This and other research guides are on the ACC Library web page,
http://library.sunyacc.edu, under Research Guides & Tutorials.

Adirondack Community College, 640 Bay Road, Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 743-2260

"A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy... a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." - James Madison

Government Web Sites:  

New York State Senate
www.senate.state.ny.us/
The Senate’s Web page has information on current legislation and contact information for your elected representatives.

New York State Assembly
www.assembly.state.ny.us/
Find your assembly representative by entering your zip code; learn about current legislation and link to your representative’s Web page.

United States Senate
www.senate.gov
Learn about the committee system and membership of standing committees. Link to senators’ sites and find information on current legislation.

United States House of Representatives
www.house.gov
Send mail to your representatives, find information on committees, search roll call votes and learn what’s currently happening on the floor.

New York State Board of Elections
http://www.elections.state.ny.us
Voter registration information, election information, voter guides, much more.

U.S. Electoral College
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/
On electoral college, from National Archives and Records Administration, with additional election information.

“The more you know the less you believe.” Bono

Reference Material: Print and Electronic

Several encyclopedias, dictionaries, statistical summaries and other reference books are listed below. Reference books are located on the main floor of the ACC Library. Web sites are available from all on-campus computers with access to the Internet, or from home.

The CQ Researcher
REFERENCE H 35 .C673
Each issue of Congressional Quarterly offers in-depth. coverage of a timely topic. You may also search CQ’s online version on the Library’s Web page: ACC Library’s Web page > Finding Articles > General Databases > CQ Researcher. (Log in with your network account when prompted if accessing from off campus.)

Facts on File: World News Digest
REFERENCE D 410 .F32
A weekly digest of world events and index to the news. Also available as a database under ACC Library web page > Finding Books > Reference > Facts on File.

Guide to Political Campaigns in America
Ref. JK 2265 .G84 2005

Encyclopedia of Presidential Campaigns, Slogans, Issues and Platforms
Ref. E 176.1 .R6 2004

Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics
Ref. BL 2525 .D58 2003

The Citizen Action Encyclopedia: Groups and Movements that have Changed America
Ref. JS 303.5 .H35 2002

Maps in the News
http://utopia.utexas.edu/maps/
From UTOPIA digital gateway from University of Texas at Austin. Maps of Middle East, U.S. gas prices, more.

“An informed democracy will behave in a responsible fashion.” Thomas Jefferson

Finding Newspaper and Journal Articles:

For news databases, go to: ACC Library’s Web page > Finding Articles > General Databases > choose:

- EBSCO's Academic Search Premier - 8200 newsmagazines, scholarly journals, opinion & trade magazines, about 50% full-text.
- Custom Newspapers: includes newspapers, news wire services and general reference databases from around the world, full-text articles and indexing.
- New York State Newspapers: includes the New York Times full-text for recent years.
- JSTOR offers scholarly articles and essays on past elections and politics.

Under ACC Library’s Web page > Finding Articles > Subject Databases > Social Sciences > Military and Government Collection, you'll find current news, periodicals and pamphlets pertaining to all branches of the military.

Arts and Letters Daily
www.aldaily.com
This service of The Chronicle of Higher Education is a report of news and reviews and offers links to many news sources.

Internet Public Library: News and Current Events
www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref55.00.00
IPL offers access to many international publications, from the New York Times, to National Public Radio to Al-Bawaba and Internet 3^rd World News.

AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org
200 alternative journalism sources.

NewsVoyager
http://www.newspaperlinks.com/home.cfm  
Links to newspapers from around the United States from National Newspaper Association.

Newsknife 
http://www.newsknife.com
Evaluates online news media.

RefDesk.com
http://www.refdesk.com
Lists many online news sources.

Political Cartoons
http://www.politicalcartoons.com
Offers editorial cartoons on national and world politics, with many non-U.S. viewpoints of world issues.

The ACC Library offers a variety of journals and online article databases. Databases will have citations to articles and often the full text of the article. These databases are available from all on-campus computers with Internet access. Home access is available to registered students. Ask a librarian for help searching online.

To keep up with local, national and world affairs, you may want to browse some of the following newspapers and magazines at the ACC Library:

- The most current issues of newspapers are kept on a display rack near the video shelves.

- Many of these periodicals have Web pages with some free access to stories. Search the titles on Google. 

“Politics is the art of the possible.” Otto von Bismarck

Web Sites with Political Information:

These sites offer some information on candidates. Many, many more exist with differing viewpoints.

Project Vote Smart
www.vote-smart.org
Project Vote Smart (PVS) is a citizen’s organization dedicated to serving all Americans with accurate and unbiased information for electoral decision-making. Click on Current Candidates link along the top.

Washington Post's Presidential Field 2008
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/
Links to information on current presidential candidates.

New York Times' Politics Page
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/index.html
Links to coverage of candidates, with Election Guide 2008.

CNN's Politics page
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/
Links to information on 2008 presidential candidates.

Intelligent Vote
http://www.intelligentvote.com/default.aspx
Choose how you'd vote on various issues and see how your representatives' votes fare in comparison.

Times-Union's Capitol/State News page
http://www.timesunion.com/capitol/index.asp
Albany-area newspaper; blogs, new coverage from the Capitol.

WNYT Election News
http://decision.wnyt.com/
From Albany's Channel 13 television news, with candidate tracker, polls, more.

Post-Star
http://www.poststar.com/
Enter terms such as a candidate's name into the Search box. See http://www.poststar.com/elections2008/ for national election news.

The Saratogian
http://www.saratogian.com
Enter terms such as a candidate's name into the News Search box.

Political Compass
http://politicalcompass.org/
Complete a questionnaire on your beliefs about social, economic and political issues then see where you're placed on a political grid: left, right, authoritarian, libertarian. Also shows where famous politicians and thinkers stand (Hitler, Gandhi, Bush, others). By a political journalist and a social historian.

Polling Report
http://pollingreport.com/
Shows American opinions from a variety of surveys.

Siena Research Institute
http://www.siena.edu//level3col.aspx?menu_id=562&id=6850
Lists results of recent surveys by Siena College's research institute in Loudonville, N.Y.

Annenberg Political Fact Check
http://www.factcheck.org/
A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. This is a "nonpartisan, nonprofit, 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics."

Election 2008 resources: Political information online, networked, and in the social world
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2008/january08/elect08rescrces.cfm
Collection of excellent election sites from College & Research Libraries News mangazine, January 2008, Vol. 69, No. 1, by librarian Lorena O'English of Washington State University.

Major political parties:

Democratic Party
http://democrats.org

New York State Democratic Committee
http://www.nydems.org/

Republican National Committee
http://www.gop.com

New York Republican State Committee
http://www.nygop.org/

U.S. elections research guides:
From University of Pennsylvania Libraries: http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/guides/polisci/elections.html
From University at Buffalo Libraries: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/busdoc/elections.html
Both include links to many other political parties.

Getting Involved:

Rock the Vote
www.rockthevote.org
Rock the Vote is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and empowering young people to change their world.

League of Women Voters
www.lwv.org
This site will help if you’re interested in voter information, civic participation or current public policy issues. The League does not support individual candidates but does take stands on issues. For one-stop source for election information, candidates, election dates, voting marchines, more, see LWV's new http://vote411.org/, "Election Information You Need."

• Be an informed citizen! Vote in November! •

Voter registration forms
are available at this League of Women’s Voter’s site:
http://www.yourvotematters.org/vote/vote_center.cfm?itemid=15945&ms=LWV001

Want more information? Ask a librarian for assistance at any point in your research.

ACC also offers a one-credit course each semester, LIB187: Library Research Methods. Check course schedule for times.

Updated Feb. 2008/JM/BDA