English
English 101M07 - Finding Political Speeches
Finding Political Speeches
Reference Books
Representative American Speeches. This is part of a series of books called The Reference Shelf,
and the call number for the services is Ref. PE1435 .R4. Specific call
numbers for the volumes with speeches and their years of coverage are:
Ref. PE 1435 .R4 v.76 no.6 - Representative American Speeches2003-2004. This
volume includes speeches by current politicians and other government
officials on major topics: U.S. Intelligence; Foreign Policy; The
American Veteran; Intellectual Property; and Challenges to the
Environment.
Ref. PE 1435 .R4 v.75 no.6 - Representative American Speeches2002-2003. This
volume includes speeches by current politicians and other government
officials on major topics: War and Foreign Policy; Homeland Security;
Freedom of Speech; The Welfare of Children; and The Spirit of Adventure.
Ref. PE 1435 .R4 v.74 no.6 - Representative American Speeches2001-2002. This
volume includes speeches by current politicians and other government
officials on major topics: Responses to September 11th; Character and
Heroism; Immigration; Labor and the Economy; Food Safety; and Stem Cell
Research and Cloning.
There are several similar volumes for previous years.
Vital Speeches of the Day. The
library has been subscribing to this since 1936! Bound volumes are
shelved on the 5th floor under the call number PN6121 .V52. Speeches
include those given by other world leaders in addition to U.S.
politicians and officials. The most current (unbound) issues of this
journal are kept with current periodicals on 3rd floor. Those issues
contain speeches from Presidents Bush and Clinton, Representatives John
Murtha, Rob Simmons, and Jane Harmon. But there are also speeches by
Pope Benedict and other world leaders, businessmen, etc.
Note: some of the library's research databases have full-text access to this journal, but only up to 2002.
Database Suggestions from The Hekman Library's Research Databases
American Rhetoric
A continually growing database of full text speeches delivered by presidents and political activists, actors, Christian leaders, authors, talk show hosts, and many famous historical figures. View:OnlineAnnotation
Probably the best place to start! Here's information from the "about" screen:
"A continually growing database of full text speeches delivered by presidents and political activists, actors, Christian leaders, authors, talk show hosts, and many more famous historical figures. Listen to speeches in Real Audio or MP3. "Rhetorical Figures in Sound" is a collection of sound clips which illustrate figures of speech. The "News and Information" section provides links to newspapers, magazines, and news sources. Section for scholars guides the user to some full text speech and communication journals. One particularly compelling feature of the site is an area devoted to the rhetoric of 9/11, which contains over 150 active links to speeches dealing with the events on and around that date."
Tips for use of this database: use the navigation buttons in the left column; the "site search" allows you to search the site using the Google search engine.
LexisNexis Academic
LexisNexis Academic is an extensive set of full-text electronic databases of news, business, company, and legal information. It contains major archives of federal and state case law, media transcripts, and other full-text material. For more information consult the LexisNexis Academic help documents and/or search tutorial. View:Online
This is a huge database that contains full-text for news, business,
company, and legal information. There are many newspapers covered here
in full-text. The database also contains transcripts for news programs
and public radio broadcasts.
Tips for finding transcripts: for "select a news category" choose
"news transcripts;" start with "political transcripts" at the end of
the list - you can try other selections later; enter the last name of
the person you are searching in one of the search boxes ("headline,
lead paragraph(s), terms"). Note that you can change the date range
(see step four). You will have to review your result carefully. Many of
the items returned will be interviews, statements made to newspapers,
etc. But there will be some political speeches as well.
Additional Research Databases
Other databases to try (use the term "transcript" or "speech" as one of
your search terms). These databases, however, are less useful for this
assignment than the ones mentioned above.
USA.gov is another possible source. Use terms such as "transcript" and "speech"
along with the name of the person you are searching. You can search
state and local government sources as well as federal sources.
English 101M07 - Finding Political Speeches 
