Subject Guides: PPM 708 & 611: Economics and Public Policy: Getting Started

Key Library Resources

Oxford Reference Online
Oxford Reference Premium contains over 125 language and subject dictionaries and reference works, all published by Oxford University Press. Areas of coverage include science and medicine, the humanities and social sciences, and business and law. Content includes world maps, illustrations, timelines, weblines, and key titles from the Oxford Companions series. English dictionaries and thesauri, guides to grammar and usage, and dictionaries of etymology, foreign languages, quotations, and names are provided.

LibrarySearch (Almost Everything)
Search almost everything (books, peer-reviewed articles, videos, and more!) that is accessible through the University of Maine system, including USM. You can choose to limit your search to USM, or search all libraries and use interlibrary loan.

LibrarySearch (Journals by Title)
Search specifically for journals in the catalog for the University of Maine System, including USM.

Annual Reviews Online
Included on this database are reviews of: Economics, Environment and Resources, Law and Social Science, Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Political Science, Public Health, and more. Use Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) for any articles not available through USM.

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete provides access to Chronicle of Philanthropy. This publication provides news news & information for fund raisers, professional employees of foundation, corporate grant makers, & people who work for non-profit, tax exempt organizations in health, education, religion, the arts, & social services.

Maine Policy Review
Maine Policy Review publishes timely, independent, peer-reviewed analysis of public policy issues relevant to the state of Maine, published two times per year by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine.

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is a large scholarly, multidisciplinary, full-text database, with more than 7,400 full-text periodicals, including more than 6,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 11,500 scholarly, popular, trade, and special interest serials, and a total of more than 12,000 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and more. Updated daily.
EconLit
EconLit, the American Economic Association's electronic database, is the world's foremost source of references to economic literature. The database contains more than 1.1 million records from 1886-present. EconLit covers virtually every area related to economics.
Directory of Bills (Maine State Legislature)
Directory of Bills provides full text access to Maine Legislature Legislative Documents. Dates range from the 119th Legislature in 1998 to present. It includes bill amendments, chaptered law, committees, testimony, bill sponsors, bill tracking, committee calendars and more.
DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
Provides full-text articles from over 1145 free peer-reviewed journals covering all scholarly and scientific subjects.
Education Research Complete
Provides full-text access to selected journals in North America. Coverage includes education, specifically adult education, continuing education, literacy standards, multicultural/ethnic education, school administration, special education, teacher evaluation, and teaching methods. Full-text coverage from 1983, citation coverage from 1969.
Emerald Insight
Emerald Insight includes access to all of Emerald's currently published journals as well as selected backfiles. Topics covered include management research, engineering, computing & technology, education, and more.
Environment Complete
Environment Complete offers deep coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. The database contains full text for more than 400 journals, including many of the most-used journals in the discipline, such as Environment (back to 1975), Ecologist, Conservation Biology, etc. It also has full text for more than 100 monographs, such as Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (3 volumes), Advances in Water Treatment & Environmental Management, and more.
FSTA: Food Science & Technology Abstracts
FSTA provides indexing and abstracting for over 1000 active journals (with previous references from over 4000 additional journals) as well as standards, conference proceedings, theses, patents, and books in subject areas including related pure and applied sciences, pet foods, food psychology, food economics, food safety, and nutrition. Coverage 1969-present; updated weekly.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides easy searching of scholarly literature on the Internet across many disciplines. Access to the library's subscription resources is through the "Full Text @ USM" link.
MEDLINE (Ovid)
MEDLINE is an authoritative bibliographic database that indexes medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree, tree hierarchy, subheadings and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 5,600 biomedical journals.
Proquest Politics Collection
ProQuest Politics Collection provides access to PAIS and World Political Science Abstracts, covering the international literature in political science and public administration/policy, along with related fields. Together, they provide abstracts, indexing and full text coverage of journal articles, country reports, dissertations, think-tank reports, working papers, government documents and more, including full-text from many leading political science and international relations journals. Coverage: 1900 - present.
PAIS Index
PAIS Index provides searching of the literature of public and social policy, and other aspects of social sciences. Links are provided to full text for some items. It includes records for journal articles, serials, books, government documents, directories, and public, intergovernmental, and private organization reports. Updated monthly.
Policy File Index
Policy File Index provides primarily full-text access to research on public policy research and analysis, both domestic and international, from think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers. Browse by organization or by political leaning. Coverage: 1990-present. Updated weekly, although organizations are reviewed daily.
PubMed
Developed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), PubMed is a major medical database. It provides access to bibliographic/abstracting information from MEDLINE, plus out-of-scope citations from certain MEDLINE journals; citations that precede the date that a journal was selected for MEDLINE indexing; and some additional life science journals that submit full-text and receive a qualitative review by NLM. Included are links to many sites with full-text articles.
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect is a full-text collection of journals on science, technology, and medicine published by Elsevier. The University of Maine System Libraries have access to Complete and the Freedom Collection, which together comprise more than 1,800 journals, most with backfiles from 1995 to present. There are some ScienceDirect journal titles to which University users do not have access. Elsevier provides lists of titles included and excluded from the Freedom Collection at https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect/content/journal-title-lists

Always sign-in through the MyUSM portal for full access to what USM owns. This includes books, E-books, articles, streaming videos, etc. .. You have access to materials listed as "USM Access" and "UM System-wide Access."

Sign-in to MyUSM Portal
For best results, sign-in to MyUSM portal before beginning your work. Use your username, typically your firstname.lastname. No need to use @maine.edu.
Essential Planning Books Through the Decades
Ten decades of essential planning books listed by decade.

LibrarySearch
Catalog for the University of Maine system, including USM. You can choose to limit your search to USM. Using your USM ID, you can request any book you find and it will be delivered to the library location of your choosing.
MaineCat
If LibrarySearch doesn't have what you're looking for, use MaineCat to widen your search to all Maine libraries. Using your USM ID, you can request any book you find and it will be delivered to the library location of your choosing.
WorldCat
You can widen your search to libraries worldwide using WorldCat. If you find a book you need, request it using the ILLiad link under "See more details about locating this item." Be sure you have set up your ILLiad account first.

ProQuest Ebook Central
Ebook collection that includes over 50,000 titles spanning all academic subject areas. Individual UMS libraries have also purchased some ebooks that are restricted to a single user at a time.
eBooks on EBSCOhost
Includes 7,885 e-books. The titles are also searchable in LibrarySearch.
SpringerLink
SpringerLink provides access to full-text STM (scientific, technical, medical) journals, book series, books, and reference works published by Springer and its imprints.
CloudLibrary
Free downloadable e-books and audiobooks for USM faculty, students, and staff. CloudLibrary works with most computers, tablets, and smartphones, so you can read and listen wherever you want.

CQ Researcher
CQ Researcher provides in depth reports on current issues in the news each week from 1923 to present. Reports often contain lengthy discussion plus graphs, pro/con articles, a chronology, and links to organizations and other associated resources. Topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education and science and technology.
Digital Commons Network
The Digital Commons Network brings together free, open access articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, the Network includes a growing collection of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work.
EconLit
EconLit, the American Economic Association's electronic database, is the world's foremost source of references to economic literature. The database contains more than 1.1 million records from 1886-present. EconLit covers virtually every area related to economics.
ERIC - Education (EBSCO)
Provides international coverage of citation and full-text access to journals, books, conference papers, curriculum guides, policy papers, dissertations, and more in the field of education. Department of Education. Includes robust thesaurus. Coverage from 1966.
GreenFILE
GreenFILE provides information on all aspects of human impact to the environment, including such subjects as global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and recycling. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done at each level to minimize these effects. The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records.
HeinOnline
Full text online access to legal journals
JSTOR
JSTOR is a full text digital archive of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Coverage generally begins with the first issuse running to within 3 years of present. Current issues of journals are often available from other USM databases.
Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global
This database is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day.
Sociology Collection (Includes Sociological Abstracts)
ProQuest's Sociology Collection indexes the literature of sociology and related disciplines, including anthropology, criminology, demography, education, gerontology, mental health, minority studies, political science, public health, social psychology, social work, urban studies, welfare programs, and women's studies. Content types covered include journals, books, conference papers, and doctoral dissertations. Sociology Collection incorporates the indexing from Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA), and Sociology Database into a single resource; each may also be searched separately. Sociology Collection includes full text articles from approximately 500 journals; it links to many more full text journals in other databases and journal collections, depending in part on each UMS library's subscriptions.
TRID: the TIRS & ITRD Database
TRID is the world's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation research information. It is produced and maintained by the Transportation Research Board of the US National Academies with sponsorship by State Departments of Transportation, the various administrations at the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other sponsors of TRB's core technical activities. ITRD is produced by ITRD member organizations under the sponsorship of Joint Transport Research Centre (collectively JTRC) of the International Transport Forum and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and ITRD. TRID covers all modes and disciplines of transportation and contains more than 900,000 records of published research. Over 64,000 records contain links to full-text documents.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts indexes more than 1,500 periodicals in the fields of political science, international relations, law, public administration, and public policy. Indexing begins in 1975, and is updated monthly.

What is Grey Lit?

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

Digital Commons Network

Films on Demand
Streaming educational video content in all subject areas. Includes the FMG Archival Films & Newsreels Collection.

DVD & Video Information for Faculty
by Pat Potter Last Updated Aug 28, 2025 26 views this year
DVD & Video Information for Students
by Pat Potter Last Updated Aug 8, 2025 15 views this year

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:

Creating a Search Alert in Ebscohost - Tutorial
Short video showing how to create an Ebscohost alert.
EBSCOhost Advanced Searching - Tutorial
This tutorial using Academic Search Complete demonstrates how to use Advanced Searching on the EBSCOhost interface with the Guided Style Find Fields.
Google Tips: Google Scholar video (3:48 min)
Advanced search tips, including date limits, journal title limits,and case law. Produced by Maine librarians.
MEDLINE (Ovid) training
Tutorial in 32 slides with audio showing how to navigate MEDLINE (Ovid).
My EBSCOhost folder - Tutorial
For use with Academic Search Complete and other EBSCO databases, this tutorial demonstrates how to create a personal My EBSCOhost folder account as well as the features of the Personalization folder.
PAIS Index Guide (ProQuest)
PubMed Online Training from NLM
This page links to NLM's PubMed tutorials. Quick videos, quizzes, handouts, and classes.

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.

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

From LibrarySearch, use the button in the middle of an item's page. (E-books cannot be borrowed)
From MaineCat, use the button in the middle of an item's page. (E-books cannot be borrowed)
If LibrarySearch and MaineCat do not have the material you need, request it for free from your InterLibrary Loan (ILLiad) account. (E-books cannot be borrowed)

LibrarySearch (Almost Everything)
Search almost everything (books, peer-reviewed articles, videos, and more!) that is accessible through the University of Maine system, including USM. You can choose to limit your search to USM, or search all libraries and use interlibrary loan.
MaineCat
If LibrarySearch doesn't have what you need, try MaineCat, the Catalog for Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin plus many public libraries in Maine. USM students may Request delivery to USM campus libraries.
Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) Account
Create or sign into your free ILLiad account to electronically request journal articles that USM does not have, or to request print books, music scores, & videos not available through LibrarySearch and MaineCat.

Other LibGuides to Explore

Policy, Planning and Management