on Civil Rights
United States Dept of Justice Civil Rights Division
Beginning in 2009, books received by Purdue Libraries are classified with Library of Congress call numbers e.g. JC599.U5B45 2009. Prior to that, books received by the Libraries are clasified with Dewey Decimal call numbers e.g. 342.73085 Am13b 1998. Relevant books for this class are likely to be on HSSE's 2nd-4th floors.
Scholarly Journal Articles
Purdue Libraries have several databases you can use to find scholarly journal articles on class topics. These include:
America: History and Life (Indexes articles from U.S. & Canadian History journals.)
LexisNexis Academic (Provides access to U.S. and federal state court case opinions, law review articles, and U.S> and foreign newspaper articles.)
PAIS International (Indexes articles from political science journals, some public policy research institution reports, and some U.S. Government documents.)
Social Science Abstracts (Indexes scholarly articles in a variety of social science disciplines.)
Sociological Abstracts (Indexes scholarly sociological literature.)
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts(Indexes political science journal articles.)
Scholarly Journal Databases
Purdue Libraries Ejournals (Provides access to a wide variety of electronic journals in multiple subjects.)
JSTOR (Provides access to scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Most recent articles are five years old.)
Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University Press service providing access to recent humanities and social science journal articles.)
U.S. Government Information Resources
The U.S. Government is the world's largest publisher and produces a variety of historical and contemporary information on topics for this class. Purdue Libraries are a depository for U.S. Government documents and general information about our collections can be found here. Print copies of many U.S. documents are found on the first floor of the HSSE Library periodical stacks. U.S. Government documents are classified using the Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) classification system which arranges publications alphabetically by the agency producing them. General information on the SuDoc system can be found HERE.
Other useful U.S. Government information resources for this class include:
U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (Federal agency responsible for enforcing federal statutes prohibiting racial, sexual, religious, disability, or national orientation discrimination.)
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (Independent agency investigating citizen complaints of discriminatory practices or denials of equal protection.)
Civil Rights Commission Historical Publications (Contains full text online archive of commission publications from 1957-present.)
GPO Access (Contains the full text of U.S. Government laws, regulations, and congressional bills from 1993-present.)
House of Representatives Judiciary CommitteeHSSE DOC Y 4.J 89/1
Senate Judiciary Committee HSSE DOC Y 4.J 89/2
(Congressional committees are responsible for approving and revising legislation, overseeing federal program management performance, and funding federal programs.)
Congressional Information Service (CIS) Index HSSE REF 328.73005 C76
(Indexes congressional committee hearings and other publications and the legislative histories of public laws.)
Congressional Record (Online here 1994-present. Transcript of congressional debates, recorded votes, and legislative information.)
U.S. Census Bureau (Compiles demographic and socioeconomic statistics on the U.S. population including ethnic groups.)
Dept. of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics(Compiler of immigration statistics.)
Bureau of Justice Statistics (Justice Dept's statistical division compiling statistics on crime and criminal justice.)
United States Sentencing Commission (Independent judical branch agency responsible for setting sentencing policies for individuals committing federal crimes and conducting research on federal crime & sentencing issues.)
United States Supreme Court (Contains the full text of Supreme Court opinions late 1991-present, some oral argument transcripts, and other information.)
Miscellaneous Resources
HSSE Library Research Centers (Provides access to U.S. and foreign public policy research institutions representing a vareity of political perspectives.)
Government Documents on Constitutional Law
Government Documents Subject Guides (Features guides for conducting research using government information resources in subject areas from agriculture to Western U.S. History.)
Professor Bert Chapman
Government Information & Political Science Librarian
42837
chapmanb@purdue.edu
