Library Resources - Political Science

The resources supporting Political Science are located principally in the Memorial Library, which contains over 800,000 volumes of books, bound journals, and microforms relating to the Humanities and Social Sciences.  Students focusing on legal issues may find the collections available to them at Marquette’s Law Library essential to their research.

Collection Strengths

Quantifying the multi- and interdisciplinary collections in Political Science is difficult due to overlap with so many other fields, notably business, urban affairs, international affairs, history, ethics, and philosophy.  Areas of special concentration include American politics, comparative politics, international politics including international political economy, and political philosophy.

The core of the monograph collection, more than 18,000 titles, resides in the J classification and is shelved on the upper fourth level of Memorial Library.  Other areas of the LC classification system with relevant material include the Ks (Law) in both Memorial and Law Libraries, the C--F (History) collection on the 2nd and 3rd levels of Memorial, and the H (Social Sciences) collection on the 3rd and 4th levels of Memorial.

Research Resources

Access to library materials is via the online catalog, MARQCAT, covering all three campus libraries with dial-up access 24-hours daily. Marquette participates in the Federal Depository program, acquiring a wide variety of state and federal documents which assist research.  The Library maintains current subscriptions to over 70 periodicals within the political disciplines, a strong collection that includes research and trade journals, annual reviews, and yearbooks.  To facilitate access to the research literature, indexes are maintained in both print and electronic format.  Key indexes in paper format include:

Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin -- (1968-1990)

Sociological Abstracts

International Political Science Abstracts

Sage Urban Studies Abstracts

The New York Times Index

Handbook of Latin American Studies

The libraries are committed to providing information via current technology. PC’s are available for accessing the World Wide Web and key Web-based information is provided via the Selected Internet Sites page on the Libraries' website.  While not focused specifically on political science, these electronic resources may prove valuable for selected topics:

PAIS International (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

Lexis-Nexis Congressional Universe (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

ERIC (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

Political Science Abstracts Worldwide (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

PsycINFO (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

ABI-INFORM (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

Dissertation Abstracts (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

Social Sciences Citation Index (Available on Raynor Memorial PC workstations only.d)

CD-News: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WISCAT (statewide database) (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

WorldCat (OCLC national bibliographic catalog) (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

World News Connection (Available off-campus to valid Marquette Card holders only.)

Special Services

This brief listing may be explored further in other areas of the Web site, but an enumeration of key privileges and services for graduate students includes:

Semester borrowing of monographic materials

Open 104 hours per week during regular semesters

Reference staff available for walk-up or appointment consultation

Free interlibrary borrowing of books and articles.

Easy access to nearby research libraries and in-person borrowing via InfoPass program

Self-service photocopiers with key card convenience

Study carrels for graduate students in the humanities and social sciences

Teaching labs available for groups or classes by appointment