Politics

Finding books and ebooks
Key Reference Books
Finding journal articles
Finding newspapers
Useful Web Links

Finding books and ebooks

The main collections of books can be found on Levels 4 and 5 of the Library.

Books in heavy demand are placed in the Short Loan Collection on Level 1. The Short Loan Collection contains 1 day loan items; 7 day loan books are shelved with the ordinary loan books on the upper levels.

Use the Library catalogue to find the exact shelfmark and location for each book. If you are searching for books on a particular topic, use a keyword search.

The main collection of books for Politics and International Relations are on Level 4 at shelfmarks beginning 32

Citizenship 323.6
Civil and political rights 323
Democracy 321.8
Diplomacy 327.2
Election systems and procedures 324.6
Foreign policy 327.1
Interest and pressure groups 324.4
International law 341
International migration 325
International relations 327
Legislative processes 328
Political action groups 322.4
Political ideologies 320.5
Political parties 324.2
Political philosophy and theory 320.01
Political science 320
Political systems 321
Politics : mass media 302.23
The Political process 324
Public administration 350
Social policy and welfare 361
Social problems 362
Structure and functions of government 320.4
The State 320.1

eBooks

There are links from reading list book titles on the Library catalogue to electronic versions of a text - look for "e-link"

You can also use the Electronic Books page to access eBooks on Politics. The most useful collections for politics textbooks will be the Dawsonera, Ebsco, Ebrary and Myilibrary collections.

For dictionaries try Credo Reference.

Key Reference Books

Blackwell encyclopedia of political thought 321.01(03) MIL
Dictionary of modern politics 32(03) ROB
Oxford companion to politics of the world 320 OXF
The Routledge dictionary of twentieth-century political thinkers 320.0922 ROU
The Statesman's Yearbook: statistical and historical annual of the states of the world Quick Reference 32 STA

Good Study Guides

The good study guide 378.147226 NOR
Social research methods 300.72 BRY
Studying for a degree in the Humanities and Social Sciences 378.170281 DUN
Write great essays 808.066 LEV
Excellent Dissertations 808.066378 LEV

Finding journal articles

Summon is our library search engine for finding journals, full-text articles, books and ebooks.

It is very useful for finding the full-text article for a journal reference on a reading list.The Library catalogue, e-Journals catalogue and our database collections can be searched from this one easy to use page, enabling you to access good quality academic content more quickly and simply.

For more advanced topic/subject searching Online databases are the recommended way to find out what journal articles have been published on a particular topic. Some databases will link to the full text of articles, others will only supply bibliographic details.

Online databases important for Politics and International Relations are:

IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences 1951 onwards. The essential online resource for social science and interdisciplinary research. Broad coverage of international journals and books, incorporating over 100 languages and countries. Abstracts are provided for half of all current journal articles and full text availability is continually increasing.

JSTOR Arts & Science Collections: is a collection of full text journals, most going back to Volume 1, Issue 1 (in some cases going back to the 18th or 19th Century). Many subjects are covered across the Sciences, Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities. It indexes 8 Performance Art Journals.

Web of Science: is a multidisciplinary database that provides access to the bibliographic information and cited references of all items published in more than 1,700 journals spanning 50 disciplines in the social sciences. 1956 onwards; Abstracts from 1992.

Finding newspaper articles

The Library takes certain daily British broadsheet newspapers. Recent copies are on Level 1 of the Library and older copies are kept on Level 2.

British newspapers including the Financial Times and a huge variety of international papers can also be read electronically on Nexis.

Specific news services for the EU include Euractiv or EU Observer

Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985: The complete digital edition of The Times (London) capturing the entire newspaper, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.

Useful Web Links

General Internet Sites

Political Information : a search engine for politics, policy and political news

Political Resources on the Net: listings of political sites available on the Internet sorted by country, with links to Parties, Organizations, Governments, Media and more from all around the world

Governments on the World Wide Web: comprehensive database of governmental institutions on the World Wide Web: parliaments, ministries, offices, law courts, embassies, city councils, public broadcasting corporations, central banks, multi-governmental institutions etc. Includes also political parties

Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources: an extensive list of links compiled by Richard Kimber a former lecturer at Keele University.

BBC Motion Gallery: A catalogue of moving images from the BBC, providing access to thousands of shots from BBC and CBS news archives. You have to register and images viewable online are low resolution with watermarks.

Britain

Political Studies Association: The PSA exists to develop and promote the study of politics.

British Government and Politics on the Internet: a compliation of websites relating to all aspects of governement and politics in the UK selected by Martin Harrison of Keele University.

Political parties: extensive list of British political parties with links.

British Election Manifestos: provides access to all Conservative, Labour and Liberal party manifestos from British general elections since 1945.

United Kingdom Parliament: provides information about UK Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

House of Commons Library Research Papers: access to the full text of Research Papers which are compiled for the benefit of British MP's. They focus on current topics of interest to Parliament.

DirectGov: official government website aimed at providing informtion to the general public

Citizenship, a history of people, rights, and power in Britain : this is an educational site which has been developed by the National Archives and the Parliamentary Archives. It explores the developments of individual rights in the UK from 1066-2003.

Europe

Europa: The European Union online with useful primary information and policy documents.

Eur-lex: part of the Europa site. This has the official journal since 1988, all the European treaties, the directory of legislation in force and ongoing 'consolidated legislation'.

European Court of Human Rights

EFPU(working papers LSE) : The European Foreign Policy Unit of the London School of Economics was set up to act as a focus for research and teaching on issues European foreign policy.

Facts sheets on the European Union

European Information Association: The EIA is an international body of information specialists who co-ordinate access to EU information

European Parliament: official website to the European Parliament

Ideas on Europe is a blog with postings primarily from experts in the EU field.

University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) - the biggest EU studies association with useful information and further links.

EU think tanks

European Policy Centre

Centre for European Reform

Federal Trust

Centre for European Policy Studies

Notre Europe