Freshman Seminar:
Why Are Some Countries Richer Than Others? (Mahoney)

Find Books

Online Catalog
Use NUcat (the online catalog) to identify books that the library has, as well as journal titles, microfilm, videos, and other catalogued material. Books are excellent sources of overviews and substantial material on a particular topic, but do not necessarily reflect the most current events. NUcat will also tell you whether material is in the main library or in another Northwestern University library.

• WorldCat
• Catalogs from Other Libraries

To obtain materials from other libraries contact the Interlibrary Loan Department.

Find Articles
Use indexes (a.k.a. databases) to track down articles in journals. Articles usually have a specific focus, are relatively short, and are very current. Some indexes, particularly the general ones, include the full text of the article. You can find the indexes by going to the library's home page and selecting "Electronic Resources." Type in the name of the index that you need from the "Quick Search" menu.


If the article citations you find in indexes to do not include full text, click on Find it @ NU which searches across many other indexing databases and sources of full text articles to find electronic full text of the article, if it exists, in the NU Library electronic environment. Find it @ NU will also lead to NUcat, the online catalog, if only a paper copy exists for the journal or periodical. If an item is not found in electronic or paper copy, a link to Interlibrary Loan will be given.

You can also locate the full article by directly searching on the journal title, not the article title, in NUcat. You can then check to see whether the library owns the journal or periodical and if so, what issues/dates are owned and in what format (hard copy, electronic, microtext).

• Academic Search Premier
  Full text and abstracts of scholarly journal articles and general interest news and literature.
• Academic OneFile (InfoTrac)
  Selected full text and abstracts of articles in journals across a variety of disciplines.
• LexisNexis Academic
  Full text articles from several thousand news, legal and business publications.
• New York Times
  Full-text articles from this national newspaper, 1851–2004.
  

• America: History and Life
  Citations and abstracts from more than 1700 journals published in approximately 40 languages covering the history of the United States and Canada.
• Business Source Premier
  A good source of economic and comparative data.
• CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online
  A comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs.
• EconLit
  A comprehensive bibliography covering more than 400 economics journals, working papers, and other material.
• Historical Abstracts
  Citations and abstracts from more than 1700 journals in approximately 50 languages. In addition to major historical journals, many journals of regional history, as well as the most important titles in the related social sciences and humanities are included.
• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
  Citations to international literature in the social sciences.
• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
  An organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. Publications include working papers and books.
• PAIS International
  Citations in public policy, social policy and the social sciences.
• Sociological Abstracts
  Citations and abstracts of articles in sociology journals and related fields.
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  Citations with abstract from more than 1100 journals in political science and related disciplines.
  

Find other indexes to articles by subject.

Journal Archives

• JSTOR
  Digitized, full-text versions of core scholarly journals
• Periodicals Index Online
  Millions of article citations published in the arts, humanities and social sciences, across more than 300 years.
  

Selected Reference and Statistical Sources

• Background Notes
  Produced by the U.S. State Department, Background Notes provide information on geographic entities and international organizations and are updated periodically.
  
• Europa World
  Political and economic information for over 250 countries.
  
• Historical Statistics of the United States
  MAIN Reference (Non-circulating)
  Call number: L 317.3 U58h 1975 (2 vols)
  
• International Historical Statistics
  MAIN Reference (Non-circulating)
  Call number: 310 M681e (3 vols)
  
• LexisNexis Statistical
  
• Main Economic Indicators (1999–current)
  
• The Making of the Modern World
  Digital facsimiles of literature on economic and business published from the last half of the 15th century to the mid-19th century. A good source for primary documents.
  

• APA Style Guide
• MLA Style Guide
• EndNote
  

Need some assistance?

Reference help
Northwestern University Library's Main Reference Department

Government and Geographic Information and Data Services Department (Deering Library, First Floor)

Work one-on-one with a librarian
Research Consultations

Accessing electronic articles and books from off campus
Start with the instructions at www.library.northwestern.edu/help/proxy/

Denise M Shorey
Reference Department
Email: d-shorey@northwestern.edu
Office phone: 847.491.2174
Reference desk phone: 847.491.7656