Need primary sources for that research paper? Looking for the population of Fullerton in 2008? The high school dropout rate in Anaheim? An introduction to health care reform? Progress made since the enactment of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974? A situation update on the H1N1 Flu? Employment and retirement trends of older workers?

Free and unrestricted access to information is critical for democratic societies so that voters can make informed decisions. Cal State Fullerton’s library is one of 1,250 libraries designated by Congress to ensure that Americans are informed.

Congressional hearings, economic reports, environmental reports, and Census publications are among the 5,600 documents added last year to our collection of one million items.

The World Factbook, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, and the White House report on The Economic Case for Health Care Reform are among thousands of documents that can be accessed via the Library Catalog.

Our research guide provides additional help in locating government documents.

ArchiveGrid lets history students and other researchers discover the location of documents, personal papers, photographs, and other archival materials hidden in collections all over the world.

For students who can’t jet around the world to do archival research, ArchiveGrid makes it easy to find materials in local Southern California collections within driving distance. A search for a name or topic turns up a list of possible collections and a “Locations” sidebar where the user can scan for local repositories. For instance, a search on the name, Cesar Chavez, reveals 43 relevant collections in five Southern California institutions. Also provided is contact information for the repository to make it easy for a user to follow up with more questions.  To get a sense of the range of subjects that can be accessed in the database, click on ArchiveGrid Topics at the bottom of the screen, and prepare to be amazed.

Looking for historical documents, streaming video, audio files, digitized books, or scholarly articles?  This huge database provides access to almost 20 million records of freely available digital collections and resources from over 1,000 institutions. Most places want to show off the cool things they own – like unpublished letters by Edgar Allen Poe, a photo of William Faulkner, or an article about the antimicrobial properties of sea hares published in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research. Check out OAIster the next time you have a research project. You might be pleasantly surprised. It is available on our Databases A-Z list.

NCES has just updated the State Education Reforms (SER) website http://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/
Most of the data on the website was collected by organizations other than NCES. The NCES compiles and disseminates data on state-level education reform efforts in four areas: 1) standards, assessment, and accountability, 2) school finance reforms, 3) resources for learning, and 4) state support for school choice options. Specific reform areas include student and teacher assessments, adequate yearly progress, statewide exit exams, highly qualified teachers, open enrollment laws, and charter schools.

• Read Cherokee accounts of their experiences on the Trail of Tears.
• Study rare historical photographs of medicine ceremonies or ghost dances.
• Compare narrative styles using the actual audio recordings of Native American storytellers.
  

Primary source research into cultural, anthropological, and historical Native American topics now becomes a reality for Cal State Fullerton students through an amazing digital collection of autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files. The collections have been chosen for their ability give insight into the native point of view in the United States and Canada from the time of the earliest European settlers to the late 20^th century.

This new addition to the Pollak Library’s collection of primary source databases shares the powerful searching capabilities of other Alexander Street Press databases, ranging from the ability to locate information on specific individuals, eyewitness accounts of raids, battles, and other historical events, to mentions of specific species of wildlife, geographic formations, or natural phenomena, and drawings of huts, tools and other items of daily life.

North American Indian Thought and Culture was added in Summer 2008 and  is listed under Databases A-Z on the library homepage.