Government 140 : Introduction to International Relations
Background Information
Area Handbook/Country Studies Series.
This series, produced by the Defense Department, provides useful information about individual countries. Each book-length report includes historical settings, social, cultural, and economic information, political and governmental background, statistics and an extensive bibliography. Titles take the form Somalia: A Country Study.
GovDoc D101.22:550-no./year
Online from the Library of Congress
Britannica Online
The electronic version of the classic reference work. You can either search for terms or browse the alphabetical list of entries.
Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. 3rd ed. 4 vols.
Alphabetically arranged entries covering the structure of the UN, its specialized agencies, other international organizations which cooperate with the UN, several thousand international agreements, conventions and treaties and many terms related to the study of international organizations and politics.
Ref. [q.] JX 1977 .O8213 2003
Europa World Year Book. 2 vols.
Begins with basic descriptions and brief histories of international organizations. Countries are listed alphabetically; each entry contains an introductory survey of recent history, economic affairs, etc., followed by a statistical survey and a directory with names and addresses of officials and major organizations.
Ref. [q.] JN 1 q.E85
Statesman's Year-Book.
Another good source for brief information about countries. Entries list population, constitution and government, international memberships, economic and energy statistics and general cultural and historical information.
Ref. JA 51 .S7
World Factbook.
Prepared annually by the CIA for the use of government officials. Current country
profiles and statistics.
Ref. [q.] G 123 .W6
Online: updated regularly
Yearbook of International Organizations.
A classified directory, arranged by kind of organizations: umbrella-type, non-profit, etc. Gives addresses, phone numbers, names of officers, and brief information about the aims, events and publications of the organizations.
Ref. [q.] JX 1904 .A42
Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try a Subject begins with search. Many books of interest will be cataloged under the name of a country followed by the subheading relations and the name of a second country, for example japan--relations--united states. For advanced research you should consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH, a guide to the terms commonly used in catalogs like ours. The LCSH can be found on top of the Ready Reference shelves behind the reference desk on the first floor of the library.
To combine terms for a different kind of search, try a Keyword Anywhere search. LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. Try a search like international and environment*. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all words starting with environment: environment, environmental, environmentalism, etc. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH, or target your keyword search by using the Subject Keyword option. This tells LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records only.
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system which organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.
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Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options. Two of our resources, JSTOR and Project MUSE provide complete full text. Some of our indexes include:
Academic Search Elite
Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals. Provided through EBSCOhost. Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web to see a list of all of the EBSCO databases.
Academic OneFile
A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. Includes full-text articles, many with images. 1980 - present; updated daily.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts 1975-
Contains the merged backfiles of Political Science Abstracts, 1975-2000, and ABC POL SCI, 1984-2000. Provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy.
ABC POL SCI dating from 1969-1995 is available in the Reference Indexes.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, try the 
button to see if that particular article is available. If the "Find It" button isn't provided for the item you want, you can check in LUCIA for the title of the journal or newspaper to see if the library owns it. You can also search BESS, an automated search of the library's full text databases, for electronic copies of articles.
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Finding Newspaper Articles
Finding News Information
From the librarians here at Lawrence. Includes links to many newspapers on the Web, and to electronic news source subscriptions.
Lexis/Nexis Academic: Guided News Search
Includes national and international news sources, as well as up-to-the minute news wires.
New York Times. 1851-current.
Considered to be the American paper of record. The New York Times
is on microfilm. Partial access to the current New York Times is included in several other databases, like Lexis/Nexis and UMI/Proquest.
New York Times Index 1951-1990---Reference Indexes/Microform Area
Historical New York Times: full text online, 1851-2003
ProQuest Newspapers
Provides access to local, national, and international
newspapers, most in full-text. Dates for backfiles vary by title.
Times (London, England). 1941-current.
The leading British paper. The Times itself is held
on microfilm.
Times index--Reference Indexes/Microform Area
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Finding Government Documents
Most United States Government Documents are not cataloged in LUCIA. There are several ways to search for government documents, but those listed below will be the most direct. You might also want to take a look at the library's Guide to Understanding the Government Document Numbering System before you head to the Documents shelves on the second floor.
GPO Monthly Catalog
Catalog of US government publications, covering 1976 - current. Searchable in many ways, via FirstSearch.
Information on Documents in the Seeley G. Mudd Library and on the World Wide Web
Background information on the library's state and federal depository programs and links to a list of information sources on the Web.
Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications.
An annual index is included at the end of each yearly volume, or you can search the
Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog of United States Government
Publications, 1900-197l.
Reference Indexes
Google U.S. Government
The popular and helpful Google search applied specifically to finding government information. Searches local, state, military, and national government Web pages.
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Finding Web Resources
Basic Internet Resources for UN information
An excellent place to start. From Yale's United Nations Scholar's Workstation (also worth a look).
Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century
An ongoing personal project, this site includes information going well beyond the history of the 20th century. Of special interest is the Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Man-made Megadeaths of the Twentieth Century, which, as with the atlas, goes into details of conflicts well before the 20th century.
Hoover Institution
"The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, is a public policy research center devoted to advanced study of politics, economics, and political economy—both domestic and foreign—as well as international affairs."
Internet Resources for Government
Chosen by the librarians here at Seeley G. Mudd Library.
Portals to the World
From the Library of Congress. Lists selective links providing authoritative, in-depth information about the nations and other areas of the world. Links are chosen by Area Specialists and other Library staff using Library of Congress selection criteria.
United Nations Homepage
Follow the Welcome link for access to the English language version of the site.
U.S. Department of State
See especially the International Affairs and International Policy section. You may find the Department of State Background Notes useful.
The World Policy Institute
Located at the New School University in New York, the World Policy Institute engages in research and advocacy on international policy.
Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:
It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.
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Style Manuals
Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.
The Chicago Manual of Style.
A standard source for bibliographic format.
RRef. Z253 .U69
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
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About Research in International Relations
Material related to the topic of this course will be drawn from many fields besides government; be prepared to look at materials from history, policy studies, and cultural studies, just to name a few. In addition to consulting catalogs and indexes, be sure to look at bibliographies supplied at the end of relevant articles, chapters, and books, and to search library catalogs for book-length bibliographies.
Your sources must be fully documented in any written work you produce. It may help to look at the information on style before you start your research, so that you will have all the required documentation at hand when you need it. Then as you write, go back to the resources on style for details on the exact format of your citations.
The sources listed in this guide were chosen for the broad coverage they provide. Direct links are provided to Internet resources and searchable databases, as well as links to LUCIA, the library's online catalog. Be sure to check the library's Electronic Resources page regularly to see new databases and indexes; some of these will only be available to users on the Lawrence campus. Also, you may want to take a look at guides on related topics from the Library Research Guides page.
Evaluating the resources you find is an essential part of the research process. See this guide to hints on evaluation of books and articles and this guide to evaluating Internet resources.
As always, if you have any questions be sure to ask a Reference Librarian.
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Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready reference, shelves behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and in M class scores; at end of classes in other collections
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