Databases at UD
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Eight Centuries (formerly19th Century Masterfile) This link opens in a new windowAn index of indexes. Includes the Congressional Record File and the Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the U. S. (1774-1881).
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American State Papers This link opens in a new windowFull text legislative and executive publications of Congress 1789 (1st Cong) - 1838 (25th Cong). Covers materials prior to the Serial Set. Produced by the Readex Company.
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Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new windowContains full text of many Congressional publications including journals, documents, reports, and broadsides. Search suggestion: select the "Author" tab, go to United States, select an appropriate term. If the search results are large, use the "search within" option.
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HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new windowThe world’s largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. Includes U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional documents (such as Congressional Record and Hearings early 1900s-present), and more than 2,400 scholarly journals, all of the world’s constitutions, all U.S. treaties, and collections of classic treatises and presidential documents.
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Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new windowProvides federal and state cases and Shepard’s® Citations. Also federal and state statutes, and regulations. Includes articles from law journals. The news collection contains articles from U.S., state and local, and international newspapers.
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ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowIdentifies congressional publications from 1789 to present. Full text varies by type of publication.
Full text is available for recent publications, including Senate and House Reports and Documents (Serial Set), laws, testimony given in Congressional hearings 1988 (100th Cong)-, the Congressional Record 1985 (99th Cong)-, House and Senate Documents 1995 (104th Cong)- and Reports 1990 (101st Cong)-, Committee Prints 1993 (103rd Cong)-. Legislative Histories are available for 1996 (106th Cong) -.
The Library has many of the full text microfiche sets indexed in ProQuest Congressional, including House and Senate Unpublished Hearings and Historical hearings set (Microfiche-Group number). -
U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new windowThe U.S. Congressional Serial Set contains House and Senate Documents and House and Senate Reports bound by session of Congress. It began publication with the 15th Congress, 1st Session (1817). Documents before 1817 are found in the American State Papers. The Serial Set does not include Congressional hearings and debates.
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U.S. Declassified Documents This link opens in a new windowU.S. Declassified Documents is a compilation of declassified documents from the executive branch including presidential libraries, Department of State, Department of Defense, CIA, FBI, Joint Chiefs of Staff and other executive agencies. The types of materials include intelligence studies, policy papers, diplomatic correspondence, cabinet meeting minutes, briefing materials, and domestic surveillance and military reports. These records provide a unique view of the highest level of American policymaking on the most sensitive issues of national security and foreign policy. The collection also includes sources on domestic issues such as surveillance, the civil rights and anti-war movements, abuse of government power, and home-grown terrorism.
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Westlaw Campus Research This link opens in a new windowCan find full bills and has a section devoted to Legislative History located on the "All Content" tab all the way on the right-hand side.
Keep in mind that finding information on topics may require you to search within subject specific databases.
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowThe CQ Researcher Plus Archive explores a single “hot” issue in the news in depth each week. Topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education and science and technology. There are 44 reports produced each year including four expanded reports. PDF files are available for full issues dating back to January 1996; for issues published since January 2001, PDF files are in color.
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National JournalThe National Journal provides daily analysis on Hill procedures and updates. In the Race Tracker section, you can track election poll data and campaign finance information. In the Almanac section, you can find biographies on politicians. The National Journal is an immensely rich resource that is worth exploring if you are looking for information on Congress.
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HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new windowThe world’s largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. Includes U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional documents (such as Congressional Record and Hearings early 1900s-present) and more than 2,400 scholarly journals, all of the world’s constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law.
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LegalTrac This link opens in a new windowLegalTrac provides indexing for more than 1,200 major law reviews, legal newspapers, specialty publications, Bar Association journals, and international legal journals, including more than 200 titles in full text. The database offers coverage of federal and state cases, laws and regulations, legal practice and taxation, as well as British Commonwealth, European Union, and international law.
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PAIS Index This link opens in a new windowAn index to the world’s public and social policy literature in the fields of business, economics, local and federal government, political science, international relations, finance, and other social sciences. Includes public policy literature in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish—periodicals, books, and government documents.
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ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowProvides detailed subject and author indexing to access approximately 170 magazines and newsletters with substantial research value published by the U.S. government.
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New York Times (NYTimes.com) This link opens in a new windowThe New York Times online includes the same articles and feature text and images that appear in the print edition, but also an array of additional resources including images, videos, audio, graphics, and data content. Crosswords are not included in this NYTimes.com Group Pass subscription.
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Washington Post Online This link opens in a new windowThe Washington Post (often referred to as TWP or WaPo) covers national and global news, politics and national security, business and technology, arts and entertainment, sports, and local and regional news. Sections include a range of topical areas — education, climate and environment, science, health, immigration, and more. TWP‘s investigative journalists cover a range of issues of national and international importance, and opinion columnists focus on politics, economics, culture, international news and other topics.
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Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) This link opens in a new windowThe Wall Street Journal online includes the same articles and feature text and images that appear in the print edition, but also an array of additional resources including images, videos, audio, graphics, and data content.
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The EconomistSubscription provided by UD.
Tips & Tricks for Searching for Articles
Finding articles within databases and journals is not the same process you would use to conduct a search in Google or an internet search engine. You cannot type in a question, but rather need to choose specific keywords and phrases to find results. These tips are similar to how you would search for material in DELCAT Discovery.
Helpful Ways to Search:
- Use quotations around a phrase to "tell" the database or journal that you want these words to remain together.
- Ex: "American exceptionalism"
- Think of synonyms to your keywords...Especially when conducting historical research, you may need to develop words and phrases that were used during that particular time period, rather than modern-day words.
- Ex: World War I; First World War; The Great War - All would give you different results!
- Use AND/OR to connect words, concepts, and phrases together to receive specified results.
- Ex: World War I AND United States
Use the Advanced Search option in databases and journals to narrow down by date, region, type of document, and more!