The University of Montana Libraries—Missoula

Research Guide for PSC100 Intro to American Government, Fall 06

Welcome to the library website! This guide is intended to help you with your research on predictions for the upcoming election.

Evaluating Web Resources:
Most of your research for this class will take place on the general internet as opposed to library resources. The library has a guide to evaluating information found on the open web. At the end of this guide is a short checklist to use when evaluating a website.

Citing Web Resources:
Figuring out how to properly cite a web resource can be difficult. Follow the pattern below for an APA style citation:

Last Name, I. (year, date). Title of document. Retrieved date, year, from Title of Web Site: http://www.complete/webaddress.org

So to cite a page I found on Google about political forecasting, it would look like this:

Armstrong, J.S, Collopy, F., & Green, K. C. (2006). Answers to Frequently-Asked Questions: Evidence-Based Forecasting. Retrieved Sept. 27, 2006 from PoliticalForecasting.com: http://mktg-sun.wharton.upenn.edu/forecast/FAQ.html

Often you may have trouble determining who wrote a particular web page, or when they wrote it. If you absolutely can't find the information, skip over that part of the citation outline. Things you will ALWAYS include are the date you viewed the site and the URL (web site address).

If you have any trouble or confusion figuring out how to properly cite a website, you can ask a librarian for help, either in person at the Information Center, by calling us at 243-6866, by email or via chat.

Websites To Try:
Some excellent websites to use can be found here.

General web searching:
Google
Yahoo
Vivisimo
Ask.com

News searches:
A great collection of resources can be found at the UM Journalism Library Wiki.

Blog searches:
Google Blogsearch
Technorati

Help!
If you need help, please feel free to contact the Social Sciences Librarian, Samantha Hines.
Email: Samantha.Hines@umontana.edu | Phone: 243-4558
Yahoo IM: Sam_MLUM | AOL IM: MansfieldLib | GTalk: samhines