USA Counties: County data and statistics
Find It USA Counties allows users to collect information pertaining to a particular county in the United States from a variety of sources. With more than 6,600 data items, researchers are given a vast amount of information about various topics. Find data on resident total population or school enrollment just by clicking on a particular […]
Governmentattic.org: FOIA requested docs posted online
Find it Governmentattic.org is a non-commercial website that provides electronic copies of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiries. The documents on the website were obtained legally, following the FOIA rules. Each document has an identified source. The site is funded by the site owners, and receives no outside funding. Governmentattic.org is organized into 11 […]
Race and Violence Research: Charting the Literature
For much of the 20th century, librarians fielding questions relevant to the topic of race and violence guided researchers to historical and general social science resources. Scholars found articles about people, court cases, or events in databases like America: History and Life, or Sociological Abstracts. Primary evidence might be most easily found in newspapers, and […]
ICPSR: Source for data in all forms
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) data contains data collections and data-related tools that can facilitate teaching or working with data in many different forms. Data sets can be downloaded in SPSS, SAS, Stata and ASCII. In addition to the traditional political and social research data, the database also houses different types […]
HeinOnline: Legal materials from the colonies forward
Find It VCU Libraries subscribes to HeinOnline, a searchable image-based database of legal research materials. What makes acquisition of this database exciting is its depth and its application to so many different disciplines and areas of study. While HeinOnline is an excellent resource for researchers looking for articles on legal issues of any kind, the collections […]
iPOLL: Comprehensive U.S. data from 1935 to today
Find It Drawn from every major polling organization in the United States, iPOLL offers comprehensive and up-to-date national and some international public opinion poll data. With more than 650,000 questions and answers dating to 1935, users can find public opinions on a variety of topics. The database offers useful search features, including keyword, topic, organization and […]
Grey Literature: Resources beyond the library
“Public policy work increasingly relies on a wide range of resources — some are traditional scholarly publications, but the majority are ‘grey literature’. Reports, discussion papers, briefings, reviews and data sets produced by government, academic centres, NGOs, think tanks and companies are heavily used and highly valued in policy and practice work, forming a key […]
Nonprofit Studies: Library research resources
People interested in careers in the nonprofit sector can pursue a degree or certificate at the undergraduate or graduate level through the Wilder School’s Nonprofit Studies Programs. These programs support the development of current and future executives, boards, staff and volunteers to become collaborative, thoughtful and ethical leaders in this growing field. In support of […]
Map It: Tools for research in the Wilder School
Electronic mapping resources are fast becoming an important tool for researchers to visually communicate their scholarship. More and more VCU courses require the visualization of data to supplement academic efforts in effective and powerful ways. For example, while you can explain the concept of food deserts, having a way to visually show the large geographic areas […]
Collections Librarians: Wilder School
VCU Libraries uses a team approach to serve schools and units. Outreach librarians, who support research, curricular and information literacy, work side-by-side with collection librarians who advise schools and faculty on materials and acquisitions to support teaching, research as well as new course and degree development. In 2014, Pattie Sobczak joined the VCU Libraries faculty as the […]