Welcome to the Social Work
Subject Guide!
This subject guide is
intended to be a starting point for your research on social work topics.
Recommended databases, journals, reference tools, and websites are listed (and
linked when it is an electronic resource) from the menu above.
The Social Work Subject Guide was compiled by the library liaison to the Social
Work Department,
Krista Knapp. If you have questions, please use the information below to
contact Krista!
This page was last updated on
5/13/2009
Books
Books in Blackwell Library
Search the online
Library Catalog for books in Blackwell Library. You can search by
Title, Author, Subject or Keyword, or you can do a browse search. The books
you can check out say "Stacks" before the call number and are located on the
second floor of the library. If you feel like browsing, here is a website that
explains Library of Congress
Classification, which is how books are organized in our library.
You can also try browsing the following
call number areas:
| HN1-995 |
Social Problems, social reform |
HV1442-1448 |
Women |
| HQ12-449 |
Sexuality |
HV1449 |
Homosexuals |
| HQ503-1064 |
The family & marriage |
HV1550-1494 |
Aged |
| HQ1060-1073.5 |
Gerontology |
HV1551-3024 |
Disabled |
| HV697-4959 |
Protection, assistance & relief |
HV5001-5720.5 |
Alcoholism |
| HV679-700.7 |
Families |
HV5725-5840 |
Drug Abuse |
| HV701-1420.5 |
Children |
HV6001-7220.5 |
Criminology |
| HV1421-1441 |
Teenagers |
HV7231-9960 |
Criminal Justice Administration |
Click here for a list
of newly added Social Work books!
Books from Other USMAI Libraries
If you are a student, faculty, or staff
member of Salisbury University, you have access to the library collections of
all of the University of Maryland affiliated universities through our shared
library catalog. To borrow a book from another campus, follow these steps:
-
Select "Choose Campus" from the menu at
the top
-
Choose a campus or USMAI for all the
campuses
-
Perform the search
-
When you find a book you want that is not
at SU, click on the location link
-
Click the request button if the item is
available
-
Log in with the information from your
Gull Card and complete the request
-
The book will be available for you to
pick up in Blackwell in 3-5 business days
Watch this brief
video to see the process in action!
Books from Interlibrary Loan/Worldcat
Interlibrary Loan is a great tool that allows you to
borrow a book from libraries outside the USMAI system. Before you submit a
request, make sure that we don't own the book here at SU or at one of the other
USMAI institutions. If not, you can submit a request through
ILL
Express.
You can also search
Worldcat,
which is a huge catalog of materials from libraries all over the world. If the
book you want is in a library, chances are pretty good you will find it in
Worldcat! If you find the book you want and you know it is not available at SU
or any USMAI campus, then you can click the Find It button and then request the
book through Interlibrary Loan. The advantage of doing it this way is that you
don't have to fill in all the information about the book!
Click here
to go to the Interlibrary Loan webpage.
Click here
to watch a brief video about Interlibrary Loan.
JUMP TO:
About Databases
Multidisciplinary/Newspaper Databases
Subject-Specific Databases
The Find-It Button
Understanding
Scholarly Communication
Databases:
Use databases to find articles on your topic. Some
databases will have the full text of the entire article available within the
database, others will only have a citation for the article. Use the Find-It
button to determine how to access the full article when there is no electronic
full-text. Read more about the Find-It Button and Understanding Scholarly
Communication below, after the list of databases!
Here are some databases
that may be useful for social work
topics:
Note: These links will only work
from on campus. From off campus, you must search through
Research Port. Watch
this video to learn how!
Multidisciplinary/Newspapers:
-
Academic Search Complete*
- a multidisciplinary database containing both scholarly and popular
sources, many of which have full-text available. ASP is a good place to
start your research. Use the FindIt button to locate articles that are not
available full-text.
-
Lexis-Nexis Academic
- a great source for full-text world news and legal information.
-
National Newspapers
- a source of U.S. news from major papers including The New York Times
and The Washington Post
-
JSTOR - a huge,
wonderful database of scholarly communication from a wide variety of
disciplines, including Political Science. All of these sources are
full-text, but the newest documents are 3-5 years old.
Subject-Specific:
-
Social Work Abstracts* - an EBSCO databases with abstracts and some full
text for Social Work articles.
-
PsycINFO* - an EBSCO database for Psychology and related topics.
-
ERIC* - Education-related topics.
-
Health Source: Consumer Edition* - might be useful
for health policy-related topics.
-
Social Sciences Abstracts*
- covers all the social sciences. It's an EBSCO database, same as Academic
Search Premier, so the interface will look familiar. There are some
full-text articles; for others, use the FindIt button.
*These EBSCO databases can be
searched simultaneously. Click
here to see how.
The Find-It Button
It's a bit like magic, really. The Find It
button does three things:
-
Looks in all of our databases to see if
the document you want is available full-text in another of our databases.
If so, it links you to it!
-
Links you to the library catalog when we
have the item you want in print or microform.
-
Links you to ILLiad (interlibrary loan)
so you can borrow the item from another library if we don't have access
electronically or in print.
The Find It button is YOUR FRIEND!!! Find
out more about the Find It Button by viewing this
short tutorial.
You can also use the Citation Linker, another
fabulously cool tool. It is useful when you are reading an article and it
cites another article that looks like it would be super useful for your
research. You plug in the citation information for that article and can find
out how to access it, whether it be electronically, physically in the library,
or through Interlibrary Loan. It works the same way as Find It, but you don't
have to be in a database.
Learn more about the
Citation Linker!
Understanding Scholarly Communication
Many times, instructors insist that you
use scholarly sources for your papers. What does that mean? Check out this
handy dandy chart for
the details!
Here are the basics:
Popular
Magazines:
-
glossy, pretty pages with lots of
advertisements and pictures
-
written by hired reporters for a
general audience
-
short, easily read articles
Scholarly
Journals:
-
somewhat dull looking - very few
pictures or advertisements
-
written by experts in the field and
reviewed by other scholars before publication
-
long articles with citations and
bibliographies at the end
Why should you use the library and
not just use Google to find some good websites?
Most of the time,
scholarly publications are not available to the
general public, nor are they available for free on the
internet. Individuals or organizations (such as a library) subscribe to these
publications. Because subscriptions are expensive, many choose to access
this content through libraries.
Often, content from scholarly journals
is indexed in databases that the library
subscribes to. The content is on the web, but it is
not accessible unless you are affiliated with the institution who is
subscribing. It isn’t the same thing as just finding a website
through a regular Google search. Sometimes the full
text of the article is available through the database; other times it is only a
citation to the article and you will need to find the print version of the
article in the library or order the article through interlibrary loan if we
don’t subscribe to it.
So, basically what I'm saying is that
the only way you can access this scholarly information for free is by using the
library databases!
This list of Social Work journals is not
comprehensive.
Only current subscriptions held by Blackwell Library are listed.
For complete records search
catalogUSMAI
or copies of the Periodical Holdings List in Blackwell Library
Reference.
Academic Search |
Research Port
|
Journal Title |
Dates |
Adolescence
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1966+
March 1990+ |
Affilia: Journal of
Women and Social Work
only ONLINE through Academic Search |
Jan. 1990+ |
Ageing and Society |
1981+ |
Alcohol Health & Research World
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1974+
March 1990+ |
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research |
1977+ |
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1919+
Jan. 1990+ |
Child Abuse & Neglect
also ONLINE through Science Direct |
2002+
Jan. 1995+ |
Child Welfare
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1922+
Jan. 1990+ |
Children & Schools |
10/2000+ |
Children Today
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1972+
Jan. 1990+ |
Clinical Social Work Journal |
1974+ |
Community Mental Health Journal |
1965+ |
Crime and Delinquency
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1975+
Jan. 1990+ |
Families in Society |
1990+ |
Family Relations
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1980+
Jan. 1990+ |
Generations: The Journal of the Western Gerontological Society
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1989+
Jan. 1990+ |
Geriatrics
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1989+
July 1993+ |
Gerontologist |
1961+ |
Health and Social Work
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1976+
Feb. 1990+ |
Human Relations |
1964+ |
Iowa Journal of School Social Work |
4/1995+ |
Journal of Gerontology
Title changed to Journals of
Gerontology 1988+ |
1946-1987 |
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy |
1979+ |
Journal of Social Issues |
1966+ |
Journal of Social Work Education
also
ONLINE through Academic Search |
1985+
Jan. 1990+
|
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare |
1974+ |
Journals of Gerontology
Journals of Gerontology Series A and Series B
|
1988-1994
1995+ |
Policy and Practice of Public Human Services
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
8/1998+
8/1998+ |
Public Welfare
also ONLINE through Academic Search
Title changed to Policy and Practice of Public Human Services
|
1943-1998
Jan. 1990-1998 |
Social Casework
Title changed to Families in Society 1990+ |
1920-1989 |
Social Problems |
6/1953+ |
Social Service Review |
1927+ |
Social Work
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1956+
Jan. 1992+ |
Social Work Education Reporter |
1970+ |
Social Work in Education
also ONLINE through Academic Search
|
1995-7/2000
Jan. 1990+ |
Social Work in Health Care |
1989+ |
Social Work Research
also ONLINE through Academic Search |
1994+
Mar. 1994+ |
Social Work with Groups |
1979+ |
Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior |
1976+ |
What is a reference tool?
- A reference tool is a resource that is used
to uncover a specific fact or piece of information. Reference tools
are generally not intended to be read sequentially or
cover-to-cover.
- Reference tools contain specific
facts, definitions, overviews, background information and citations
to other relevant resources.
- Reference tools are helpful
in narrowing a topic.
- Reference tools provide definitions of
concepts.
- Reference tools
include encylopedias, dictionaries, biographies, bibliographies,
handbooks, atlases, maps, and thesauri.
- Reference tools are a great place to start
research!
Encyclopedia of Social Work
Ready Reference HV35.S6 2008
Social Policy and Social Work
Ready Reference HV41.D445 1998
Social Work Almanac
Ready Reference HV90.G53 1995
The Social Work Dictionary
Ready Reference HV12.B37 2003
Social Work Speaks: NASW Policy Statements
Ready Reference HV88.N118 2003
Social Workers Desk Reference
Ready Reference HV40.S6464 2002
