Subject Guides: SWK 530: Social Welfare Policy: Home

Getting Started on Policy Research

"Policy" can refer to anything that establishes requirements, legal or otherwise.

Legal policy generally comes from laws, regulations, and court case decisions. These can be federal, state, or even in the example of regulations, municipal.

Sometimes you will have a specific policy in mind that you want to research (i.e. the Affordable Care Act, or Roe v. Wade). But often, we have just a topic that we are interested in, and need to find a related specific policy. Here are some tools to help discover policies by topic:

CQ Researcher
Search for issues on a topic, and then look at the Chronology section to get a history of policies. Remember that cases are often listed as "The Supreme Court finds" and laws are often designed as "President xx signed" or "Congress enacted".

CQ Researcher Tutorial
A short video on how to use this resource. to identify possible policies.
Congressional Research Service Reports
The Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress, provides requested research reports for Members of Congress. Many of these reports, providing detailed overviews of policy, are freely available.
Historic U.S. Supreme Court Cases
From the Legal Information Institute, you can browse cases by topic.

Finding Scholarly Information

For interpretation, historical background, and implementation effects of a policy, you need to find secondary sources of information. The best analysis usually comes from materials written by scholars, or experts, and published either through a editorial review process, such as books published by academic publishers, or a peer-review process, used by many scholarly journals.

URSUS Catalog
Fogler Library's catalog is the place to look for books, both print and electronic. To have a book sent to another library location, click on the Request button on the top of the page. You will be asked for your name and barcode (on the back of your MaineCard). Access a basic tutorial here.

Social Services Abstracts
Includes most scholarly Social Work journals, as well as journals in related fields. Can search by topic.
Tutorial
Nexis Uni
Under Guided Search, choose Law Reviews to search for full text articles.
Tutorial-
PAIS
This database covers policy related information, some of which is scholarly. It also includes reports from Government and non-governmental organizations.
Tutorial

Tools to Help Locate Specific Policies

These are sites that can assist in finding the actual policy, which is your primary source:

Nexis Uni
Under Guided Search, can use to search for specific U.S. Supreme Court cases.
Tutorial

Oyez
Has some audio files, and other information, from Supreme Court cases

HeinOnline
Includes the U.S. Supreme Court Library; can search cases with the U.S. Reports citation (xxx U.S. xx) through 2014. This database can also help you find the legislative history documents for Federal laws; use the U.S. Federal Legislative History Library to get detailed background information. Best to search by Public Law (P.L.) number.

govInfo
Search for Federal Government Publications, including the Federal Register for regulations
Maine Law Guide
Includes information on Maine legislative history, and regulations
U.S. Law Guide
Includes information on federal legislative history, and regulations

Other General Information Sources

CQ Magazine
Click on CQ Press, in the middle of the page.
This magazine covers issues surrounding federal laws. Best to use Advanced Search and set date limits.

Google
Useful to find official citation information, such as titles and law or case citation numbers.
Boston Globe
Most recent edition.

New York Times
Access through Fogler Library
Washington Post
Search through Fogler Library

Other Tools to Access Materials

How to Request a Book through the URSUS Catalog
This video demonstrates how to get books sent to your campus location.
How to Access Articles Using Article Linker
This video demonstrates how to access the text of articles you locate through our databases through Article Linker or LINK to Full Text.
URSUS Proxy Bookmarklet
Download this to get quick access to articles when on the open Internet
Interlibrary Loan
When we don't have access to books or articles you need through the Request service or Article Linker/LINK to Full Text, you can use Interlibrary Loan. Access a tutorial here to learn how to create an account, and another here to learn how to place a request.
ILL Info for Distance Students

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
Search for full-text of dissertations and theses

Librarian

Nancy Lewis

Email Me

Contact:

1st floor, Reference Services, 581-3613, lewis@maine.edu