Political Science: Find Books

Subject headings are a formalized way of of searching library catalogs. The right subect heading can help you get to information more quickly.

For example, US Presidents can be described using the following terms:

• US Presidents
• Presidents of the United States
• American Presidents

You could search the library catalog for all those keywords. Or, use one subject heading to find all of the library's materials about US Presidents:

Presidents--United States.

Who determines subject headings? The Library of Congress. Copies of the complete set of the Library of Congress Subject Headings are available at the Reference Desk.

Sometimes browsing the library stacks can help you find books you didn't even know you were looking for. The following are good areas to peruse. 

HX: Socialism, communism, utopias, anarchism

J: General Legislative and Executive Papers

JA: Political Science, collections and general works

JC: Political theory, theory of state

JF: Consitutional history and administration

JK: United States

JK 2403-9501: United States, state government

JK 9661-9993: Confederate States of America

JL: British American, Latin America

JN: Europe

JQ: Asia, Africa, Australia, Oceania

JS: Local government

JV: Colonies and colonization, emigration and immigration

JX: International law, international relations

JZ: International relations

Maps of the library are available at the 2nd floor Reference Desk, elevator lobbies, and also online.

Results include both print books and ebooks, available from Portland State Library and other libraries.

After you execute a search in the Portland State Library catalog, click on the "books" facet to limit your search results to only books. Click on "eBooks" to limit your results to eBooks.

After you find a useful book, scroll down to the "Details" heading to find the book's "Subjects." Here you'll find a list of related subjects that you might consider adding to your search. You can also click on a subject link in the record, e.g. clicking on "Community health services" would bring up a list of all the Library's books, journals, etc. on that topic.