The United States Constitution
Good Places to Begin Your Research
at the College of Alameda Library
LIBRARY
Check for books in the library catalog, using the subject term Constitutional
History United States or the subject term Constitutional Law
United States. The Peralta District’s library catalog allows you to search for
books at all four of the Peralta colleges, or you can limit your search to just the
College of Alameda.
Encyclopedias and other reference books about the U.S. Constitution can be found
by browsing the reference shelves in the call number range KF 4501-5130. Books
about the U.S. Supreme Court can be found in the range of KF 8700-8860. For books
that you can check out, browse the same call number areas in the circulating books.
Examples:
The Constitution and Its Amendments. Reference KF 4557 .C66 1999 (four volumes).
The Evolving Constitution: How the Supreme Court Has Ruled on Issues from
Abortion to Zoning. Reference KF 4548 .L54 1992.
The Language of the Constitution. Reference KF 4548.5 .G74 1991.
Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court. Reference KF 8742 .W567 2004 (two volumes).
Also, West’s Encyclopedia of American Law has some excellent articles about the
U.S. Constitution (Reference KF 154 .W47 2005 (13 volumes)).
To find periodical articles about the Constitution, a good place to start is the
following library magazine and newspaper article databases: SIRS, Expanded
Academic ASAP and Academic Search Premier. Try using terms such as United
States Constitution or U.S. Constitution. When searching these
databases, ask for help at the Library Reference Desk.
Good websites are The National Constitution Center (www.constitutioncenter.org)
and The Founders’ Constitution (press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders).
SMG Revised September 2011