Key Starting Points: International Relations and Legal Research
Homeland Security Digital Library
The nation’s premier collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management. The HSDL is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
Materials are drawn from federal, state, local, and international governments; nonprofit organizations, private sector entities, research centers, academic institutes, and think tanks.
JSTOR Security Studies
A subcollection of the JSTOR library, focusing broadly on international relations. The scope of the collection encompasses cybersecurity, foreign policy, human security, intelligence and espionage, international law, military studies, peac and conflict studies, and political violence & terrorism. Content comes from approximately 85 scholarly journals and from important think tanks from all over the world.
HEIN Online
The premier database for U.S., foreign, and international law. An excellent place to look for legislation, case law, regulatory information, legal history, and law reviews (among other things).
Think Tanks/Grey Lit
Think Tank Search (HKS Library)
Searches the websites of institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, and non-governmental organizations. Inclusion is based upon the relevancy of subject area to HKS coursework and scholarship. The site directs to other policy-rich sites and search tools as well.
IGO Custom Search Engine
Searches web content of intergovernmental agencies. including the U.N.
NGO Custom Search Engine
Searches web content of non-governmental organizations for perspectives from civil society.
Key Databases: Government and Public Policy Discussions
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
WPSA provides citations to and summaries of journal literature in political science and related fields, including political sociology, political theory, economics, law, and public policy.
PAIS Index [Public Affairs Information System]
Covers issues in the public debate through selective coverage of a wide variety of international sources including journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, web content, and more,
ProQuest Congressional
A major source of information about the members of Congress and their legislative activities and a primary resource for accessing the many publications of Congress: bills and laws, hearings, legislative histories, reports and documents produced by the house and senate.
Key Starting Points: Historical Scholarship
America: History and Life
The premier database for coverage of North America (U.S. and Canada), prehistory to the present. Latin American and World history is covered in Historical Abstracts.>
Historical Abstracts
The premier database for world history,1450-present. Excludes the U.S. and Canada, both of which are treated in a companion database, America History and Life.
Cross-Disciplinary Databases
Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost)
Why: The advantages of Academic Search Premier are 1) it is multidisciplinary; 2) it includes publications that are current as well as historical; and 3) it offers a mix of scholarly, news, and magazine content.
ASP can sometimes also seem broader than it is deep. If that's your experience, try your luck in one of the databases listed below.
JSTOR
Why: This tried and true database is probably one of the first places you learned to search for scholarly literature. "Smallish" (in relative terms), it's also mighty because the journals it includes are those that, historically, have been considered the most important and most impactful in the fields they cover.
One nice feature of JSTOR is the ability to zero in on a particular discipline. Scanning the left side limits after you run a straight keyword search might help you pinpoint "where" the scholarly conversation is clustering (history, Asian studies, urban studies, etc.).
One downside of JSTOR: it typically excludes the most recent 1-5 years of the publications it includes (with some exceptions). That means you may want to supplement / update with in HOLLIS, Google Scholar, or one of the subject databases listed below.
Social Science Premium Collection
Why: Combines and allows cross-searching of some key databases covering politics, sociology, anthropology, education, criminal justice, and the applied social sciences.
Google Scholar
Why: GS searches differently from most library databases, including HOLLIS. In addition to searching "metadata" (lots of descriptive info about a book or article, it also searches full-text . This can be an additional advantage when you've got a very narrow topic or are seeking a "nugget" that traditional database searching can't surface easily.
Google Scholar incorporates more types of information -- not just books and journal contents-- and depending on your need, comfort level, and perspective, that eclecticism can be an advantage.
GS is also an excellent place to follow citation trails. Enter the title of a book or journal article and then click on 
And If you have hundreds or thousands of citations to contend wiith, consider searching within the cited references. Example:
