Government 480 : International Organizations
Background Information
Annual Review of Global Peace Operations.
A new pubication of the Center on International Cooperation, created to make detailed data on peacekeeping more widely available. In addition to data, essays analyzing various peacekeeping missions worldwide are provided.
Ref. [q.] JZ6374 .C25 2006
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
Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. 3rd ed. 2003
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 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
Yearbook of the United Nations. 199 -
Organized by broad subject area. Offers an overview of UN activity in an area, including resolutions and vote summaries.
Ref. JX 1977 .A37 Y4
Other titles of interest from the library's main collections:
UN Chronicle. 1975-
A quarterly publication of the UN's Department of Public Information. Articles provide summaries of major events and issues.
Periodicals
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Finding UN Voting Records
Report to Congress on Voting Practices in the United Nations.
An annual report from the State Department showing how individual countries (and blocs of countries) vote on major issues in relation to how the US votes. Very useful data.
1985-1992: GovDoc S1.1/8:year (paper)
1993-1998: GovDoc S1.1/8:year (microfiche)
1997-1999: Department of State website archive
2000-2007: Department of State website
United Nations Resolutions.
Series 1: General Assembly includes the text and voting history for resolutions passed during a given General Assembly session. Most recent date is 1985-86. Also see: Series 2: Security Council Resolutions. For the text of resolutions, the Web Resources listed below will be more current.
JX 1977 .A428a
UNBISnet: the UN Bibliographic Information System
Among other things, allows you to search the voting records for all resolutions which were adopted - either without a vote or by roll-call or recorded vote - by the General Assembly beginning with its 38th session (1983-) and the Security Council beginning with its 1st year (1946-). Links to the full text of resolutions are provided.
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Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try a Subject begins with search, for example, international organization or international relations. LUCIA will list other subject headings (and subheadings) which may be of interest. 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 Keyword Anywhere. 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 for a phrase, like United Nations, by searching with quotation marks around the phrase, as in "united nations". You can search for individual terms connected by logical operators like AND or OR. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH. You can also search for multiple forms of words by using an asterisk; try a search like this one for international and environment*. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all words starting with environment: environment, environmental, environmentalism, and so on. You can target your search even more effectively by telling LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records; compare the Keyword Anywhere search with the Subject Keyword search.
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. Materials not owned by the Mudd library or the Appleton Public Library can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. 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 full text, however, most JSTOR articles will be at least five years old. 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
Broad coverage of academic periodicals going back to 1980. Includes full text of many articles.
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 you don't find it, you can double check by looking 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. Materials not owned by the Mudd library or the Appleton Public Library can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. You may find Ulrich's Periodicals Directory Online helpful when you evaluate your sources. See a reference librarian if you need help.
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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: News
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.
New York Times (1851-2004)
Current issues of the New York Times are available from many sources: see BESS or ProQuest Newspapers below.
Times (London, England). 1941-current.
The leading British paper. The Times itself is held
on microfilm.
Times index--Reference Indexes/Microform Area
ProQuest Newspapers
Provides access to over 300 local, national, and international newspapers, most in full-text. Dates for backfiles vary by title.
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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.
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).
Internet Resources for Government
Chosen by the librarians here at Seeley G. Mudd Library.
Disaster Relief: Starting Points for Learning
Resources selected for librarians and published in College and Research Libraries News, February 2006. A very useful list.
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.
ReliefWeb
"ReliefWeb is the global hub for time-critical humanitarian information on Complex Emergencies and Natural Disasters." From the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
United Nations Homepage
Follow the Welcome link for access to the English language version of the site. You will find the sites for the General Assembly and the Security Council to be particularly useful.
U.S. Department of State
See especially the International Affairs and International Policy section. You may find the Department of State Background Notes useful.
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, or this bibliography on Evaluation of Information Sources. 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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