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PSC 401/501: Public Administration: Finding Information About Public Organizations

General Sources

OneSearchThis is the USA Libraries' one-stop solution for the discovery of books, journal articles, audio-visual materials and digital objects. You can find it on the library homepage or by clicking this link. You will be prompted to log in with your Jag ID. Most of the articles are full-text, but occasionally you will find one that must be requested through interlibrary loan.

Academic Search Complete: Although it looks exactly like OneSearch, Academic Search Complete includes many sources that will not show up using OneSearch. Because of this, it's an excellent database to use when OneSearch isn't working for your topic. This database covers a wide range of disciplines.

NOTE: When using the library databases, you must search with keywords/search terms. If you're not sure how to do this, click on the Example Topic tab to review.

Google ScholarGoogle Scholar allows you to conduct a search for academic, scholarly materials such as books, journal articles, patents, and court cases. To access Google Scholar with our University of South Alabama preferences set, go to Internet Search Engines on the Marx Library homepage and choose Google Scholar. Note: Make sure you access Google Scholar through this libguide or through the library website. Otherwise, you will get results that you cannot access. Learn more on this Google Scholar Libguide.

Google Search Engine: Using the general Google search engine can be very helpful, especially if you're looking for very recent information, or if you're trying to get a handle on your topic before diving into the library database. Be careful using Google, however, as the results will include advertisements, personal opinion blogs, social media posts, and other unreliable sources of information. Carefully evaluate any source you find before using it. You can find some tips on evaluating sources in this libguide or by clicking here.

Sources on Government Organizations

Archives.gov: This is the best place to start. The National Archives website provides an extensive list of resources for finding information about Government Organizations. Some of these are listed below, but be sure to visit the page for many additional tools.

USA Libraries Government Document Collection: The USA Libraries include a Federal Depository Library, which means we have a wide collection of government documents available through our SOUTHcat Catalog. Most of these documents are available online. However, if you need something that's only available in print, you can request it through our curbside pickup form.

Catalog of Government PublicationsThe Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)  is the finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online.Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general key word, or click on "Advanced Search" for more options.

USA.govThe U.S. government's official web portal, USA.gov makes it easy for the public to get U.S. government information and services on the web.

Search Government Publications with FDSYS Federal Digital SystemThis search tool provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.

State and Local Government on the NetThis directory provides convenient one-stop access to the websites of thousands of state agencies and city and county governments.

Hot Docs Government Documents in the News: This page from Yale University contains links to full text documents or reports about major governmental activities which have been featured in the news.

Fedflix: The website features the best movies of the United States Government, from training films to history, from national parks to the U.S. Fire Academy and the Postal Inspectors. All of these films are available for reuse without any restrictions.

(Much of this information has been modified from a guide created by Indiana University of Pennsylvania Library. The original source can be found here.)

Sources on Non-Profit Organizations

Statista: The USA Libraries subscribes to this database, which allows you to locate detailed reports and statistics on nonprofits. You will be prompted to log in using your Jag ID.

GuideStar: This online database provides some free information about U.S. charities and other nonprofit organizations, including more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized organizations. You will have to create an account to use GuideStar, and some information is behind a paywall.

Global Trends in Giving Report 2018: This provides a very detailed study on the preferences of donors worldwide, including a section on North American donors.

The Foundation Center: The source provides some very basic statistics on Non-Profits for free. You can narrow down the information to the State of Alabama. Most recent data is from 2015. Find out number of organizations, top 50 by giving, by assets and by gifts.

Sources on Businesses

NexisUni: Formerly LexisNexis Academic, this database includes news, business and legal research. You will be required to log in using your Jag ID.

Business Insights: Essentials: This database is a fully integrated resource bringing together company profiles, brand information, rankings, investment reports, company histories, chronologies and periodicals. Search this database to find detailed company and industry news and information. You will be required to log in using your Jag ID.

Business Source Complete: This database Includes trade journals, country economic reports, industry reports and market research reports. All reports are full-text. You will be required to log in using your Jag ID.

Vault: This website provides in-depth intelligence on what it's really like to work in an industry, company or profession. It includes the Internship Database, Vault Job Board, Company Profiles, and Vault Guides. This database is provided by the Career Services department at the University of South Alabama.

For additional guidance, visit this guide created by the Mitchell College of Business Library.