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Reference Books |
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Searching the Catalog for Books |
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Searching the Databases for Articles |
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Full-text Online Journals |
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Tests and Measurements |
Start your research by looking at reference books. When you are just beginning a research project, you need basic, factual information that will give you an overview of the topic. Reference books will give you a good starting point and are also a great source for developing ideas for papers if you haven't decided on a topic. Here are a few:
GENERAL SOCIAL WORK :
Encyclopedia of Social Work REF V 35 .S6 1995
The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Social Work REF HV 12 .B53 2000
Social Welfare and Social Work: Annual Editions REF HV 85 .S63 2001
The Social Work Dictionary REF HV 12 .B37 1999
Social Work Almanac REF HV 90 .G53 1995
AGING
Americans 55 and Older REF HQ 1064 .A66 2001
CHILDREN & YOUTH
Kids Count Databook (http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/databook/)
Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth REF HQ 792 .U5 T73 (also online at http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/02trends/)
Statistical Handbook on Adolescents in America REF HQ 796 .S8237 1996
The State of America's Children Yearbook REF HV 741 C5375 2001
CRIME
Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice REF HV 6017 E 52 2002
Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior REF HV 6017 .E53 2001
Crime in the United States REF HV 6787 .A3 (also online at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm)
Hate Crime Statistics (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm)
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics REF HV 7245 .N37b (also online at http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/)
DISABILITIES:
Handbook of Disability Studies REF HV 1568.2 H36 2001
Resources for People with Disabilities: A National Directory REF HV 1553 .R48 1998
HOMELESSNESS
American Homelessness: A Reference Handbook REF HV 4505 .H647 2001
Homeless in America: How Could it Happen Here? REF HV 4505 .H6555 2001
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Alcohol and Tobacco, America's Drugs of Choice, 2001 REF HV 4999.2 .A42 2001
Drug Abuse Sourcebook REF HV 5801 .D724 2000
Drugs, Society, and Behavior. Annual Editions REF HV 5801 .D7 2002
Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol and Addictive Behavior REF HV 5804 .E53 2001
WOMEN AND FAMILIES
Women and Women's Issues: A Handbook of Tests and Measures REF HQ 1180 .B43
Family Planning Sourcebook REF HQ 766.5 .U5 F3455 2001
Statistical Handbook on the American Family REF HQ 536 .S727 1999
Encyclopedia
of Family Life REF HQ 534 .E53 1999
Next, look for books in CONSULS. A good place to start is with a keyword search, which allows you to combine concepts, such as "homeless and families" or "teenagers and drug abuse."
Remember that CONSULS is the catalog for all of the CSU campuses, so before you go to the shelf make sure the catalog says the item you want is at SCSU. Every item in the catalog has a letter code for its location. S = SCSU, W= WCSU, E= ECSU, C=CCSU, and SL = State Library.
If you see an item at any of the other campuses that you need, you can request it by clicking on "Request Book" and entering your Social Security Number and Library PIN number. The book will be shipped here within 3-5 working days. The State Library in Hartford will not send books to Southern but it is open to the public.
SOCIAL WORK ABSTRACTS is produced by the National Association of Social Workers and indexes and abstracts articles from social work journals dating back to 1977.
EBSCO is another useful database for social work research. It is possible to combines Academic Search Elite, Sociological Abstracts, and PsychInfo simultaneously, which will generate many social work related articles. Many of the articles will be available full-text in the database.
GENDERWATCH is a full-text database of publications that deal with women's issues.
Westlaw (iCONN)
Articles from major and local newspapers; legal resources.
If you are connecting from off campus for the first time, you will have to set up a library PIN number to access the databases. To see whether Buley Library subscribes to a particular journal in print, go to CONSULS and do a journal title search.
To see which journals are available in the various databases in fulltext or at Buley Library in print format, enter the journal title in the JOURNAL LOCATOR, accessed from Buley Library's home page.
Books, dissertations, and articles that are not available with in the CSU library system can be requested by filling out an interlibrary loan form.
HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL INSTRUMENTS (HaPI) is a database that indexes and abstracts articles on measurement tools (such as questionnaires, rating scales, and tests) in the health fields and psychosocial sciences. NOTE: HaPI does not contain the actual test. Because tests are often copyrighted and for sale, they can be difficult to obtain without paying for them.
A great source for locating the texts of tests that have been published in a variety of books is Tests and Measurements in the Social Sciences: Tests Available in Compilation Volumes. This is an online index compiled by a librarian at the University of Texas at Arlington. Once you find where a test has been published, you must check CONSULs to see whether Buley or another CSU campus owns that book. If Buley doesn't own it, we can get it for you from interlibrary loan.
The Buros Institute provides Test Reviews Onine, which is used for locating citations to reviews of tests and research instruments, as well as contact information for test publishers. The reviews themselves are not available online, just the citations.
More sources for information on tests:
Mental Measurements Yearbook REF BF 698.5 B86
Measures for Clinical Practice: A Sourcebook REF BF 176 .C66 2000
Tests: A Comprehensive Reference for Assessments in Psychology, Education, and Business REF BF 176 T43 1997
Tests in Print REF BF 698.5 B878 1999
Directory of
Unpublished Experimental Mental Measures REF BF 431 .G625 1996
Contact
Your Librarian
If you would like research assistance or have questions about anything on this pages, please contact Lisa Bier at 392-5131 or bierl1@southernct.edu.
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