Polsci 1

Political Science 1

Suggested Electronic, Print and Web Resources for the Congressional Simulation

Researching:
Congressional Districts and Representatives
Interest Groups
Clinton Administration
Legislation for the project
News Sources

Information on Congressional Districts and Representatives:

Almanac of American Politics , The 2000 edition is available on the web, it is also located at the Fairchild Library, Reserve Desk - 329.0092 B265al . This very useful reference work ,arranged by Congressional Districts within each State , provides an analysis and description of the political and demographic make-up of the districts. It includes some concise statistical information on the population, results of past elections, information on the current Legislator and ratings by interest groups.

Congressional Districts in the 1990's: a Portrait of America, Fairchild Library, Reserve Desk - 328.78 C 7491co 1990. This reference book describes each Congressional District, its industrial and economic base, provides information on the ethnic make-up, local institutions of higher education and identifies major businesses and employers.

U.S. Census - Congressional Districts Data 1990 from the U.S. Bureau of Census home page.

CD Rom - Congressional Districts of the United States, U.S. Bureau of the Census. Disk is available for searching on the Library CD/ROM Workstation in the Fairchild Library Reference Area. Click on Icon for 1990 U.S. Census, Congressional Districts. It is essential to use this source to determine the Unemployment, Poverty and Armed Services population for your district.

Congressional District Ranking Book . A Web site, created by the Heritage Foundation, ranks all U.S. Congressional Districts based on a variety of social, economic and demographic factors. .(URL: http://www.heritage.org/heritage/cd_ranking/i-cdrank.html)

Congressional Quarterly's politics in America. 324.73 C749p 2000 FM-RESERVE , accompanied by CD-ROM shelved in RESERVE under MC SER 27 This work is similar to the Almanac of American Politics. It provides a profile of each member of congress and congressional district with demographic information and descriptions of the political environment.

State and Local Government on the Net - Web site which provides links to pages created by State, County and Local governments as well as some regional organizations. (URL - http://www.piperinfo.com/state/states.html)

Information on Interest Groups

Political Advocacy Groups: A directory of United States Lobbyists. This site offers a directory of over 200 advocacy groups arranged by name and subject. Subject listing provides address, phone number, brief description, and web link if available.

Political Science Resources, U.S. Politics. A section of the Univ. of Michigan mega-site on Political information, this page provides well rounded access to information on U.S. Politics. Click on the link to "Lobby Groups" to jump to the section with links to interest groups. (URL- http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/psusp.html)

Directory of Political Debates and Issues. This section of the larger Politics1 website provides a listing of ideologies and political and social issues with links to organizations which take a serious interest in that issue.
(URL - http://www.politics1.com/issues.htm )

Finding information by or about an Interest group or organization:

To locate information in the WWW on a specific Interest group, Political Action Committee, or Organization, use a Web Searching tool and search by the exact name of the group. Use the "SEARCH" button on your internet browser to open up a list of Web search tools, or use Google or AltaVista.

Information on Clinton Administration : Position statements and policies of U. S. Executive and Administrative agencies

The Clinton Presidential Materials Project The National Archives and Records Administration has created a website to preserve the internet materials of the Clinton Administration.Use the White House Virtual Library to search for White House Documents or Radio Addresses.

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents contains statements, messages, and other Presidential
materials released by the White House. Documents from 1993 to the present can be found by performing key- word searches.

Executive Agencies, positions and policies of the Clinton Administration. The websites of the executive departments will undergo changes as the Bush Administration puts its own websites into place. Each agency has its own timetable and approach to handling the position statements of former Department Secretaries. You should explore the different Executive sites to glean information on the policy statements of the Clinton administration. Use the Federal Web Locator to get to the webpages of these Departments.

Identifying and Tracking Legislation, Locating testimony:

Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report This weekly publication provides news and analysis of the political and legislative activities of congress. Conduct a search of the phrase "Legislative Summary" and limit it to a particular year in order to find a complete list of the legislation passed or pursued in a particular session of congress. Each "Legislative Summary" gives a synopsis of the legislation, the Bill numbers associated with the proposed legislation and a discussion of the action by supporters and opponents of the Bill.
(http://libraryip.cq.com)

Congressional Universe.This commercial resource available to Lehigh users allows you to monitor legislation and public policy on almost any topic and pinpoint testimony on legislative issues. It can be used to identify Bills and Hearings on various topics. If you have identified a Bill number for a piece of legislation, use it to identify hearings and perhaps find the full text of some on the web.Those hearings which are not available on the web can be obtained in the Government Documents Department in Fairchild Martindale Library. For assistance locating the printed copies of hearings speak to Steve Firtko, Government Documents Coordinator, 758-5337, EMAIL - e049@lehigh.edu

Selected Newspaper Resources

Lexis Nexis Academic Universe

This database contains the full text articles for a large number of important newspapers. It can be useful for exploring the position of the Clinton Administration, lobby groups or even to get a feel for the local coverage of a political issue.

In searching for the Clinton Administration's position on a topic you might want to start with the News category, select General News and Major Papers as your source field. If you wish to limit your search to articles from the New York Times and Washington Post, use the "More Options" seach form and enter those titles in the "Search this publication title(s)" field.
The Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe database contains a variety of local and regional newspapers which you can search for articles and editorials that may reflect your districts interests and concerns.Use the News Category and select US News search form.
To find articles in Newspapers or Magazines that may mention your lobby group's position and activities on an issue you can utilize the Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe and search for the name of your group or their spokesperson.

If no newspaper for your community is included in Lexis, try:

Ultimate collection of News Links. - This Web site provides links to over 6000 newspapers and magazines from around the world. Useful for browsing the local newspapers of communities in the U.S. (URL: http://pppp.net/links/news)

HINT- Create a bookmark for this address because once you link to a newspaper there is no backlink to the "Ultimate" site.

For additional help with researching information for your project contact by phone or Email:

Roseann Bowerman, Social Sciences Librarian/ Government Documents librarian ,758-3053, EMAIL- rb04@lehigh.edu

Professor Edward Morgan, 759-3345, EMAIL- epm2@lehigh.edu

Page revised:: 3/16/01 - Roseann Bowerman