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American Government and Politics:

A Guide to Books for Teachers, Librarians, and Students [Electronic version]

BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Martin, F. S., and R. U. Goehlert. (1997). American government and politics: a guide to books for teachers, librarians, and students [Electronic version]. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Retrieved May 3, 2007, from netLibrary database.

PURPOSE

The book was published as a reference resource to government materials for high school teachers, librarians, and students. According to the authors, “In this volume we have tried to identify books suitable for high school and beginning students studying American government and politics…The books included should be evaluated by the teacher for determining whether the work is suitable for that particular class or student or by the librarian to determine the suitability of the books for the school library” (Preface, vii). It can be used for secondary school librarians and for teachers, and also at the college level, for secondary social studies majors and professors in this discipline, so students and teachers become familiar with the available resources.

AUTHORITY

One editor, Fenton Martin, is the librarian of the Political Science Research Collection at Indiana University and has published many bibliographical guides to various governmental entities and bodies (Indiana, 2004). The other editor, R. Goehlert has been a librarian and political science professor at Indiana University and has also published numerous political science bibliographical guides (Indiana, 2001). In terms of currency, with all of the changes in government information in the past decade, the work is unfortunately not as current as it should be. It was published 10 years ago, and only includes print materials. However, it still is a helpful resource for social studies and government teachers at the high school level.

SCOPE

As the title shows, this is a bibliographical guide to American government and political resources, for the high school student. It probably could also be used for as a resource for an introductory government course at the college level. Along with short abstracts for a lot of the works, the guide also includes a fiction section, for fiction books dealing with American government and politics that teachers can use in their classrooms. The work does not include classical political science literature or works dealing with statistics, as these are for more advanced government students.

FORMAT

It does facilitate use; it is organized into 20 topics and a fiction section. Within each of these sections, the topic is broken down into subtopics. Within these subtopics, the entries are organized by author. Briefly looking at the materials that are listed and described with short abstracts, the materials included are appropriate for the high school student or a freshman government student.

ARRANGEMENT

The 20 subjects and the fiction section are broken down into sub-topics, and the entries are organized alphabetically by the author’s last name. The book also includes a subject index and an author index.

ENTRIES

The entries include the book’s author, title, and publication information. The authors have also included a short abstract for the books. The biographies and fiction sections only include the book’s author, title, and publication information.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Because the book is offered in electronic format through the netLibrary database, the book can be searched through the netLibrary interface, different parts of the book can be marked for accessing it at a later date, and the table of contents can be viewed while viewing the book’s pages.

USE

The book can be used for locating research materials or starting points for government and political papers. While the intended audience is more for high school students than college students, it still would be a good starting point for research for college students in government and political science classes, with its wide coverage of topics.

CRITIQUE

I found this resource to be quite useful and resourceful. Not only is it a good starting point for getting students at the high school level get started on research projects in American government, it also can help the librarian decide what books to buy and help the social studies teacher find new resources or avenues for her lessons (the fiction section is especially useful for this task). The resource is also useful for social studies majors and professors at the college level for learning what resources are available for lesson plans. Finally, it is a good starting point for college government students for their research, as well, at least in a basic introductory class. Finally, because the book is available through netLibrary, the library doesn’t have worry about purchasing the resource, if they or their library consortium is subscribed to the database. If they do not have access to netLibrary, the book can possibly be found used through Amazon or another online used bookseller. It is no longer in print. As most universities today have access to netLibrary, I would highly recommend the librarians know how to quickly access this book in the database for helping government students and social studies education majors with their research.

REFERENCES

• Indiana University. (2004, January 21). Fenton Martin. Retrieved May 3, 2007, from http://www.indiana.edu/~iupolsci/bio_martin.html
• Indiana University. (2001). Robert Goehlert. Retrieved May 3, 2007, from http://www.indiana.edu/~global/goehlert.htm
• Information originally posted on LI813 Spring 2007 Class Wiki; information last updated there, May 7, 2007.

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