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Political Campaigns, Buttons, and Elections

Resources connected with the exhibit of political buttons and campaigns - Fall 2012.

Political Science & Public Administration Databases

Database Search Tips

  • Think about your question.
  • Break it into key concepts and identify terms for each concept. Start with fewer words. Less yields more.
  • Think about which individuals or groups of people or organizations are associated with your topic. These might be additional terms to search.
  • Consider what type of information you need and where you might find it.
  • Use Boolean connectors like and, or, and not to connect keywords. Many databases search the words as a phrase otherwise.
  • Truncation characters such as an * (asterisk) can expand your search by retrieving various forms of a word, e.g., comput* retrieves computer, computers, computing, computation, etc.

    • Evaluating Article Relevance

  • Look at subject terms applied to relevant articles. Did you find additional articles by searching these subject headings?
  • Which terms or search strategies yielded the best results?
  • Look at the abstract. Are there additional keyword terms you might search?
  • Don't be too narrow in your search, especially initially.
  • How long is the article?
  • Who is the author of the article?
  • In which journal or periodical was this article published?

    • Journals List

    Looking for a specific journal, magazine, or newspaper?

    Use Journals List to search for the title of a journal, magazines, or newspaper and determine if the library offers online access or print access to that publication.

    Search: Journals List

    Checking Periodical Lists

    If you have a citation to a specific article and want to determine if the library has access to that article, check the following: