Welcome to the Harvard Library

This guide provides links to resources and services relevant to Govt E-599: Policy Analysis Capstone, taught by Dr. Sparsha Saha.  If you have library related questions, I would be happy to hear from you.

Kathleen Sheehan
ksheehan@fas.harvard.edu

Finding Scholarly Sources

Background, Context, & Literature Reviewss

Law & Political Science

  • PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) indexes the public and social policy literature of public administration, political science, economics, finance, international relations, law, and health care.
  • HeinOnline is a digital collection of legal materials including law journals as well as congressional and other government material.

Multidisciplinary Databases

  • Web of Science (Citation Indexes) is a multidisciplinary database indexing major journals in the Sciences, Social Sciences and the Humanities. It also shows how many times a particular work has been cited since its publication.
  • Google Scholar enables you to search for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, and abstracts from all broad areas of research, Google Scholar also shows how many times a work has been cited since its publication.

Policy Resources

  • ProQuest Congressional is a major source of information about the members of Congress and their legislative activities. Coverage includes Bills and Laws 1798-presentt; Hearings 1824-present; House & Senate Reports 1789-present; and Legislative Histories 1969-present. 
  • Policyfile provides access to a collection of domestic and international public policy issues reports and studies published by think tanks, university research programs, research organizations which include the OECD, IMF, World Bank, the Rand Corporation, and a number of federal agencies.
  • Think Tank Search searches the websites of institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses. Inclusion is based upon relevancy to the Harvard Kennedy School curriculum and scholarship, the availability of the think tank’s research in full-text on the website, and the think tank’s reputation and influence upon policy making. The list represents a mixture of partisan and non-partisan think tanks.
  • EveryCRS Report provides access to reports produced by "Congress’ think tank" with accurate and timely analysis of important policy issues.
  • CQ Researcher is a database of in-depth, authoritative reports on a full range of political and social-policy issues extending back to 1923. Each report is footnoted and includes an overview, background section, chronology, bibliography and debate-style pro-con feature, plus tools to study the evolution of the topic over time.

  • Politico Pro is a comprehensive database providing legislative and regulatory insights, data tools and resources for policy research. On-demand, graphic visualization library translates complex policy issues and data sets into infographics.

At Harvard

News Sources

  • Nexis Uni features more than 15,000 news, business, and legal sources.
  • Factiva is a database of over 8,000 business and news publications.

Directory

  • Legistorm is a timely and comprehensive database of contact and biographical data on congressional staff, tracking legislative issues covered, roles and titles, education and work histories, and social media links. The database also includes hearing and town hall schedules, real-time monitoring of press releases and Twitter feeds,

HOLLIS+ for Finding Books and Articles

At Harvard

When you are looking for books and articles on a topic, use the default search in HOLLIS, which is a keyword search. Once you have done a search, note the limits on the right side of the page. Selecting a limit enables you to narrow your search by language, source type, subject, etc.

Beyond Harvard

  • For books not currently available at Harvard, you can request them through Borrow Direct.If one of the libraries in this network has the book, you should receive it within 4 days. 
  • If the book is not available through Borrow Direct or the item is an article, you can submit an Interlibrary Loan request to borrow it from a broader network of libraries, which takes an average of 2 weeks.

If you find an item in another library that you think the Harvard Library should own, you can submit a Collections Purchase Request.

Resources for Organizing & Citing Sources

Helpful Services & Tools

  • Ask a Librarian - Send us your question virtually.
  • Install the Check Harvard Library Bookmark and use it to get quick access to material licensed by Harvard Library.
  • Scan & Deliver is a free, electronic document delivery service that enables Harvard students, faculty and staff to request pdf's of journal articles or book chapters from the Library's collections. Requests are placed through the HOLLIS. You will receive an email with a link to the pdf within four days