There is a growing collection of Political Science books in the
Main Library (on the 2nd floor, adjacent to the History collection).
The collection is divided into three sections:
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
PUBLIC POLICY
HUMAN RIGHTS
However, material relating to
Politics can also be found in several other parts of the Library, including:
ECONOMICS (Main Library, 1st floor, south end); contains most of
the books on economic theory and policy.
HISTORY (Main Library, South, 2nd floor); includes material
on the history of political thought, and on public administration.
LAW (Main Library, 1st floor, Donaldson Room); includes material
on political theory, the British constitution, and the European Union; also
books on crime science.
TOWN PLANNING (Environmental Studies Library, 5th floor);
has substantial material on local authority policy-making, including housing,
welfare and finance.
ANTHROPOLOGY (Science Library, 2nd floor); covers political systems
in a social context.
Students and staff should also make use of the other libraries they are entitled to join.
There is a small collection of printed Politics journals and Human Rights Reports shelved with the Politics books, and there are
separate sets of Economics, History and Law journals, kept in their respective sections.
However, the majority of Politics journals are available online (see below).
Finding books: The Library has its
own classification scheme for arranging books on the shelves. Typically, a book will have a classmark which begins with the name of the subject (corresponding to the
section of the library in which the book can be found) followed by letters and numbers denoting its position on the shelves within that section; e.g.
PUBLIC POLICY JC 423 DAH for a book on democracy
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS XD 81 for a book on US foreign policy
Top of page
Accessing electronic resources
Material in electronic form is available to registered members of UCL, often from off-site. To access material from a non-UCL computer you will need to use your UCL computing username and password. The first time you access electronic material from off-site you will also need to set a cookie which will identify you as a member of the UCL community. For information about this visit the information for electronic library resource users section of the Library Services website.
Electronic journals
Electronic journals are best accessed from the Library's web pages. Alphabetical and subject lists are available, with links.
Databases
Library databases are indexes of articles (and other scholarly material) which can be searched for material relating to a given subject. In many cases databases include a link to the full text version of a reference (look out for the SFX icon).
Useful databases for Politics students and staff include:
- CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
- Economic and Social Data Service
- IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences)
- JSTOR
- LexisNexis Butterworths (law reports)
- Nexis UK (newspapers and other news sources)
- SourceOECD
- Web of Science (includes the Social Sciences Citation Index)
- Westlaw
All databases can be accessed from the Library's web pages.
MetaLib
MetaLib allows you to cross-search a range of resources, including the databases listed above.
eBooks
A small but growing number of eBooks are available. The most significant collection of ebooks for Political Science is Oxford Scholarship Online which includes a large number of Oxford University Press titles. Individual eBooks appear in the library catalogue (with a link); alternatively, you can go directly to the OSO website and search there.
Useful websites
Intute: Politics
www.parliament.uk: includes Hansard, Committee Reports, Research Papers, Bills.
Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI): UK legislation.
National Statistics Online
BOPCRIS: details of British official publications/parliamentary papers and where to find them.
EUROPA: gateway to a huge amount of EU information.
EU Commission in the United Kingdom: includes useful background briefings on aspects of EU activity.
Reading Lists Online
The reading lists for many Political Science modules are made available online. They include links to the library catalogue and, in some cases, scans of journal articles and book chapters.
New books blog
This is a regularly updated list of new Politics books that have arrived in the Library
Exam papers
Copies of past exam papers for many Political Science courses are available online. Printed copies can be found in the Main Library Photocopying Room.
Top of page
UCL members can make use of a number of other libraries.
Particularly good for Political Science students and staff, and all within walking distance, are:
Senate House Library: all UCL members can join and borrow books.
LSE (British Library of Economic and Political Science): reference access only for taught postgraduates; borrowing for academic staff and research postgraduates.
SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies): A special arrangement allows UCL members to borrow books: more details.
British Library: UCL ID is sufficient to gain access.
Full information about using other libraries is available here.
Top of page
If you have any problems in using the Library, come to the Enquiry Desk, or ask for the Subject Librarian for Economics & Public Policy:
Kieron Jones
Main Library, South Corridor, Room 105
E-mail: kieron.jones@ucl.ac.uk
Telephone: internal: 3 3078; external: 020 7679 3078
Top of page
+44 (0)20 7679 2000 - Copyright © 1999- UCL
