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University of Southern Maine
Libraries & Learning

Policy, Planning, and Management

Resources to support graduate level public policy research in the Policy, Planning, and Management program.

Key Resources in Policy, Planning, and Management

LibrarySearch

Advanced Search

You can search for books at USM or in other libraries by using the links below. If you're not sure how to find what you're looking for, Ask Us!

Sign-in through the MyUSM portal for access to thousands of E-books in our catalog or one of our E-book databases below.  In LibrarySearch, you have access to books listing "USM Access" and "UM System-wide Access."

What is Grey Lit? 

Image from "Finding the hard to finds: Searching for grey literature (2012 Update)" below.

Searching Tips and Tricks

  • Most databases allow for searching with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
    • Use AND to focus your search and combine different aspects of your topic
    • Use OR to broaden your search and find sources that use different words for the same concept.
    • Use NOT to omit certain terms from your results.
  • Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words if you want to search for all words with that root. For example, “environment*” would search for environment, environmental, environmentalism, etc.
  • Put quotes around a phrase that you want the database to search as a phrase, rather than as individual words.
  • Group synonyms inside parentheses using OR between each one

Example:

How to search: 

LibrarySearch is the combined library catalog for the entire University of Maine system. You can search the entire system or a specific library.

Other helpful tips:

  • If you find a book that is relevant to your needs, look at the "Subject" area of the book's record. Click on a few of the subjects to find other similar books. To search by subject you have to know the exact subject term. Most databases that use subjects have a Thesaurus that you can use to look up subject terms. You will have to look up subjects in each database independently, as not every database uses the same thesaurus. 

LibrarySearch

Advanced Search

There are many ways you can get research materials from other libraries. 

  • From LibrarySearch, use the  button in the middle of an item's page.
  • From MaineCat, use the  button in the middle of an item's page.
  • From a database:
    • If the library does not have access to the item, request via InterLibrary Loan.

Related Library Research Guides

Looking for help with Citation Styles?

Managing Your Citations

Library Essentials