Guide to Major Political Science Resources at the USM Library and on the Web by Robert Klotz (updated September 2025)
Periodical Databases:
1) Academic Search Complete – the most comprehensive source of full-text political science articles. This database and the other article databases can be reached from the main USM library home page at usm.maine.edu/library by clicking DATABASES and finding the database in alphabetical order. You may limit your search to articles for which the full text is available electronically by checking FULL TEXT in the LIMIT YOUR RESULTS section of the search. You may also limit your results to professional journal articles by checking the box for PEER REVIEWED [scholarship].
2) Worldwide Political Science Abstracts – the most complete inventory of political science articles. The database has citations for significant journal articles published since 1975.
3) Newspaper Source Plus – a good source for full-text newspaper articles.
4) New York Times Access Pass – Starting Fall 2025, USM students can access full NYT content.
5) Project MUSE – source of full-text, peer-reviewed articles in political science and other disciplines.
6) Political Science Subject Guide (USM library) – List of print/web resources in political science.
7) JSTOR – Excellent archive of scholarly journal articles. The most recent articles are not available.
8) Google Scholar – Excellent resource for a range of scholarly publications, including books, articles, and conference papers. The full-text of some works is accessbile and other works may be available through USM.
Online Catalog:
LibrarySearch catalogs everything owned by USM and other libraries in the University of Maine system. If an item is in the UM system, it can be requested by clicking on the REQUEST icon in the middle of the record. They typically take between 3-5 days to arrive. If you want to search books outside of the Maine system, the worldcat database is available by clicking DATABASES on the main library page. You may submit your inter-library loan requests electronically from the main library page. Books typically arrive in 5-10 days.
Reference Books for Political Statistics:
1) Statistical Abstract of the United States (Reference Desk: HA 202 A3) – various social, economic, and political statistics
2) Political Handbook of the World (Ref JF 37 P6) – summary of political landscape for countries throughout the world
3) Vital Statistics on American Politics (Ref JK 274 S74) – American political data
Major Web Resources:
1) Pew Research – most comprehensive source of public opinion datasets in the United States.
2) United Nations – UN documents and statistics
3) Opensecrets.org – campaign finance data
4) Google is the leading search engine for the World Wide Web. Be sure to consider the source.
5) usa.gov – gateway to federal government sites including the Census Bureau
Legal Reference:
1) Official Supreme Court site – Supreme Court decisions and oral arguments. Another good legal source is the Legal Information Institute at Cornell.
2) Congress – comprehensive source for information about Congress and federal statutes
3) Maine – resource for Maine laws
Other:
User-friendly links for POS basics: 1) Personnel; 2) POS Catalog Copy; 3) Catalog Supplement for International Studies Track; 4) POS and the Core Curriculum