SOCW 2361 (Dr. Melody Loya): Introduction to Social Work

Purpose: To acquaint you with materials in Cornette Library that will make research for your social work assignments easier.

Reference Sources

Excellent place to start research.
Provide background information.
Include basic information sources like dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, chronologies, and research guides.

Provide in-depth, scholarly articles, focused on a specific subject or discipline. Often include bibliographies.

The Blackwell encyclopaedia of social work: HV12 .B53 2000 (Reference); Single volume, brief scholarly articles with references. Primarily British perspective.
Encyclopedia of social work: HV35 .S6 1995 and HV35 .S61 1997 Supp. (Reference); Detailed articles about social work, with bibliography for each article. Three volume set with later supplement, complete index in each volume.
The social work and human services treatment planner: HV689 .S63 2000 (NetLibrary); Step by step instructions for developing individualized treatment plans for clients with a variety of circumstances, such as homelessness, addiction, abuse, etc.
The social work dictionary: HV12 .B37 2003 (Reference); In addition to brief terminology definitions, includes common acronyms and a chronology of key developments in the field.

Includes books, government documents, videos, journal titles, etc. available throughout the Library. Suggested searches include:

a keyword search for your subject, such as JUVENILE CRIME
the general LC subject heading JUVENILE DELINQUENCY--PREVENTION.
Use the subject term SOCIAL SERVICE for items about the activities of social work, but use SOCIAL WORK ADMINISTRATION or SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION for those specialized areas of the field.
Journals for social work can be found by doing a subject search for SOCIAL SERVICE PERIODICALS

Cornette Library shelves contain more than 1500 bound and current journals and magazines
Microform (film or fiche) available for dozens of leading newspapers, as well as other periodicals
Databases index articles found in journals and magazines.
- Citation only.
- Citation and a short summary of the article (abstract).
- Full-text.
- General, covering many kinds of topics, and specialized, for specific disciplines.
For this assignment be sure to use scholarly sources, not general interest magazines. The differences are important, for citation and for evaluating reliability.

On-campus: In the library or HELC
Off-campus: Login with your Buff Advisor username (for example, js123456) and your Buff Advisor password (for example, buffaloes).
Use Interlibrary Loan to request articles inaccessible through Cornette library. Allow up to 3 weeks for articles to arrive.

Academic Search Complete: General cross-disciplinary database, mostly full-text. is activated.
Social Work Subject Guide: Suggests other databases that have social work content. Also check the subject guides for sociology and psychology.

Displays in most of our databases. Links from a citation to one or more of the following:
- one or more links to full-text of the cited article,
- a link to a pre-set search of the Cornette Library catalog for the cited item,
- a link to a pre-filled Interlibrary Loan request form for the article, or
- a link to various help options.
For more information see the tutorial Using SFX to Link to Articles

National Association of Social Workers: Professional Association for your profession. Provides information about the profession, conferences, continuing education, pay issues, and legal issues.

Searchable lists of annotated web sites, discussion lists, and electronic journals that have met specific selection criteria.

Scout Report Archives: Searchable annotations of almost 17,000 sites.; Records are dated, sourced, and contain site descriptions, descriptors, rankings, and language.
INFOMINE Scholarly Internet Resource Collections: Describes and links to tens of thousands of sites of scholarly interest.; Keyword search or browse by general subject area. Can limit to free sites.
ipl2 - "Information You Can Trust" (merger of Internet Public Library and Librarians' Index to the Internet): Annotates more than 12,000 sites, with emphasis on general public interest.; Keyword search, or browse by general topic and subtopic.

To give credit to the author of the information you use.
To avoid plagiarism (WTAMU Code of Student Life: Appendix I-Academic Integrity Code)
a serious offense that can result in a failing grade or expulsion!
So that others can verify the information.
To assist others in doing their own research.

Ms. Loya requires you to use APA citation style
One copy of the newest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is located at the Reference Desk, and a second copy is on reserve at the Circulation desk and may be checked out for two hours.
Additional assistance is available from our Citation Basics web page.

Thank you.

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