Research Guides: Public Policy: Find Background Information

Find Social Issue and Policy Overviews

LocalView - local public meetings
LocalView is a database co-created by Soubhik Barari and Tyler Simko to advance the study of local government in the United States. It is the largest dataset of local government public meetings — the central policy-making process in American local government — as they are captured on video.

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Provides information on various social issues, including pro and con articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Note: As of July 2023, CQ Researcher has an updated platform and URL. Please update bookmarks accordingly.
Concurrent user limit: 20
CQ Researcher provides reports written by journalists, footnoted and fact-checked. Full-length articles include an overview, historical background, chronology, pro/con feature, plus resources for additional research. Graphics, photos and short "sidebar" features round out the reports.
Encyclopedia of Social Work This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: 1
Encyclopedia of Social Work is a collaboration between the National Association of Social Workers (NASW Press) and Oxford University Press (OUP). This resource provides articles on topics ranging from international issues to ethical standards.

InfluenceWatch
Information on over 8,500 public policy influencers. Capital Research Center conceived of this project after identifying a need for more fact-based, accurate descriptions of all of the various influencers of public policy issues.

Books and social histories

Social historians and other scholars often publish books about particular social issues that cover the history of a social problem, causes and responses, and give an overview of the relevant policy making. Other sources, like CQ Researcher, also contain shorter article-length summaries of this history of specific social problems and policy responses.

Searching for Books Beyond Temple

E-ZBorrow
Search here for books from PA libraries, requests are received in 3-5 business days.
Google Books
Search the full-text of books. You won't be able to view more than a couple pages of most of the books, but if you can use the search capabilities here to identify relevant books that you can then look-up in the library.
WorldCat
Search here for books across libraries worldwide. You can request books you find that Temple doesn't have through E-ZBorrow or Interlibrary Loan.
ILLIAD
Request books that are not available in the Temple Libraries or from E-ZBorrow. Requests can take many days or weeks to arrive, plan ahead.