Social Work 401 Research Guide

RESEARCH TOOL LINKS

Boolean Searching
(from University at Albany Libraries)

Evaluating Resources
(from Milner Library at Illinois State U.)

Plagiarism: How to Avoid It (from Indiana University at Bloomington)


FL Home	PSU Home

COURSE RELATED RESEARCH INSTRUCTION

Course Name: SWK401 Generalist Practice II
Course Instructor: Peg Ballantine
Session Librarian: Holly Heller-Ross
Session Dates: Tuesday March 7 and Thursday February 23, 2006

This page includes suggestions for information research resources as well as tips on information research skills.

Information Research Resources:

Finding Journal Articles:

Locate journal articles by searching journal indexes online. From the page Library's Home page, select the subject database menu and choose from the suggested indexes for Social Work. You may need to search also in the areas of sociology and criminal justice depending on your topic. Be specific in your search terms, use words that really match your topic.

Many journals, including Social Work, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, Health and Social Work, Journal of Multicultural Social Work and Social Work Research are also available full-text in the databases InfoTrac OneFile, Proquest Research Library, and Expanded Academic ASAP. You can search by subject ...OR look through the tables of contents for these journals.

Finding Books:

A. Library Web Catalog - Used to locate books, series, and journals owned by the Library.

B. WorldCAT – Used to locate books owned by libraries across the U.S. and Canada. Books you find can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Use the advanced search for more precision searching. Use Keyword (or Subjects) and use the limits to focus your search.

C. Browsing the Reference Shelves - Browsing is a time-honored method of locating research materials. Most social work books are shelved in the HV sections of the library. Some important resources for this class include:

The Social Work Dictionary Ref HV12.B37 1999
Encyclopedia of Social Work, with supplement Ref HV35.56 1995
Handbook of Empirical Social Work Practice Ref HV43.H316 1998
Public Human Services Directory Ref HV.89.A55 2000-2001
Encyclopedia of Human Rights Issues Since 1945 Ref JC571.L2747 1999
Human Rights Watch Works Report 1995 Ref JC571.H785 1995
Encyclopedia of American Social History Ref HN57.E58 1993
Violence in America Ref HN90.V5474 1999
The Europa World Yearbook Ref Desk JN1.E85 2000

Finding Internet Web Pages:

Use the resources developed for Plattsburgh Course HED 311. This web page has an extensive listing of sources for information about different countries and their social policies. Search the Internet by using a web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. Search both Internet directors and Engines/Meta-Engines: Remember there's more than Yahoo! out there!

Use the resources recommended on the Feinberg Library Research Guide for Social Work. These will also get you started with authoritative and trustworthy web sites.

Information Research Skills:

Selecting Relevant Information:

Look for material that fulfills the course requirements! That’s the number one tip for success. Relevant: right on target, focused on your topic, your topic is the main idea in the article or book, title of the work clearly reflects your topic, authors are experts in that topic area.

Timely: as current as your topic requires, generally within the last three years, at least one source from the current year, use older sources when they are considered classics or to show a progression of ideas over time.

This page created by: Holly Heller-Ross, MLS
Email: holly.hellerross@plattsburgh.edu
Last Updated: February 22, 2006