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Political Science & International Studies Resources: Books

Reference Works in Political Science

Finding Books in the Library

  • Use the Library Catalog to search for books or videos in the library including ebooks. Use the Subject or Keyword search if you don't have a particular title or author in mind.
  • Use eBook Central  and ebooks on EBSCO to search exclusively for ebooks in our ebook collections . Enter your login and password when prompted.
  • The Core Reference collection which contains facts, statistics, short biographies, and general information to get you started with your research is located on the first floor and is non-circulating. 
  • The General collection, located on the second floor, contains in-depth information and is circulating. Subject specific reference material is also located on the second floor within the General collection but is for library use only.
  • Books in the Library are arranged by call number. The call number is located on the spine of the book and is unique to each book, like an address. Call numbers are organized alphabetically by subject matter and then numerically (i.e. HN90.M3 G72 2002 which denotes the subjects: Mass media -- Social aspects -- United States.).
  • For a list of subjects check out the Classification Outline by the Library of Congress.
Sidenote: eBooks
We often get the question: "My instructor told me to use a book.  Can I use an eBook? Does that still count?"  Yes it does!  eBooks are still books, they've just in another format. You'll find eBooks right alongside print books in our online catalog, so go ahead and use them.

Slides:

Library of Congress Classification System

AlemanyLibrary. (ND). Books: Library of Congress call numbers [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net