History of electronic resources

What is online?
Online searching is a means by which electronic databases stored on a remote computer can be accessed and searched from a computer terminal.

History of electronic resources
The application of the term “online” has changed over the past few years (pre-2004) due to the development of new products and services. The term “online” can apply to:

• Commercial, “traditional” search services such as those offered by Dialog
• CD ROM database searching (1980s)
• Consumer online services, e.g. American Online, MSN
• The Internet (Many people think that that online is the Internet)

Finding information online

• Bibliographic citations were found manually usually printed abstracts and indexes such as Engineering Index (1884), Index Medicus, and Chemical Abstracts
• Manual production of abstracting and indexing services was labour intensive and the delays long. It could take up to two years between the publication of an article in a journal and its listing in an abstracting and indexing journal.

The convergence of data processing, information science, the growth in public data networks and the computerisation of print publications brought the online industry into being

• 1950s: computers developed, batch processing, number crunching, first text-based search
• 1960s: batch searching (non-interactive) in readable form, some services developed, printed indexes produced by computers, 
• 1969 ARPANet developed. Beginning of Internet ; American military decentralized information elsewhere
• 1970s: commercial databases launched (Dialog, considered first, had 6 bibliographic databases in 1972); expensive, difficult to use, mainly searched by specialists. 
• 1980s: OPACs became common in libraries, an increasing number of diverse databases and commercial services were available, business information provision grew with more full-text systems based around menu interfaces were being offered to end-users, CD ROMs were adopted towards the end of the decade
• 1990s: propriety Windows interfaces were developed, then as the Web became popular access to commercial services over the Web became a priority for suppliers; end-user searching was now a reality and services were marketed directly to the actual consumers of the information, rather than professional intermediaries.

“In large part, the history of electronic resources for reference began with the development of computer-assisted typesetting and printing.”

Kathleen M. Kluegel, 2001. Electronic resources for reference. In Reference and information services: an introduction 3rd ed., general eds. Richard E. Bopp, Linda C. Smith

Batch processing

• Advances in computer and telecommunication technology
• Modem
• A contraction of modulator-demodulator, an electronic coupler used to connect a computer terminal to a telephone communication system. A modem translates electronic signals of the computer into sounds that can be transferred over the telephone line.
• Much faster disks stacks replaced magnetic tapes
• Development of microcomputers, search software and telecommunications networks
• Searcher and system communicate interactively

interactive

A computer interface designed to respond to input from a human being, usually in the form of commands and/or data. A back-and-forth dialogue between a computer program and its human user is an interactive session.

ODLIS: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science

History of electronic resources

• 1972 Dialog 1st commercial online service
• Developed by Roger Summit (father of online systems) for Lockhead Missile and Space Company
• others follow, e.g. ORBIT (SDC), CAN/OLE (Canadian Online Enquiry Service, 1972), BRS (1977)
• Number and availability of databases available through search services increase
• Market expands to most academic and special libraries
• Early 1980s full text databases become available on commercial search services
• Mediated searching era
• Mid 1980s meditated searching peaked than began a sharp decline

Meditated search

A systematic search in which a trained intermediary, such as an online services librarian or information broker, assists the end-user in locating desired information, by helping to formulate and execute appropriate strategies for searching online catalogs and databases, and by using more traditional bibliographic finding tools.

History of electronic resources

• 1st online databases developed for use by end-users, but most end-users unwilling to take time to learn search language required
• Most searching done by trained searchers/librarians on behalf of others
• Charged on a per search basis typically based on time spent online + additional charges for displaying/printing the records
• 1982 Knowledge Index (Dialog), After Dark (BRS) introduced
• Menu rather than command driven
• Marketed to end-users
• Fewer databases and features but lower pricing
• 1980s introduction of CD-ROM databases in libraries
• use of CD-ROM searching skyrocketed, dial-up information services steadily declined
• 1990s development and expansion of World Wide Web

It should be noted Dialog is generally not used in libraries, whereas databases are. Dialog can be found in special libraries, where they are quick and specific, and the service keeps reinventing itself.

Geography

From: Herron, Nancy L. The Social Sciences: A Cross Disciplinary Guide to Selected Sources, 3rd ed. Greenwood Village, Colo. : Libraries Unlimited, 2002. pp. 395-96.
Joanne M. Perry
Based upon an essay by Karl Proehl
Essay

Although the common perception of geography is that it is merely a collection of place names and lists of products or recounting of explorers’ adventures, it is important to understand what geography is all about. Geography is the study of the Earth and all that is upon it, but it focuses on the significance of location, distribution, and subsequent patterns of identifiable phenomena. The research compares and contrasts differences from place to place and associates patterns of one particular phenomenon to other patterns within the area. The essence of geography, then, lies in the importance of places and regions, and the interconnections among places and regions. 1

Gilbert Grosvenor, chairman of the board and former president of the National Geographic Society, wrote: 

Geography deals with the physical and cultural realities of the world. It helps us to understand the varied and complex environments of the Earth. It gives meaning to location and establishes a context for understanding the connections of places. 2

Grosvenor added that an understanding of the significance of location and place is important; otherwise the consequences of human activities within the physical environment is lessened. Geography provides a frame of reference. It explores, describes, analyzes, and interprets the imprint and the processes of human activities on the land. 

Novelist and former social studies teacher, the late James Michener, noted:

The more I work in the social studies field the more convinced I become that geography is the foundation of all … When I begin work on a new area … I invariably start with the best geography I can find. This takes precedence over everything else, even history, because I need to ground myself in the fundamentals which have governed and in a sense limited human development … The virtue of the geographical approach is that it forces the reader to relate to man to his environment … It gives a solid footing to speculation and it remind the reader that he is dealing with real human beings who are just as circumscribed as he. 3 

Geography, as an interdisciplinary field of study has an interest in both the physical and cultural worlds. Although geography’s physical side is not specifically covered in this chapter, most of the items cited will cover the entire discipline, not just the study of human activity of Earth […] is the focus of geography as a social science. 

During the twentieth century a number of fundamental themes evolved within geography. A traditional definition of the discipline is given in the essay “Geography” by Norton Ginsburg found in A Reader’s Guide to the Social Sciences (A-1). In the new two-volume edition, published in December 2000, the geography chapter has been radically rewritten with essays that focus on feminist geography, geographical information systems, residential segregation and urban social geography and human geography. Geographers also point to a presentation by William Pattinson entitled “The Four Traditions of Geography” as a help in defining the discipline. 4 It is also traditional for the current president of the Association of American Geographers to present a presidential address that defends the nature and state of the discipline, which is then published in the Annals of the AAG. 

Regional and systematic geography
Within the social sciences the study of geography is divided into regional geography and systematic geography. The regional approach has traditionally formed the core of geography and reform its essential character. 5 The main purpose of regional studies is to concentrate on the geography character of areas and to focus on critical distinctive features. Regional studies usually include a number of topics: location, natural environment, population, political status, type of economy, internal arrangement and organization, external connections and relationships, characteristic landscapes and their origin, world importance, potentialities, and problems. 6

Alternatively, systematic geography is focused on the phenomenon and how it is spatially distributed. Systematic geography experienced significant growth during the twentieth century, research interests splitting off from each other as geographers became increasingly specialized. For instance, the main subfield, human geography, was subdivided into cultural, economic, historical, political, population, and urban geography.

Geography

Quotes

“Without geography, you’re nowhere.”

Jimmy Buffett

“Anyone who believes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach flunked geography.”

Robert Byrne (U.S. writer and billiards champion player)

“The science concerned with the description of the earth’s surface; its form and physical features, its natural and political subdivisions, and its climate, products, and population.”

Gates, Jean Key. Guide to the Use of Libraries and Information Sources. 7th ed.

Branches

• Systematic: concerned with individual physical and cultural elements of the earth
• Physical geography includes geomorphology, climatology, biogeography, soils geography, hydrography, oceanography, cartography
• Cultural/human geography includes economic geography, political geography, military geography, ethnography, historical geography, urban geography, demography, linguistic geography
• Regional: concerns the differences and similarities among the various regions of the earth; seeks explanations for the variety among places by studying the special combination of features that distinguish these places
• The objective of the regional geography is to account for the physical and cultural landscape of certain unified areas, e.g. Manitoba’s Physical and Human Environments, Canada’s Physical and Human Environments, Regional Geography of Africa: Study of physical and future of the nations in Africa

Maps

• General reference
• usually a small scale map covering a large area
• Topographic
• portrays shape and elevation of terrain
• Thematic (subject), e.g.,
• aeronautical charts, census tract maps, historical maps, land-use maps, population maps, soil maps, weather maps, etc.
• Photoimage
• aerial photograph/satellite image with map symbols added

Online sites

Library and Archives Canada: Maps, Charts and Architectural Plans http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/maps-plans/index-e.html

Understanding Maps http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/understandingmapping.html

History

FROM: Herron, Nancy L. The Social Sciences: A Cross disciplinary guide to selected sources, 3rd ed. Greenwood Village, Colo. : Libraries unlimited, 2002. pp. 173-75.
History
Daniel Mack
Essay

History has always been difficult both to define and to classify. In general, history can be said to be the study of humanity’s past. This definition is broad and unfocused, and for those very reasons is perhaps the best possible definition, as it reflects the range and scope of history as a discipline. This goes hand in hand with the difficulty in classifying history as a discipline. In this book we are classifying history as one of the social sciences, along with business, economics, and psychology. Such classification is valid but is not universal. Many texts, institutions, and scholars consider history to be one of the humanities. This viewpoint approaches history as being methodologically similar to the study of literature or philosophy. Both points of view have merit, and the researcher should keep both in mind when researching historical topics.

As an academic discipline, history is rapidly changing, for a number of reasons. Advances in technology have greatly increased both the discovery and the transmission of historical sources, while methodological paradigms continue to challenge the various interpretations of those sources. At the heart of these changes stand the very meaning of “history” as a field of inquiry. Now more than ever, librarians who deal with history need a firm understanding not only of the sources available to the historian but also of the practice of historical research and of the methodological processes by which historical materials are examined.

Historiography, or “the history of history,” deals with the way in which history has been treated as a field of inquiry in the past. Since there exist a number of good, general introductions to the development of history, we trace only some general, overall patterns in the progress of historical thought from antiquity to the present. For a more comprehensive discussion of the development of historical thought, an excellent introduction to the topic can be found in Alun Munslow’s The Routledge Companion to Historical Studies (Routledge, 2000).

History as it is generally understood in contemporary Western society is a relatively recent discipline. Most ancient civilizations did not write what we would define as history. The Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, and other peoples of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East kept such records as king lists and temple records. These documents, however, did not include the analysis that distinguishes modern historical practice. The Greeks were the first to write history as we know it. In the fifth century b.c.e., Herodotous and Thucydides wrote histories that are still read and studied today. Other Greek and Roman authors wrote historical texts as well, including such figures as Julius Caesar, Livy, and Tacitus.

For the Greek and Latin historians, history was a form of literature rather than a discipline in its own right. The tone of these authors is usually didactic; they tell a story to prove a point or to teach a lesson. The purpose might be political, as it was for Caesar; or moral, as it was for Livy. The purpose of writing history, therefore, was similar to that of writing drama, poetry, or philosophy: to use past events to learn about the human condition.

Medieval historians continued the work of their predecessors. The Catholic Church often became the guardian of historical records throughout the Western world, and members of its clergy, such as Bede and Einhard, were some of the major historians of the Middle Ages. The ancient practice of keeping annals, or yearly lists of important events, sometimes expanded to the writing of true historical chronicles, in which events were not merely listed but were examined within the context of the writer’s social and cultural order. In the Renaissance, the recovery of Greek and Latin texts, both historical and otherwise, influenced historians such as Guiccardini and Machiavelli. Renewed interest in classical antiquity also influenced the development of the auxiliary sciences of history, such as archaeology, epigraphy, and numismatics. Scholars such as Biondo and Francini recorded the material culture of the past as it was brought to light.

It was during the Enlightment and the nineteenth century that history, as we generally use the term today, developed as an academic pursuit in its own right. The humanism of the Renaissance collided with the rising nationalism of Western Europe and the naturalism of the newly developing physical sciences. Historians sought to duplicate within their discipline the sense of causality found in physics, chemistry, and other new fields of inquiry. Besides writing narrative history, scholars began to publish works analyzing specific problems in historical research. Along with this came increasing specialization, as historians focused on the history of specific peoples, geographic areas, disciplines, and groups. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially, individual schools of historical research came into prominence. For example, the annals historians of early- and mid-twentieth century France were heavily influenced by the dialectical materialism of Marx, focusing on the economic and social aspects of history. In the later twentieth century, feminist and gender studies had a great impact on historical research.

The most recent phenomenon to have an impact on historical research is postmodernism. Appearing initially in studies of art and architecture, during the second half of the twentieth century, postmodernism invaded literary theory, the humanities, and the social sciences, and can now be found in nearly every area of academic inquiry. Definitions of the term and its scope differ, and there exist many forms of postmodern thought. In general, however, the postmodern view can be characterized by several traits: a rejection of objectivity, the denial of the existence of eternal truth, and the refutation of a reality external to the individual. For some historians, such as Keith Windschuttle, postmodern theory is completely destroying history as an academic discipline. 1 For other scholars, including Alun Munslow, postmodern theory is a valid methodological tool, and a natural progression from the schools of thought of the past. 2

For students, librarians, and historians in the twenty-first century, a number of developments are important when practicing historical research. First, one must be aware of the ever-increasing interdisciplinary trend that is occurring in all of the social sciences, and the humanities as well. Second, specialization in historical research continues to evolve. Whether by time period; geographical area; ethnic, racial, or social group; or some other focus, historical writing continues its trend toward specialization. Along with this goes the history of various identity groups, such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people. Third, recent developments in theory and method require the researcher to have a basic understanding of these new trends. Postmodernism, feminist theory, and other intellectual trends will continue to have an enormous impact on historical research and writing. Finally, and perhaps most important of all in the long run, are the new technologies available to the historian. Computers and the Internet provide both basic research tools and venues for the dissemination of research. The World Wide Web makes available huge collections of primary sources that were once accessible only to those who could afford to spend the time and money required to travel to the location of such sources. E-mail and discussion groups allow rapid scholarly communication. Emerging trends in digital publication offer exciting new avenues of multimedia publication that can reach worldwide audiences.

History resources

Abstracts/Indexes
See History Databases http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca/CRDB/MWUC/browse/facets/subject/1021

America: History and Life
http://www.ebscohost.com/academic/america-history-and-life
Covers material about Canada and the United States only.

Historical Abstracts
Historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada).

Online Guides/Pathfinders
General
History – General on the Web
http://libguides.uwinnipeg.ca/cat.php?cid=1421
Additional guides for Canada, Europe, US and World.

BUBL Link: 900 Geography and History
http://bubl.ac.uk/link/linkbrowse.cfm?menuid=11367
Internet resources selected by UK librarians.

Canada’s SchoolNet Learning Resources: Social Studies
http://www.schoolnet.ca/home/e/resources/browse_results.asp?SECTION=0&SUBJECT=46&LangID1&SEARCH=index.asp

History Resources
https://web.archive.org/web/20130103060229/http://www.lib.lsu.edu/sp/subjects/hist
This resource, from Louisiana State University, contains pointers to bibliographies, catalogs, electronic images, electronic texts, electronic journals, electronic discussion groups, and indexes.

The Internet Public Library: History
http://www.ipl.org/IPLBrowse/GetSubject?vid=13&cid=1&tid=6945&parent=6925

Internet Subject Guides: History. Mount Royal College, Calgary http://libguides.mtroyal.ca/history

Kwantlen University College Library Internet Subject Guides: History http://libguides.kwantlen.ca/history

WWW-VL The World Wide Virtual Library History: Central Catalogue http://vlib.iue.it/history/index.html

Canadian
Canada Online: Canadian History
http://canadaonline.about.com/od/history/
From “about.com”. Links to general Canadian history resources and Canadian history maps.

Canadian History on the Web
http://www.oupcanada.com/higher_education/humanities/history.html
Links compiled by Oxford University Press Canada.

Canadiana: The Canadian Resources Page
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/clamen/misc/Canadiana/README.html
An extensive gateway to Internet sites on a wide range of subjects relating to Canada. There are subject headings for history and politics, science and education, news and information, facts and figures and much more. Last updated 2000.

H-Canada: Canadian History and Studies
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~canada/
A discussion group for scholars including publication reviews, calls for papers and resource links.

Library and Archives Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/discover/index-e.html
Provides access to the full list of selected topics available for browsing on the Library and Archives Canada Website.

Genealogy
Genealogy Links
http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/onlineresources/internet/genealogy.asp

Genealogy http://web.archive.org/web/20021218033212/http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/dafoe/internetres/genealogy.html

Our roots/Nos Racines
http://www.ourroots.ca/
Canada’s local histories online.

Family Search
http://www.familysearch.org/
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) website. Links to 1881 Canadian and British census and 1880 U.S. Census.

1901 Census for England and Wales
http://www.1901censusonline.com/

Census of Canada, 1901
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1901/Pages/about-census.aspx

Geography
Encarta Encyclopedia. “Geography”. http://web.archive.org/web/20091028095632/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761552030/Geography.html

Geography on the Web
http://libguides.uwinnipeg.ca/cat.php?cid=1456

Maps
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html
Collection of current and historical maps provided by the University of Texas at Austin.

History

History quotes

“History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another.”

-Max Beerbohm

“God alone knows the future, but only an historian can alter the past.”

-Ambrose Bierce

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”

-Cicero

“All that has been felt, thought, imagined, said, and done by human beings as such and in relation to one another and to their environment since the beginning of mankind’s operations on this planet.”

-Social Science Research Council

Many consider “history” to be one of the humanities

Developments to note

• Increasing interdisciplinary trend
• Increasing number of specialized areas, e.g. by: time period; geographic area; ethnic, racial, or social group
• Developments in theory and method, e.g. postmodernism; feminist theory
• New technologies, e.g. digitalization and availability of primary sources over the Web, e.g. U of M Archives & Special Collections. The Canadian Wartime Experience http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/index.shtml
• see Using Primary Sources on the Web http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/history/resources/pubs/usingprimarysources
•  Primary sources: records made at the time of an event (or somewhat later) by the participants or firsthand observers, e.g.
• letters
• diaries
• court records
• wills
• newspaper accounts of those on the scene
• viewpoints may not be accurate
• oral histories and interviews
• data files, e.g. census records
• ephemeral materials important for social/cultural history, e.g. menus, catalogues, playbills, comic books, etc.
• Secondary sources: materials by individuals other than event participants or eyewitnesses which analyze or report on historical subjects 
• Monograph dominates but serial literature growing
• Tertiary sources: information gained “third hand”, or a summary of a summary. Information found from encyclopaedias
• Historians tend to refer to older materials more than scholars in most other disciplines (preservation problems with acidic materials)
• New methodologies esp. use of quantitative sources, e.g. census, tax info
• Social history (Annales School originating in France, 1929)
• study of groups such as women, children, minorities, the poor
• Statistical data used where ever possible, e.g. the Doomsday book
• If those studied were not considered everyday people or the elite, there was likely little to no paper trails
• Historians usually regular library users
• heavy users of ILL
• microform sets of source material important
• Web resources beginning to appear
• Biographies most popular historical genre with general readers
• Local histories: authors often amateur historians, information may overlap with genealogy
• Oral history may fill gap as fewer and fewer record experiences in written diaries and letters
• Historical revision: process of reinterpreting the past, should be based on new evidence or new interpretations of existing evidence not deliberate fabrications of the historical record
• E.g. The Red River Rebellion is now referred to as the Red River Resistance. Louis Riel is now portrayed as a good man, rather than the traitor he was illustrated as.
• Poor teaching of history in K-12, especially when focused on names and dates, has caused many to believe history is boring and irrelevant yet:
• Family history/genealogy extremely popular
• Historical re-enactments popular
• History TV channel
• Numerous popular museums

Political science

From: Herron, Nancy L. The Social Sciences: A Cross Disciplinary Guide to Selected Sources, 3rd ed. Greenwood Village, Colo. : Libraries Unlimited, 2002. pp. 47-50.

Political science
Debra Cheney
ESSAY

Every day, newspapers, magazines, television, and radio bombard us with information dealing with political situations and developments. However, few of us think of this information as falling within the discipline of political science. Similarly, political science questions posed at library reference desks will frequently deal with current events and society, rather than with an analysis of a political theory or ideology. Yet all these questions fall into the arena of political science reference work. 

One difficult aspect of categorizing political science questions is that they are dependent on both the type of the library and the needs of patrons using that library. Each reference question can require different resources and different reference processes. In an academic setting, questions about the availability of foreign newspaper translations, articles about the impact of congressional redistricting on voter registration, and statements and voting records on a wide range of topics are likely to be posed. In addition, questions about political situations in other countries and the activities and publications of international and intergovernmental organizations are increasingly common. With the growing awareness of world events and the greater availability of information about these events, researchers are increasingly expanding their research to include non-U.S. sources. The breadth and complexity of many political science questions illustrate two facts about the discipline of political science: It lacks a clear definition and delineation of the subject from other social sciences, and the range of material covered in the field is very large. 

Einstein once observed that politics was more difficult to understand than physics because of the number of relationships and factors involved. 1 This can be said also about the study of political science. Politics and the governance of human beings have, of course, been in existence since we first organized into societal groups. Yet the study of political science is a relatively new social science, born from the disciplines of history, economics, and government and nurtured by the fields of sociology, psychology, geography, and philosophy. Because of the field’s interdisciplinary nature, political science reference questions often require sources and knowledge beyond those traditionally categorized as purely political science sources. 

Evolution of political science
The birth of this new social science is usually placed at the turn of the twentieth century with the establishment of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in 1903. Before that time, most studies of politics took place within departments of history and economics. However, with the founding of the ASPA, political science departments soon developed in colleges and universities across the country. The founding was also significant to the discipline, because it was a U.S. association and the discipline itself is a uniquely U.S. social science, with more than three-quarters of political scientists being American. 2 The predominance of Americans in the field focused most research in the area of the U.S. politics, a bias that still exists today. However, this is changing not only because the end of the Cold War has placed the superpowers in a relationship of cooperation rather than competition, but also because information about other countries has become more available. 

As the discipline developed, its lack of scientific principles was viewed by all as a primary deterrent in a field claiming the word science. Political scientists consciously tried to develop the principles and theories necessary for a scientific framework for this new field. However, the discipline continues to struggle with the need to define itself and its role. 3 The 1982 International Handbook of Political Science, edited by William G. Andrews (Greenwood Press, 1982), opens with the same sentence that the first article in the first issue of Political Science Quarterly (the first professional journal in the field) did in 1886: “The term political science is greatly in need of definition.” 4 On the surface it would appear that U.S. efforts during the past century have done little to define the discipline of political science. Yet the profession has made a good deal of progress; it has produced a body of classic works, fostered specialization, developed a systematic theoretical structure, and developed models for analysis. 

The discipline has passed through five developmental stages in the past 100 years. The first stage, the study of government, was an outgrowth of the marriage of history and economics. This period produced the great classics in political science, many of which stand up well even by today’s standards of science 5 and were the basis for political organizational theory. However, the search for scientific rules for the discipline continued until after World War II, when the second stage, behaviorism, emerged. Behaviourists sought to scientifically learn why and how people react in political situations, and tried to predict occurrences and political actions. A third stage, the study of comparative politics, began to move political science out of its largely U.S. focus and to compare how nations and states operate. The fourth stage, the study of public administration, dealt with how governments and organizations (e.g., Congress, government agencies, political parties) operate. The final stage, the now-burgeoning field of public policy analysis, seeks ways to quantify and evaluate political decisions to maximize benefits for the public good. Each of these stages reflected the interest and themes of the historical periods in which it was born and effectively added new fields of specialization within the study of political science. 

Fields of specialization
Within political science there are many fields of research, each slightly different from the others and each borrowing from and overlapping to certain degrees with other social sciences. These fields can be grouped into seven broad areas: national governments, comparative politics, international politics, political theory, public law, public administration, and public policy analysis. 

National governments
The study of national governments is the oldest branch of political science, covering many topics and evolving out of the works of Plato and Aristotle. Originally this field dealt with the subjects of power, the state, and political institutions. Due to the U.S. dominance in political science, the field soon grew into the study of the powers and interactions of the legislative, executive, and judicial bodies at the national, state, and local levels. The study of the national governments branched out in the early twentieth century to include the study of voting and electoral patterns and the power of political parties within the U.S. political scene. Today, because of behaviorism and frequent forays into sociology and psychology, the key fields of study are the behavior and motivation of voters and the power of the media in the political process. 

Comparative politics
The study of comparative politics became an area of serious research after World War II with the emergence of behaviorism. Comparative politics research attempts to develop methodologies by which institutions and governments can be compared scientifically. Unfortunately, there has rarely been agreement on consistent methodologies, and, consequently, scientific cross-national comparisons rarely occur. Study in this branch of political science and the resulting literature tend to be primarily descriptive, occasionally crossing into the field of history, areas studies, and economics. 

International politics
The study of international politics examines the interactions of independent political entities within an international sphere. These entities can be either separate nations or intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), such as the United Nations or the Organizations of American States. Frequent topics of interest in this field are the foreign policies of countries or organizations, national defense policies, peace and military research, and diplomatic affairs. The literature of this field of study depends heavily on official government, organization, or intergovernmental documents, including proclamations, resolutions, reports, and policy statements. 

Political theory
The study of political theory seeks ways to explain and predict political phenomena through the philosophical and moral aspects of political ideologies. The field is divided into two major areas of study: normative and empirical. Normative theory concerns itself with analytical, moral, and philosophical issues. Empirical theory tries to predict behaviour through established models and hypotheses. 

Public law
The study of public law is the counterpart to the legal profession. Whereas the attorney researches issues to know how best to represent a client in a court of law, a scholar studies the same material looking for patterns to describe how society places controls on the individual. Research, dominated by U.S. scholars, has focused primarily on the separation of powers, presidential power, and the powers of the courts. However, there is also extensive study of international law, covering the issues of accepted international legal behaviour, both by individuals and nations. This field depends heavily on court decisions (including administrative and appellate courts) and on international agreements and treaties. 

Public administration
The study of public administration grew out of research since the 1880s on the daily operation of governments and bureaucracies and has developed a substantial body of classic literature to serve as a foundation. 6 The primary focus of public administrations research is on governmental operations and the managerial processes associated with the successful operation of any organization, including budgeting, staffing, management, directing, analysis, and evaluation. Governments at all levels--national, state, and local—are studied. The field frequently approaches issues from a comparative politics standpoint, and an important area of recent study involves research on the governments of developing countries. 

Public policy analysis
Public policy analysis, the newest field of study, combines economics, public administration, and national government as it delves into the decisions and actions of governments operating with limited resources. The field attempts to develop methodologies and models through with public policy decisions can be made. Despite its newness, the field has grown rapidly and is now considered a mature field of study. 

Structure of the literature
Information sources for political science fall into two categories: primary sources in either paper or machine-readable format from research or governmental bodies and secondary sources (e.g., accounts from monographs or serials). Each field within political science depends on these two information categories to differing degrees. For example, a study of legislative intent would require the publications of official bodies, such as the Congress or the United Nations General Assembly, to interpret legislative intent; a voting analysis study would require raw data of electoral results to develop a hypothesis concerning voting behaviour; and a study of Chinese national economic policies would require government publications and monographic, serial, and newspaper accounts. 

Reference services in political science is highly dependent on the nature of the question and the type of patron. It should be obvious that a firm grasp of other social science reference sources is requisite. A basic knowledge of current events and American history is also essential in conducting the reference interview. Familiarity with the structure of the United States and key intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations, is also essential. Finally, a working knowledge of the organization of government document collections and the characteristics of specific types of government publications, particularly congressional and judicial documents, is helpful. In short, to provide reference service to the field of political science one must be comfortable with the social sciences in general and with collections containing primary source materials. 

The titles discussed in the remainder of the chapter represent the variety of political science reference resources available. The sources are arranged based on the subject and type of question that they could help to answer, in the following categories:

General Information 

Public Administration and Public Policy—General Sources 

U.S. Government—Executive Branch

U.S. Government—Congress

U.S. Government—The Presidency 

U.S. Government—State and Local 

National Governments—Worldwide 

U.S. Politics—General 

Elections and Political Parties—United States 

Elections and Political Parties—The States 

Elections and Political Parties—Worldwide 

International Relations and Organizations 

War and Peace; Terrorism 

Human Rights