Politics & International Relations Tutorial
This tutorial provides a shortcut to RIT Library resources of special interest
to coursework in politics & international relations, including: the most
relevant electronic databases, instructions on how to obtain documents, information
on course reserves and how to contact librarians for assistance.
General Library Information
For general information about library services, check Library
Services for Distance Learning Students.
Electronic Databases
RIT Library subscribes to over a hundred databases. Of these, 14 databases are
the most likely to provide citations to journal articles and other publications
relevant to politics & international relations, and are the first place
to start research on a topic. 9of the 14 databases provide the full-text of
journal articles. The others provide only the article's citation and abstract.
To obtain the full journal article, see Obtaining Journal
Articles, Books, and Other Documents.
Accessing Databases from Off-Campus
RIT's licensing agreements with the database providers require that access
to these databases be restricted to RIT students, faculty, and staff. If you
are off-campus and try to connect to these databases using any other Internet
service than RIT's Dial IP service, the database introductory page will request
your DCE account name and password. More information on the DCE account is available
at the Distance Learning page.
Choosing which Database to Search
You will probably need to search more than one database to find extensive
references for your research topic. PAIS International covers articles,
books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical
directories in the area of public and foreign affairs. SIRS Government Reporter
provides documents and graphics from agencies, departments and commissions
of the U.S. government. Military and Government Collection searches military
titles, trade publications and newsweeklies. Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe
and Newspaper Source provide full-text articles from many news publications.
Alternative Press Index indexes alternative periodicals covering cultural,
economic, political & social change. Coverage is international. America:
History & Life covers the history of the United States and Canada from
prehistory to the present, including its relations to other countries. Historical
Abstracts covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding
North America). EconLit includes political economy. CountryWatch
provides up-to-date information and news on the countries of the world. Academic
Search Elite, Wilson OmniFile Mega FullText, Research Library, and
Project Muse are multidisciplinary indexes that will include material in
these areas as well. Titles link to the database description and connection
page.
To access these products from the RIT Library
homepage, click on the Research Databases button. The Research
Databases page provides links to all of the databases. The Research Databases
page also provides a link to a listing of the Liberal
Arts databases.
Return to Top of the Page
Obtaining Journal Articles, Books, and other Documents
Information Delivery Services (IDS) sends
books and photocopies to Distance Learning Students upon request. IDS supplies
books and articles from RIT Library as well as from other libraries and delivery
services. To find out how to request items, check IDS
Express FAQ
Use the search menu from almost any RIT Library page to search Einstein,
the library catalog. Here you can search for books, journals, videos, and other
media owned by RIT Library. To see the latest library acquisitions for History
and Political Science, click here.
A small number of journals are available in full-text online. To see what RIT Library provides, check the RIT Library E-Content Finder. If the title is available electronically you can
click on the title and go to the journal or the database that provides the journal.
Return to Top of the Page
Course Reserves
Your professor may have put articles on reserve for you to read. Check RIT
Library Course Reserves to access these.
World Wide Web Sources
As you are probably aware, the Web is exploding with information, much of which
is useful, but it can't be taken at face value. Since anyone can publish a web
page, it is important to evaluate the quality and accuracy of information found
on the web. Ways to evaluate Internet resources can be found at
Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources or Evaluating
Information From the Internet.
The Search Engines
button on the RIT Library homepage links to a number of search engines where
you can type in terms and search the Internet for materials. To save time, try
the links on the Liberal Arts Resources
page. You will find a list of selected websites by subject. Once you click on
any of the headings, a list of specific links will appear. Subject pages for
American Politics & Public Policy,
History, International
Relations, and Local, State, Federal
& World Government, will be particularly useful. There are also sites
that provide social data which
you may need in your research. Librarians have already evaluated these resources,
so they can be terrific leads to information.
Return to Top of the Page
Librarians
Linda Coppola, the liberal arts
librarian, is your subject librarian.
Sue Mee, the library's distance learning coordinator, is also available
to help with general library questions.
Feel free to email Linda or Sue
if you have questions or comments.
Good luck!
Return to Top of the Page
Comments and suggestions welcome.
Maintained by: Linda Coppola
| 
