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Depending on your specific topic, you may find
resources listed on the subject pages for:
Political Science,
Government Information, and
Sociology to be
useful in addition to the resources listed below.
The following databases/indexes are designed to provide links to
online resources. To find books, you will need to consult the
Hiram College Library
Catalog and, perhaps, the
OhioLINK catalog.
1. Databases/indexes to find
periodical articles - These databases are designed to
help you identify relevant periodical articles through keyword or
subject searches. In most cases there will be links to either
the online version of the article or a listing of the library's
holdings. If you are not sure, you may check the library's
periodical
holdings list and/or its
list of
online journals. These databases are listed in the order
in which the library recommends them.
NOTE: A number of these databases may be searched at the same time
using the PoliSci/Law/Gov articles option for OhioLINK's
Quick
Search.
| Database Name | Link to access from on-campus | Link to access from off-campus if available | Info about the database |
| LexisNexis Academic Universe |
 |
 |
 |
| Legal Collection |
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| PAIS International |
|
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| International Political Science Abstracts |
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| GPO Monthly Catalog |
|
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| Academic Search Complete |
|
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|
2.
Databases/indexes of e-journals - These databases store
runs of complete periodical titles. In most cases the
databases listed above will link to the full-text in these databases
and you do not need to search them, too. If, however, you need
only a couple of good, scholarly articles on a topic, you should
consider searching these databases.
| Database Name | Link to access from on-campus | Link to access from off-campus if available | Info about the database |
| Electronic Journal Center (EJC) |
|
|
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| JSTOR |
|
|
|
3. Databases
of e-books - These databases provide the full-text of
selected online books. These books are also available in
print. Since many more books are in print than online, you may
also wish to search the
Hiram College Library Catalog and/or the
OhioLINK catalog.
| Database Name | Link to access from on-campus | Link to access from off-campus if available | Info about the database |
| Oxford Scholarship Online: Political Science |
|
No |
|
| Humanities E-Book Project |
|
|
|
4. Databases
of reference e-books - These specialized reference
materials (encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, guides, etc) are
designed to give you background information, an overview of a topic,
or quick facts.
| Database Name | Link to access from on-campus | Link to access from off-campus if available | Info about the database |
| American Law, Politics, Government: e-reference books |
|
|
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| International Issues: e-reference books |
|
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| Oxford Reference, Law |
|
|
|
5.
Where Can I Find? -
This is a quick list of frequently requested law resources and where
they are available online. NOTE: All links below are for
on-campus access. For off-campus access to the first listed
database, go to the alphabetical list of
databases.
| Bills in Congress | Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe OR Thomas |
| Bills in Ohio Legislature | Gongwer News Service |
| Code of Federal Regulation | GPO Access |
| European Union Law | EUR-Lex |
| Federal Court Decisions | Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe |
| Federal Register | |
| Ohio Court Cases | Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe |
| Ohio Laws (Ohio code) | Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe |
| Supreme Court Cases | Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe |
| U.S. Code | |
| U.S Tax Regulations | Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe |
6. A Note
About Legal Citations - Legal citations can seem a bit
confusing until you get used to them. A basic legal citation
looks something like this: 481 US 279. Think of this as
having three parts. The first part - 481 - represents the
volume number of the publication you need to look in. The
second part - US - is an abbreviation for the publication (a list of
the most common abbreviations is below), in this case US stands for
United States Reports. The third part - 279 - indicates the
page number on which the item begins. (If you are curious, 481 US
279 is the legal citation for the Supreme Court decision in McClesky
v. Kemp). Most legal citations fit this pattern, although you
may see some with only two of these three elements.
|
Some Common Legal Abbreviations
|
Additional Abbreviations may be found in
Pollack's Fundamentals of Legal Research (call number 340.07 POL).
Appendix B is a long list of legal abbreviations.