Finding Articles on International Organizations

Best Databases for Researching International Organizations

Academic Search Premier
Multidisciplinary database containing full-text scholarly articles.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
Search papers/conferences, books, journals, and policy briefs.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Citation and abstracts of periodicals in political science and its complementary fields.

For more useful databases in your area, please visit the list of databases for political science.

How to Find a Specific Journal Article in Full-Text

Periodicals A to Z is a database that will allow you to search for a specific journal title and find in which databases it is available in full-text (or if it is available in the library). For instructions on how to use Periodicals A to Z, visit this page on the Research Guide.

Finding Books on International Organizations

It can be difficult to find books when you're not looking for a specific book title, but are searching on a specific topic. A keyword search will probably end up retrieving too many books and many will be unrelated to what you're searching for. Doing a subject search will help you to find the most relevant books on your topic, but you need to know the correct subject headings.

Some Library of Congress Subject Headings Related to International Relations

General

  • International Agencies
  • International cooperation
  • International Relations
  • Non-governmental Organizations

Groups

  • European Union
  • League of Nations
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
  • United Nations
  • World Bank
  • World Health Organization
  • World Trade Organization

Topics

  • Conflict management
  • Disarmament
  • Economic assistance
  • Economic development
  • Environmental protection
  • Human rights
  • International relief
  • Nuclear disarmament
  • Nuclear nonproliferation
  • Peacekeeping forces
  • Security, International

Finding Reference Books

All of these are found on the first floor of the library and cannot be checked out.

  • Europa Directory of International Organizations. - 060.25 E89 2005
  • Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. - 341.2303 O83e 2002
  • Historical Dictionary of Multinational Peacekeeping. - 341.584 M474
  • Encyclopedia of Associations. International Organizations. - 060 E56i

Finding Other Books in Print on Your Topic

You may want to try doing a subject search for the title of your organization. If you don't find anything, try a keyword search. If you still don't find anything, you may want to look for more general books about International Organizations (IOs) or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOS) by using the general subject headings above. You can then check the index in the back of each book and see if your organization is covered.

Finding Books Online

There are literally thousands of books on political science topics available online to Norwich students and faculty through eBrary. eBrary is nice because its basic search searches the entire text of the book to see if the term is found somewhere. So if you do a basic search for "Amnesty International" you will find books where Amnesty International is mentioned somewhere in the text, with the most relevant matches displayed first.

Using the Web

The Web can be a terrific resource for finding information on your organization. However, you need to be careful about the information you choose to use in your research. Websites may be developed by the government, by an academic institution, or by some guy in a shack with no qualifications whatsoever. This page gives you some tips on how to evaluate Websites.

You will likely find a lot of information about your organization on their Website. There are indexes out there that list all international organizations and provide links to their official Websites, but you can also find their Website via a regular search engine like Google, Yahoo!, or Ask.

Beware of information you find about your organization on the Web. Some of it may be very accurate and of sufficient quality to be used in your paper. Others may be written by someone who is biased, unqualified or is writing things that are not based on fact. For example, this article about Amnesty International from The National Review may be from a reputable magazine, but it is obviously strongly biased and is based on the writer's opinion. Definitely not something you'd want to cite in a paper as fact!

Here are some resources that may be useful to you in finding out more about IOs and NGOs.

Indexes of International Organizations

Information about the UN

Information about NGOs

Google Custom Search for International Organizations

This search box will search Google, but will only pull results from fifty federal government Websites, International Organization Websites and Think Tanks in the area of International Relations. These resources were hand-picked by the Distance Learning Librarian.


Need Help?

If you need help with your research, please feel free to contact us via IM, phone, e-mail or in person. Visit the Ask a Librarian page on the Website for more information.

In-Class Activity

Source Critique

Break up into four groups and each group will critique one of the four following resources based on the criteria from this Website:

If you have a question or comment about the Library's website, please e-mail library@norwich.edu.