Elections Research Guide
Library Catalogs
Look in the following catalogs for books, videos and other types
of audiovisual items held in libraries.
For any of these library catalogs, you can do a Subject Search
using the word "elections," but this will bring up MANY different
subject headings that you then have to sort through to find the
items that you want. It might be better to do a Keyword Search,
combining the word "elections" with another keyword
that is related to your topic; for example: "elections and
Illinois." Ask for help at the Reference Desk if you have
any questions (phone: 630-942-3364).
Outline of the Library of Congress Classification System (what COD uses to shelve its books).
Other Nearby Public and Academic Libraries
Reference Works
Current
- Guide to U.S. Elections Reference JK 1967 .C 662
- Congressional Quarterly Almanac & Weekly Report
Reference JK 1 .C66
- Congressional Quarterly's Desk Reference on the American
Government Reference JK 274 .W 449
- Elections A to Z Reference JK 1976 .M 57
- Encyclopedia of the American Legislative System Reference
JF 501 .E 53 1994
- Encyclopedia of U.S. Campaigns, Elections, and Electoral Behavior. (2008)
- Political Handbook of the World Reference JF 37 .P6
- Political Systems of the World Reference JF 51 .D467
- Politics in America Reference JK 1010.C64. Earlier
editions in the General Collection
- Statistical Abstract of the United States Reference
HA 202 .U5 S93. Earlier editions in the General Collection.
- Vital Statistics on American Politics Reference JK
274 .S 74.
- Voting Rights on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and
Documents General KF 4891 .Z 45 2002.
- World Encyclopedia of Parliaments and Legislatures
Reference JF 511 .W67
On Illinois
- Almanac of Illinois Politics Reference JK 5730 .A
5
- Illinois Blue Book (Illinois state government manual)
Reference JK 5730 .A 25. Earlier editions in the General Collection
- Illinois Elections, 1818-1990: Candidate and Couty Returns
for President, Governor, Senate and the House of Representatives
Reference JK 5792 .I 45 1992
- Illinois Handbook of Government Reference JK 5730
.I 45a. Earlier editions in the General Collection
Historical
- America Votes Reference JK 1967 .A8
- Atlas of America Politics, 1960-2000 Reference G
1201 .F 1 A 8 2002
- Encyclopedia of American Political History Reference
E 183 .E 48 2001
- Gubernatorial Elections, 1787-1997 Reference JK 2447
.G 76
- The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United
States Atlas Stand G 1201 .F 9 M 26 1989
- Historical Documents on Presidential Elections General
JK 1965 .H 56 1991
- National Party Conventions Reference JK
2255 .N 373 Earlier editions in the General Collection
- National Party Platforms, 1840-1972 General JK 2255
.J 64 1973
- Open Secrets: The Encyclopedia of Congressional Money
and Politics General JK 1991 .M 26
- The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections
Reference G 1201 .S 1 M 5 2001
- United States Presidential Elections, 1788-1860: The Official
Results by County and State Reference JK 524 .D 778 2002
- U.S. Presidential Candidates and the Elections: A Biographical
and Historical Guide Reference JK 528 H 38 1996
Article Indexes
You must have a valid College of DuPage library
card to access the electronic indexes and databases from off-campus.
- Academic OneFile (formerly Expanded Academic Index ASAP). An index to over 2500 magazines and journals covering a variety of topic areas including anthropology. This database provides references, abstracts, and many times the full-text of articles. A COD library card is required for off-campus use.
- Academic Search Premier Contains full-text articles from hundreds of
journals.
- Blackwell Synergy. This is an index of articles published in journals that are printed by the Blackwell company. A wide variety of topics and journals are covered, but you only get bibliographic citations, no full-text articles. You can select a particular subject area to search in, or you can select a specific journal to search in by clicking on the broad subject, then selecting a small subject area from that next page, then selecting the particular journal title on the third page. You can move through the categories by clicking on the plus sign [+] to the left of the category name.
- Chicago
Tribune(1985-present).Full-text.
- CQ
Researcher (Nov. 1991-present).Full-text articles covering
topics of current interest and controversy.
- FindArticles.com. Citations to millions of journal articles.
- The Free Library. A database of free magazine and journal articles.
- Google Scholar. This provides access to many free full-text articles, as well as citations to many other articles.
- IngentaConnect. This is an index to millions of journal articles, book chapters, reports, and more. Most are not available as full-text online items.
- JSTOR: Scholarly Journals Archive of Older Issues.
- Military and Government Collection of articles.
- The
New York Times.
- NewsIllinois
for Illinois newspapers.
- Newspapers
(ProQuest) (1980's-present).Full-text of four major national
newspapers including the New York Times.
- Open Access Journals Directory (free full-text journal articles)
- Project MUSE. This database provides citations and abstracts only.
- SCIRUS. A search engine for citations to journal articles and links to web pages.
- SocIndex with Fulltext. References & full-text for
journals for political science and other related social science
disciplines.
- Wall
Street Journal
- Washington
Post
-
- More COD Library journal and newspaper article databases.
- Does the C.O.D. Library own the journal that I need?
- Explanation
of the Difference Between Magazines and Journals (requires
Microsoft Word)
- Identifying Peer - Reviewed Scholarly Journals, Trade Publications, and Magazines (from ProQuest).
- How
to Read a Research Study Article. (requires Microsoft Word)
Local Internet Sites and Information
National and International Internet Sites and Information
- Alamanc of Policy Issues.
- Campaign Contribution Information from OpenSecrets.Org.
- The Campaign Finance Information Center
- Center for Responsive Politics
- Center for Voting and Democracy
- Common Cause
- Congress.Org. Directories
of members of Congress and congressional committees. Find your
representatives by zip code and send them e-mail. Look up current
legislation.
- The Democratic Party
- Election
and Voting Information from ALA/Government Documents Roundtable.
- ElectionGuide. This site has information for elections in other countries.
- Election/Opinion Polls from around the country (FiveThirtyEight.com)
- Elections Around the
World.
- FactCheck.org - The Annenberg Political Fact Check Site.
- Federal Election Commission
- Government
Statistics sites
- The History of Televised Presidential Debates.
- The League of Women Voters.
- Money in Politics at
Open Secrets.Org
Good source of information on 30 current and controversial issues
including crime, welfare, foreign policy, health care, affirmative
action...Issue of the Week presents all sides of the issue great
for debates and speeches.
- National Commission on Federal Election Reform
- National Institute on Money in State Politics
- Political
Parties Directory
- Political Web (for
election information)
- Politics1.
Resources on parties, candidates, ideological positions, issues,
and general political news.Nonpartisan and covers a wide variety
of organizations and viewpoints.
- Presidential Election maps and analysis, 1840-2008 (Voting America Project, University of Richmond)
- Project Vote Smart.
Free information about politicians including biographies, campaign
finances, issue positions, performance evaluations, and voting
records.
- Public Agenda for Policy Issues
- Public Campaign
- The Republican Party (GOP)
- United States Government Executive Branch
- United
States Government Legislative Branch
- U.S. Election Atlas.
- Voting America Presidential Elections maps and analysis, 1840-present.
- Voting
and Elections federal resources.
- Voting Integrity Project
- Yahoo!
Elections
- Yahoo!
Political Science. Keyword searching for political science
topics. Good place to start your Web searching.
Checklists & Worksheets
Interlibrary Loan
The Library can obtain copies of articles or books from other
libraries for you. Inquire at the Reference Desk. You may also
consult journal title lists from other libraries in the area.
Reference Desk: 630-942-3364
Dan Blewett, Reference Librarian
Phone: (630) 942-2279 FAX: 630-858-8757
Office: SRC 3035
blewett@cod.edu
