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University Library

Sociology - Discovering Society

Literature Searching Practical Workshops 2010

The Library sessions for the "Discovering Society" module aim to provide students with the skills required to complete the module assignments and to introduce a range of Library resources which will be useful both for this module and other projects and assignments. The information will be available here for the rest of the year for further reference.

View the presentation and handout

What do I want to find?

Remember that taking a few moments to think about what information you need can save you a lot of wasted effort.

  • Break your topic down into key words and phrases. Use synonyms to help you broaden your search. Think about how you can combine your search terms.
  • What format do you want the information you find to be in? Are you looking for books, journal articles, websites or anything else?

How do I go about finding it?

Use the library catalogue if you are looking for books and/or ebooks. Everything that the library has access to an be found via the catalogue.

If you want to find journal articles you can either:

  • Find an indivdual title of a print journal or ejournal on the library catalogue
  • Search a bibliographic database which cross-references many ejournal titles

A wide variety of other information related to social work can also be found via various databases such as research briefings, reports, government documents and legistlation. These resources include:

  • Science Direct -  Web database for scientific research that contains abstracts, tables of contents, and full text of articles in the sciences, technology, medicine and social sciences.
  • Web of Knowledge - This is a great database to use at the start of the information research process to find journal articles on a range of subjects.
  • Social Care Online - a free online resource where you can access the UK's most complete range of information and research on all aspects of social care, from fostering, to mental health, to human resources and much more. Content is drawn from journal articles, websites, research reviews, legislation and government documents, audio/visual material and service user knowledge.
  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) - one of the largest and most comprehensive social science databases in the world; it includes details of articles in over 2400 selected international social science journals, and of around 7000 books per annum.
  • SPORTDiscus - An international database from the Sport Information Resource Centre (Canada), on sports medicine, exercise physiology, biomechanics, psychology, training techniques, coaching, physical education, physical fitness, recreation, facilities and equipment.

Need some help?

Contact Ben Taylorson, the Academic Liaison Librarian for Applied Social Sciences