Libraries Ask Us

SPP 697PC : Using the Past to Create Effective Policy

Brian Sargent, Spring 2019

Historical resources in policy and law

General (books, articles, electronic resources)

Discovery Search This link opens in a new window
Find articles across a large number of library resources with just one search! Begin your generalized research here.
Free to use for anyone to find records. Some results, and detailed information such as PDFs and full text links, are available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Journal articles / law reviews

HeinOnline Core Collection This link opens in a new window
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Includes complete coverage beginning with the first volume of more than 1,200 law and law-related periodicals, classic legal treatises from the 18th and 19th centuries, and English Reports, Full Reprint (1220-1867).
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Westlaw Campus Research This link opens in a new window
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Legal encyclopedias, law reviews, and legal treatises; case, statutory, and regulatory law; newspapers and magazines; business data, 1980s-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
PAIS International This link opens in a new window
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Articles, government documents, reports in the fields of political science, public and social policy, international relations 1915-.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly journals from all academic disciplines - an excellent starting point for multidisciplinary research projects. 3,200 full-text journals. Coverage from 1975 to present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Policy research

CRS Reports This link opens in a new window
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Reports on law and policy issues by the Congressional Research Service, part of the Library of Congress.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
PolicyFile This link opens in a new window
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Full text policy papers from think tanks, research institutes, and agencies.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Legislative history (federal)

ProQuest Legislative and Executive Publications This link opens in a new window
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Hearings, bills, laws and legislative histories, committee prints, Congressional Research Service reports, Congressional Record and predecessors, Executive Branch docs to 1939, and the Serial Set.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Newspapers

ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Combined search of historic Afro-American and ethnic and alternative newspapers, and historical Boston Globe, New York Times, and Washington Post.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Boston Globe This link opens in a new window
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Massachusetts' newspaper of record, 1980-present. Recent content is fully digitized from Jan 1, 2008 (Vol. 273) - present (delayed 3 months).

Users must limit their search to "full text" on the left side of the screen to make sure they only get results that include the Full Text. Without the limiter, the "abstracts" will be indexed as well.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
New York Times Online This link opens in a new window
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NYTimes.com Academic Pass users have access to the New York Times from 1851 to present, plus all multimedia, and to the NYT smartphone app.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Creating an Account
For instructions on how to create a account valid for four years with your UMass email, please visit this guide for step by step instructions.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A database of historical American newspapers from all states, from 1789-1963; nearly 15 million pages. This resource also includes a directory of newspapers published in the United States since 1690.
Content is freely available for use by all.

All online newspapers at UMass
A list of newspapers and newspaper databases subscribed by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Polls and surveys

iPOLL This link opens in a new window
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Over 650,000 public opinion survey questions and answers - from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Survey from 1935 to present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Roper Dataset This link opens in a new window
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Search over 20,000 datasets from public opinion surveys dating back to the 1930s. Approximately 60% of these were conducted in the United States; 8,000 datasets are from over 100 countries.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.