Collins Memorial Library: Politics & Government: Books, Gov Docs & Media

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Call Numbers to Browse

If you're interested in a broad topic in Politics & Government, or would like to browse for inspiration, try one of these Library of Congress call letters:

J General legislative
& executive papers
JA Political science (General)
JC Political theory
JF Political institutions
& public administration
JK Political institutions
& public administration (US)
JZ International relations
K Law
KF Law (US)

Locations of books

New books are located in the Library lobby and are in call number order.
Print Reference books are on the first floor across from the Learning Commons area.
Book stacks: Consult the library map; look for location posters; or ask any staff member for help!

E-books

E-books in Collins Library are fully integrated into Primo Search!

Consult the e-books guide to find out more about finding and using our growing e-book collection.

Government Documents

Many government documents are now published electronically. In Primo Search do a keyword search using terms that describe your topic, then use the left-hand facets to refine your search by Author/Creator: United States.

In addition, here are a few key sites for identifying and locating government documents:

Congress.Gov
Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. It is presented by the Library of Congress (LOC) using data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Government Publishing Office, Congressional Budget Office, and the LOC's Congressional Research Service.
GovTrack.US
GovTrack.us is a tool that tracks the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting and innovating government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology. You'll find here the status of U.S. federal legislation, voting records for the Senate and House of Representatives, information on Members of Congress, district maps, as well as congressional committees and the Congressional Record.
GovInfo
Provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
HathiTrust Digital Library
A digital collection of print materials made available online by member libraries. Not all content is available to Puget Sound users, but many government documents are accessible within HathiTrust since they are Public Domain materials.
National Security Archive
An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Streaming Media

Academic Video Online and Kanopy are streaming media services which provide access to a broad spectrum of educational and documentary content.

Academic Video Online (AVON) This link opens in a new window
Is a video subscription that delivers almost 70,000 titles spanning subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more.
Kanopy
Provides access to thousands of award-winning films, thought-provoking documentaries, latest festival hits, classic films, TV series, and more. The collection of films support a wide variety of subject areas including the arts, media studies, politics, diversity, equity and inclusion, LGBTQAI+, psychology, business, sciences, health, education, history.

Films streamed on Kanopy are provided to the Puget Sound community for classroom and educational purposes only. Films that have been licensed are immediately available on the Kanopy platform. If a film has not been licensed for use, you may submit a Kanopy request form and the library will consider the request.

Search for films by title, subject, keywords, or browse by subject. Register with Kanopy to utilize features such as playlists, clips, sharing, embedding, and creating a watch list for future viewing.
Films on Demand - Archival Films & Newsreels Collection
A collection of archival films and newsreels spanning the 1880s to the 21st century.