General Social and Political Science Sites

LIBRARIES

• Berkeley Sunsite Library Links Libweb Comprehensive listing of libraries on the Web, broken down in the United States by categories such as academic, public, national, library organizations, and state libraries. Provides links to libraries and online library directories in other countries and regions. A good starting point for tracking down any and all online libraries. Links are not annotated, but very comprehensive. If a library has a Web presence, this is the place to find it.
  
  
• WWW Library Catalog Gateways A useful site that serves as a jumping-off point for libraries worldwide with Web presences. Some links are annotated, offering useful descriptions of holdings and access conditions. Maintained by Eric Morgan of North Carolina State University.
  
  
• Northwestern University's Library Resources on the Internet Jumping-off point for library access on the Web. Useful site for starting out a search for worldwide libraries with Web presences. Includes links to library journals and other general information resources.
  
  
• Infobahn Librarian (WWW Library Resources) Jumping-off point for library resources on the Web. Includes links to other megadirectories, with some minor annotations, but it is not a comprehensive resource for direct library links in and of itself.
  
  
• Carrie: A Full-Text Electronic Library Just what it says: an electronic library with full-text electronic versions of many classic texts. Many of the online versions include embedded hypertext links. Reading Plato or Hobbes directly from a 15-inch screen may be difficult for many; nevertheless the site is an increasingly invaluable resource, offering quick access to classic texts. Site includes growing collections in English, Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin classical, Latin medieval, Scandinavian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Collections are drawn from online texts available on the Internet, raising the potential for "dead" links. However, the site appears to be well maintained. The serials link includes a lists of electronic journals. Site also includes documents and archives. Useful reference as well as a mind-boggling spectacle.
  
  
• Gabriel: Gateway to European Libraries A gateway connection to many national libraries of Europe.

SOCIAL & POLITICAL SCIENCE RESOURCES

• Craig McKie's Universal Codex for the Social Sciences Another remarkable megasite for general social science material on the Internet. Divided into 14 categories with minor annotations. Exceptionally strong starting point for various "aggressive" search engines and lists of links to online data archives. Most of the other major social science resources' jumping-off points are listed here as well. As well as general social and political science links, the site has lengthy economics, law enforcement, demographic, and psychology links.
  
  
• Richard Tucker's Political Science Research Resources A large listing of political science resource lists, broken into department and centers, associations, journals, Internet guides, directories, dynamic models, game theory, artificial intelligence, econometrics, and data. Well organized with attractive graphics that are not heavy on the download. The "associations" links provide links not only to political science associations but to psychological and economics associations. Site has good list of journals from a variety of areas, as well as good directories for political science departments. Excellent starting point for general social science and political science resources. Particularly strong on resources for artificial intelligence, game theory, and econometrics information.
  
  
• Research In Political Science Maintained by Professor James Bolner, Sr., this is an enormous and comprehensive site--a true "mega" site of lists on general social science and political science resources, including key library gateways, links to the political science profession, political science information trees and related links, election materials, methods and methodology, documents and data, journals, public policy sites, department homepages links, and political science discussion lists. Some annotation would have been helpful, but one can sympathize with the enormity of the task given the comprehensiveness of the site. Bolner also maintains similar comprehensive sets of links to political theory and philosophy resources, foreign and international materials, political parties, and interest groups, all of which can be accessed from this page. A massive undertaking and a valuable jumping-off point for general social and political science resources.
  
  
• The Political Science List of Lists Maintained by Gary Klass et al., at Illinois State University, site offers a lengthy set of links to various electronic listservs. Links are annotated with brief identifications of the nature of exchanges of the list plus instructions on how to go about joining. A good reference.
  
  
• Humanities Online Affiliated Listservs Maintained at Michigan State University, this site offers a useful jumping-off point for a wide range of electronic listservs. Site also has information on teaching, conference announcements, and book reviews that could be useful for reference.
  
  
• Poly-Cy Guide to Internet Resources for Political Scientists Site contains links to teaching materials, syllabi, and cybernetic classrooms. Links to syllabi are divided by political science subfields. Site is not enormous, but it does have a good and varied collection of syllabi.
  
  
• University of Colorado at Boulder's Political Science Resources Site has links to various political science resources, organized into "general," "subject," and "Internet." Links are not annotated, but the site makes good use of hypertext for quick and easy reference. There are fairly well-developed links within each of the subject trees. In general, a good jumping-off point to other social and political science sites.
  
  
• Social Science Information Gateway, U.K. Comprehensive jumping-off point for worldwide and U.K. social science resources. Site makes excellent use of hypertext for quick and clear navigation. Links are organized into general subject trees that eventually lead to annotated descriptions of individual sites in different subfields. Useful starting point for any topic or resource search in the social sciences. Strongest part of the site is the annotations, which help tremendously in narrowing a search.
  
  
• Coombsweb Social Science WWW Virtual Library Excellent and well-known jumping-off point for general megadirectories to various subfields in the social sciences. one of the two or three "master" directories to social sciences on the Web. Each of the lists that are part of the WWW Virtual Library consortium is typically well developed. They are individually maintained in different locations around the world. All links and pages are evaluated and rated before being admitted into the WWW Virtual Library. This site was previously maintained by Dr. Matthew Ciolek at Australia National University, but is now maintained by Gene Thursby at the University of Florida. Along with Argus Clearinghouse, probably the most reliable megadirectory to general social and political science resources.
  
  
• The Argus Clearinghouse Directory of WWW Resources: Social Science Similar to Coombsweb, this site is a megadirectory of general social science directories. Each is maintained by individuals around the world and evaluated and rated by the Argus Clearinghouse on the basis of resource description, resource, evaluation, guide design, organization schemes, guide meta-information, plus an overall rating. Social science topics are much more eclectic and unusual than the Coombsweb (e.g., categories include Vietnam War, music, counterculture), but all tend to be comprehensive. Each individual site is rated by the Argus Clearinghouse Along with Coombsweb, probably the most reliable megadirectory to the social sciences on the Web.
  
  
• Infomine: University of California Social Science and Humanities Resources Collection Staggering collection of links to a wide range of social science and humanities related topics. Good annotation and helpful related links. Links tend to come in slow because there are so many, but the alphabetical and subject divisions, plus the search functions, help tremendously. Excellent starting point for general social sciences and humanities resources on the Web. Site is particularly strong not only because of its comprehensiveness and annotation, but because of the "related links" feature. A well-designed site.
  
  
• Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources General directory of political science resources that is part of the Argus Clearinghouse directory. Site is divided into many different categories and is a particularly strong starting point for area resources. Site also has search engines for each subdirectory, annotations for each list, and some minor annotations for some links.
  
  
• UBC's Political Science Net Station Directory of and jumping-off point for general social and political science resources. Site has the usual breakdown of subfields. Links are not annotated, but the listing of sites is fairly comprehensive, and it loads quickly because of extremely low graphics.

DATA ARCHIVES

• Social Science Information Gateway, Statistics Part of the Social Science Information Gateway. Site is a useful jumping-off point for major datasets and links to data archives from around the world. Like other parts of this gateway, the annotations of links are extremely useful. Site is comprehensive, offering a total of 60 links.
  
  
• Glossary of Social Science Data Archive Terms Useful glossary for novices and students who are unfamiliar with what is contained in a social science data archive. Compiled by the University of California, San Diego.
  
  
• Council for European Social Science Data Archives Site maintains a clickable map of data archives from all over the world. Map is quite slow in downloading, but the wait is worth it for the benefits of visualizing locations of datasets. Each data center may have its own specific requirements for access, and each typically has extensive links to other sites as well.
  
  
• University of Michigan Political Science Statistical Resources on the Web
  Site offers annotated links to various data archives from around the world. Site is well laid out, offering both frames and no-frames access. It includes links to election results, international, economic, and other data archives. Good jumping-off point for data archives.
  
  
• Yale Social Science Data Archive Direct Access to Numeric Data on the Internet Excellent starting point for annotated links to U.S. and international data archives. Site has clear and useful descriptions of data and is low on graphics for a relatively quick download.
  
  
• Correlates of War Military Interstate Disputes Data Set Revised version of the Militarized Interstate Dispute (MID) data collection compiled by the Correlates of War (COW) Project. It covers the years 1816-1992 and provides information about conflicts in which one or more states threatens or uses force against one or more other states.
  
  
• The Data Archive Homepage
  Maintained at the University of Essex, this data archive offers a large collection (some 7,000 datasets) of computer-readable data in the social sciences and humanities.
  
  
• Social Science Data on the Internet Maintained by the University of California at San Diego, this site offers a comprehensive set of links to different data archives around the world. Site is well organized and has an excellent annotated list of links to other social science gateways (128 in all).
  
  
• Princeton University's Survey Research Centre Good jumping-off point for social survey resources, links to other mega-data directories, Gallup and other polling data, and general social and political data archives. Site also contains a downloadable version of the GSS annotated bibliography.

MISCELLANEOUS SOCIAL & POLITICAL SCIENCE RESOURCES

• A Glossary of Political Economy Terms for U-102 Written by Professor Paul Johnson at Auburn University's Department of Political Science, this site provides a glossary of political economy terms, organized alphabetically with fairly extensive definitions with hypertext crosslinks.
  
  
• Dial-A-Book Chapter One Site provides online first chapters, tables of contents, and other excerpts from books on selected topics, including social science. Site includes books from major university presses and books reviewed by journals such as Atlantic Monthly and Foreign Affairs. Books can be ordered and purchased directly from the site. The selections vary widely and are not comprehensive, limiting the utility of the site for research purposes.
  
  
• My Virtual Reference Desk A handy jumping-off point with links to atlases, maps, dictionaries, an encyclopedia, telephones, and other assorted directories and links. The encyclopedia link is less an encyclopedia per se than a megadirectory, although the philosophy entry in particular was quite well developed. (My favorite link is to the annotated Philosophy of Mind bibliography maintained by Professor David Chalmers.) Site is well organized and is useful for quick, practical references.
  
  
• Online Dictionaries, Glossaries and Encyclopedias This site, maintained by the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University, offers an enormous set of links to dictionaries, glossaries, and encyclopedias on a wide range of social science and general interest topics. Good bookmark for quick reference on topics ranging from "feudal terms of England" to the "glossary of literary criticism." Site contains links to 34 dictionaries, 76 glossaries, and 18 encyclopedias all available online.
  
  
• IANWeb Resources Grant Opportunities Part of the University of Pittsburgh IANWeb megadirectory, this site offers links to online grant opportunities. Site offers lists of Web grant sites and links to other online grant directories. Like other IANWeb directories, this site is especially useful because of the annotations and helpful icons.