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.

Subject Searching

Why would you want to do a subject search? Well, let's say you were interested in finding all the books in the library about cats. You might find books about cats under "Cats," "Kittens," Felines," or a variety of other keywords. When you search by subject, then all of the synonyms are accounted for, so "Cats" as a subject would include all the books about "Kittens" and "Felines" as well. Subjects can also serve to narrow your search. A keyword search of "cats" would retrieve all the books that just have a few pages about cats, whereas a search of the subject "Cats" would retrieve books where the main focus were those cute, furry creatures! This website from MIT might do a better job of explaining it than I did!

Here are some subjects related to Sociology you might want to try searching for. This list might also be helpful if you are stumped with a broad topic and need to focus it a bit. Copy the term or phrase into a search box in the Library Catalog and select "subject" in the left-hand box. Come on, get creative! You can combine subjects or subjects and keywords. Remember, joining terms with "OR" will get you "MORE" results and joining terms with "AND" will narrow your results. Savvy researchers try lots of different combinations of terms and discover what yields the best results. Happy searching!

General Sociology	Sociology Research
Sociology	Sociology -- methodology*
Sociology -- history*	Sociology -- research*
Social conflict	Sociology -- research -- methodology*
Sociology, Philosophy*	Social sciences -- research -- methodology*
Social change	Social surveys
Social interaction	Sociometry
Social psychology
Political sociology

Developmental Sociology	Marriage, Family, Sexuality, Gender
Child development	Marriage
Educational sociology	Family
Children – United States*	Parenting
Older people	Gender identity
Adolescence	Sex role
Aging	Feminism
	Feminist theory
	Masculinity
	Homosexuality
	Gay men
	Lesbianism
	Lesbians
	Transsexuals
	Gay and lesbian studies

Community, Groups, Ethnicity, Race	Crime, Deviance, Substance Abuse
Group identity	Criminology
Social classes	Deviant behavior
Social movements	Mental illness
Social groups	Criminal behavior
Sociology -- United States*	Corrections
United States -- Social conditions*	Drug abuse
Ethnic groups	Substance abuse
Immigrants -- United States*	Prisons
United States -- Race relations*	Suicide -- United States*
Multiculturalism	Juvenile Delinquency
Assimilation	Crime and race
Racism -- United States*	Hate crimes
Race discrimination	Sexual deviation
United States -- Ethnic relations*
Minorities -- United States*
Sociology, Urban*
Sociology, Rural*
Sociology, Medical*
Social medicine
Sociology, Military*
War and society
Protest movements
Industrial sociology
Religion and sociology
Sports -- social aspects*

* take out the dashes, commas, etc. when you put these terms in the search box

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

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

Subject Guide Home | Library Home

The librarian liaison to Sociology is Krista Knapp,
kmknapp@salisbury.edu | 410-677-0118