LibGuides: SWK 701 Social Welfare Policy I (Overcamp-Martini): Library Guides

Finding Government Information & Legislation

Finding Government Information Tutorial
Tutorial on how to find government information

Google is an easy way to find official government information. After you type in your keywords, add site:gov to the search.

For example:
food stamp statistics site:.gov

Then, you will limit your search to .gov sites (mostly federal, but also some state & local resources).

Congressional Publications (ProQuest Congressional)
Good for: Researching U.S. legislative information.
Contains: Congressional publications, bills, laws, regulations, committee information, and more.
Dates covered: 1789-present.

Guides & Handouts for ProQuest Congressional & Executive Branch Documents
Use this guide for information on how to search in the Congressional interface, and for links to information on the digital collections.
Video: Short ProQuest Congressional Tutorial

CQ Weekly
- This link opens in a new window
1983-
Comprehensive roundup of virtually all Capitol Hill activity from the previous week.
CQ Press Library
- This link opens in a new window
Resources on public policy and American government, including access to the CQ Public Affairs Collection, the CQ Researcher, and the CQ Weekly.

Congress.gov
The CONGRESS.GOV website, from the Library of Congress, provides a wealth of legislative history information from current and past years. The site provides the full text of public laws, legislative bills (as well as summaries and status information for these bills), legislative debates, and committee reports. For the debates and reports, links are provided to a PDF version of these documents.
Census.gov
The Supreme Court Database
This database includes information about Supreme Court decisions from 1946 to the present.

UNLV Library Databases

EBSCO Databases
Good for: Selecting from a list of EBSCO databases to use for researching various subjects Contains: Database descriptions and links

Lists more than 30 databases available through the EBSCOhost interface. The databases index all subject areas with solid coverage of business, education, film, health, psychology, sociology, and sports. For each database there is a description of the content and some link to a Title List of indexed journals. Most databases contain full text articles from academic journals. Choose a single database to search or select multiple databases and search them simultaneously.
SocINDEX with Full Text
Good for: Researching sociology and related disciplines.
Contains: Index to literature.
Dates covered: 1895-present.

Includes selected journals, monographs, and conference papers. Encompasses all subdisciplines of sociology, including abortion, anthropology, criminology, criminal justice, marriage & family, politics, religion, rural sociology, social psychology, social structure, social work, sociological theory, sociology of education, substance abuse, urban studies, and many others.
Academic Search Premier
Good for: Conducting academic research on all subjects.
Contains: Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.
PAIS International
Good for: Finding information on public policy, social policy, and the social sciences.
Contains: Index to literature.
Dates covered: 1972-present.

From the Public Affairs Information Service, this database provides access to the literature of public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general. It includes records from journals, books, conference proceedings, research and government reports, and directories. Use it to locate journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, and web content.
Social Work Abstracts
Good for: Finding professional journal articles about social work
Contains: Journal articles.
Dates covered: 1977-present.

From the National Association of Social Workers, this database provides access to professional journal articles about social work from all areas of the profession.
Social Services Abstracts
Good for: Finding abstracts of research in social work, human services, social policy, and community development.
Contains: Abstracts of published scholarship.
Dates covered: 1979-present.

Social Services Abstracts identify and summarize current research in social work, human services, social policy, and community development.
CQ Researcher
Good for: Controversial topics in social issues, environment, health, education, science, and technology.
Contains: Reports with information about all sides of an issue, including comments from experts in the field, charts and graphs, a pro-con feature, a chronology, a bibliography for additional research, and a list of advocacy organizations.
Dates covered: 1923-present.
Las Vegas Review Journal (NewsBank)
Good for: Searching the text of articles published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Contains: Article text (no images).
Dates covered: 1996-present.
Newspaper Source Plus
Good for: Finding regional news articles and broadcast television transcripts.
Contains: Regional newspapers and transcripts.

Newspaper Source provides full text coverage for 40 national and international newspapers including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Times (London), and The Toronto Star. Selected full text is offered from more than 330 regional newspapers including The Buffalo News, Orange County Register, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Full text transcripts are available from CBS News, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, National Public Radio, and more.
Education Full Text
Good for: Researching education topics.
Contains: Journal articles.
Dates covered: 1996-present.
Professional Development Collection
Good for: Educators seeking resources related to professional development topics.
Contains: Education journals and reports.

Google & Google Scholar

Google
Google is a great place to begin. Type in the name of your bill or law, then type in site:.gov after your keywords.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar Settings
If you want to use Google Scholar as one of your search tools, this linked document describes how to update the Google Scholar settings to tie it to the subscriptions you have access to through UNLV and other libraries.

Research Institutes, Think Tanks

Harvard Think Tank Search
A very useful portal from Harvard that allows searching through various think tanks.
Brookings
Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and global economy and development.
Urban Institute
he Urban Institute is a Washington D.C.-based think tank that carries out economic and social policy research to "open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions."
RAND.org
RAND's research and analysis address issues that impact people around the world including security, health, education, sustainability, growth, and development.
New America
New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is a non-partisan think tank in the United States. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security studies, technology, asset building, health, gender, energy, education, and the economy.
Mathematica Policy Research
"Mathematica Policy Research is a pioneering nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving public well-being."
MDRC
MDRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization based in New York City and Oakland, CA.
The Human Rights Campaign
"The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality."
The Children's Defense Fund
"The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities."
Center for Law & Social Policy
"The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advancing policy solutions for low-income people."
Social Work Policy Institute
"The Social Work Policy Institute (SWPI) is a think tank established within the NASW Foundation. It examines issues that relate to the work of social workers, including how to serve people who have multiple or complex needs and how public agencies and other structures deliver health and human services.:
Center for Strategic & International Studies
An international policy institute, the CSIS focuses on a number of topics including defense and security, governance, technology and global trends.
Policy Archive
This collection of public policy research is gathered from sources such as the American Bar Association, the Brookings Institution, the Ford Foudnation, the Institute for Policy Studies, and others.

Urban Affairs Librarian

Susie Skarl, Urban Affairs Librarian

Email Me

Contact:

UNLV Libraries
Lied Library
4505 S. Maryland Parkway
Box 457014
Las Vegas, NV 89154-7014
susie.skarl@unlv.edu

702-895-2141

Subjects: Communication Studies, Couple & Family Therapy, Criminal Justice, Crisis & Emergency Management, Government Information, Journalism & Media Studies, Public Administration, Social Work, Urban Studies

SWK 701 Social Welfare Policy I (Overcamp-Martini): Library Guides

SW701 PowerPoint

Finding Government Information & Legislation

UNLV Library Databases

Google & Google Scholar

Research Institutes, Think Tanks

Urban Affairs Librarian

Locations

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