Political Science and Public Affairs

Great place to start for background on North Carolina people, places, legislation, and important events.

Issues from 1874 forward. From 1917 to present: contains biographical sketches of North Carolina's members of Congress, state legislators, state executive and administrative officials, and state and federal court judges. Also includes state symbols, election statistics, maps and charts, information on higher education, historical perspectives of the counties, photographs (both color and black and white), census figures, and other information.
Editions before 1917 may contain retrospective information and vary in topical coverage.

Print copies are in WCU General JK4130 .N6

Library subscriptions. WCU users only.

Organized by theme, CQ Almanac provides "accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a congressional session." Located in WCU Reference JK1.C66

Details about each state's politicians, including Congressional representatives, senators, and governors, voting records, district maps, election results, and additional data and context for the political climate of each state. Online version covers 2012-present.

The best place to start when researching North Carolina legislation.

The laws and resolutions passed by a single session of the NC Legislature. 1817-2011 available online. Also available REFERENCE KFN .425.N6 (older issues in Special Collections)

The go-to for U.S. legislation

The "official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. This site contains Congressional record volumes from 140 (1994) to the present. At the back of each daily issue is the "Daily Digest," which summarizes the day's floor and committee activities."

Contains many government materials that have been digitized by other libraries--particularly helpful if you are looking for historical documents. It's helpful to know some specific information such as a title of a document or the name of a committee.

A comprehensive state elections website containing information for voters, candidates, election results, campaign finance reports, voter registration statistics and other election related data.

Candidate information, campaign finance details, and a list of issues with each candidate's policy positions.

For campaign finance information, "OpenSecrets is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy."