New E-Resources for Political Science

The libraries recently subscribed to four new e-resources for public policy and international relations. Now the USC community can freely access the Worldwide Political Abstracts, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports from 1941-1974,the U.S. Congressional Serial Set from 1817-1994, and the LexisNexis Congressional U.S. Statutes at Large from 1789 to the present. In addition, they will soon have access to the LexisNexis Congressional Hearings Digital Collection (covering 1824-1979).

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration and policy. The database is building on the merged backfiles of Political Science Abstracts and ABC POL SCI from 1975 to the present. Over 1,700 titles are monitored for coverage and, of these, 67% are published outside of the United States.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports, 1941-1974 (scroll down the page for access)
The database provides full-text access to English-language broadcasts and news transcripts—translated as needed—from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, China, Eastern and Western Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and the Soviet Union. As the United States' principal record of political and historical open source intelligence, FBIS Daily Reports provide valuable insight into decades of turbulent international politics and world history. Many of these FBIS translations of foreign broadcasts and firsthand accounts may be all that remain from what vanished into the airways or onto the classified recording disks of various national intelligence services. Contents are continually being added and the database should be complete by Fall 2011. The Daily Reports and their indexes published after 1974 are available in print and will be transferred back into the VKC Library.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994
Presenting every publication from the 15th Congress through the 103rd Congress, the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 contains over 415,000 individual documents in more than 14,000 volumes. Designed for legislative and historical research, the Readex digital edition features unique browse capabilities and comprehensive metadata, offering new research opportunities for students and scholars in cultural, economic, ethnic, government, military, political and science history and other fields. Readex uses the original volumes to create fine new digital images of every publication, including approximately 56,000 maps. Nearly 14,000 maps and more than 8,000 illustrations appear in high-resolution color. Coverage is currently through 1982 with contents being added continually.

LexisNexis Congressional U.S. Statutes at Large, 1789 - present
A full-text supplement to the Lexis/Nexis Congressional database that contains a chronological compilation of federal laws, joint and concurrent resolutions, presidential proclamations, reorganization plans, and constitutional amendments. Prior to 1950, it also included treaties and executive agreements, which have the same legal force as statutory law. Users can search by keyword, Statutes-at-Large citation, public law or resolution number. You can also search all public laws and treaties, or limit the search to public laws, treaties with Indian tribes (1778-1874) or treaties with foreign nations (1776-1949).

LexisNexis Congressional Hearings Digital Collection, 1824 - 1979 (COMING SOON)
The LexisNexis Congressional Hearings Digital Collection contains 78, 639 published as well as unpublished hearings, including all oral statements, committee questions, and discussion. They also contain texts of related reports, statistical analyses, correspondence, exhibits, and articles presented by witnesses or inserted into the record by committee members and staff.