Social Work Research Guide
An Introduction to Library Research Strategy
Locating
Background Information
A good place to begin your research is the Reference Room, located
on the 1st floor of Ryan Library, where you can browse Reference materials,
such as Social Work dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, handbooks
and bibliographies. Most of these books have call numbers beginning with
360 - 362. These publications provide background information on social
work topics including historical information, names of authorities or experts
in the field, and particular issues or controversies within the field.
By reading articles in encyclopedias and other reference books, you may
get ideas for research paper topics as well as ideas for narrowing down
a broad topic, as well as citations of other books or articles.
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Style Manuals
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association. 5th ed. Washington : The Association,
2001.
CALL NUMBER: R 150.03 A 51-5 (Ryan & Arrigoni Reserve - ask at main desks)
Online guides to Citing Sources
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Library Research Guides
Alston, Margaret. Research for social workers : an introduction to
methods. London ; New York : Routledge, 2003.
CALL NUMBER: R 361.307 A 464
Roberts, A., & Greene, G. Social workers' desk reference. New
York : Oxford
University Press, 2002.
CALL NUMBER: R 361.32 S 6787
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Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia of marriage & the family. 2nd ed. New York : Macmillan
Reference USA, 2003.
CALL NUMBER: R 306.803 I 61
Encyclopedia of social work. New York : National Association of
Social Workers, 1997.
-ed. 19 (1995: v.1-3) and ed. 19 supplement
(1997)
(RYAN RESERVE - ASK AT MAIN DESK.)
-ed. 18 (1987:v.1-2) and ed. 18 supplement (1990)
shelved in Ryan Reference Room.
CALL NUMBER: R 360 E 56
Encyclopedia
Britannica
http://rocky.iona.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.eb.com
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Dictionaries
Barker, Robert L. Social work dictionary. 4th ed. Washington, D.C.
: NASW Press, 1999.
CALL NUMBER: R 361.3 B 255-1
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Biographies
Encyclopedia of social work. New York : National Association of
Social Workers, 1997.
(100 brief biographies of social workers
born through the first half of the twentieth century)
ed. 19 (1995:v.1-3) and ed. 19 supplement (1997)
(RYAN RESERVE - ASK AT MAIN DESK.)
ed. 18 (1987:v.1-2) and ed. 18 supplement (1990)
shelved in Ryan Reference Room.
CALL NUMBER: R 360 E 56
Social Work Pioneers (from
National Association of Social Workers Foundation)
http://www.naswfoundation.org/pioneers/
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Handbooks and Almanacs
Thyer, B. The Handbook of social work research methods. Thousand
Oaks, CA : Sage, 2001.
CALL NUMBER: R361.0072 H 236
Ginsberg, Leon H. Social work almanac. Washington, D.C. : NASW,
1995.
CALL NUMBER: R 361.973 S 6785
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Statistics
ChildStats.gov (from Federal Interagency
Forum on Child and Family Statistics)
http://www.childstats.gov/
Fedstats.gov (from various federal
agencies)
http://www.fedstats.gov/
Lennon, Todd. Statistics on social work education in the United States.
Alexandria, VA : Council on Social Work Education, 2002.
CALL NUMBER: R 361 S 797
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Audiovisuals
Ask for these videos by call number at the Ryan Library Circulation
Desk, 1st Floor Lobby.
Are ethics and contemporary social work practice compatible? National
Association of Social Workers : Washington, D.C., 1999?
CALL NUMBER: VIDEO-CAS 1590
Ethics for the mental health profession. Bert Rodriguez Productions
: Dallas, Texas, 1997.
CALL NUMBER: VIDEO-CAS 1296
Faces of change: social work in the new millennium. Council on
Social Work Education : Reno, Nevada, 1998.
CALL NUMBER: VIDEO-CAS 1013
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Locating Books and
Audiovisuals in ORION Catalog
To access ORION from the Iona
College Libraries web site, click on "Books & Multimedia" and
then either "Basic Search" or "Guided Search."
1) ORION contains records for:
- Books
- Print/hardcopy periodical titles (but not full text articles)
- Audiovisual materials.
2) There are many types of searches available in ORION, including "Keyword
Anywhere" (this is the default search), "Title, Exact", "Author", "Subject" and
more. If you know the item you are looking for, you may search for it by
using "Author Browse" or "Title,
Exact" commands,
-e.g. Webb, Nancy Boyd (Author)
-e.g. Social work practice with children (Title, Exact)
Ignore initial articles "a" "an" and "the" (and
foreign language equivalents) when searching by title. For example, if the
title of a book is "A History of health care administration", you
would type "history of health care administration" in the search
box.
3) If you wish to search by topic, it is helpful to begin with a "Keyword
Anywhere" search. As you view records you
will see subject headings. If any of the subject headings you see is of
interest, you may click on it to find more publications on the topic.
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Call Number Areas to
Browse
While searching ORION you will probably notice that many of the
books on your topic have similar call numbers. It may also be helpful to
browse the library shelves under these frequently used call number areas.
Below are just a few call number areas you may wish to browse.
305 |
Social groups (i.e., children) |
360 |
Encyclopedia/yearbook, handbook) |
361 |
Social problems and social welfare in general |
362 |
Social welfare problems and services |
362-363 |
Specific social problems and services |
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Subject Headings
When searching ORION or periodical indexes by subject, you must
use topics listed in the Library of Congress Subject Headings, 26th Edition
(2003). This is a 5-volume set of red books which lists topics and some
geographical, personal and corporate name headings. There is a set of these
volumes in the Ryan Reference Room on the 1st floor.
Suggested Subject Headings
Below are just a few examples of words and terms which may be used
as subject headings (click to see books with these subject).
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Locating Journals
at Iona College Libraries
From the library's
homepage click on Find Journal Articles under Research and then under "Know
the Name of a Journal "
type in the name of the journal, magazine, or newspaper you wish
to locate. The results will indicate whether or not we own the periodical
in paper/microform and/or have full-text electronic availability.Information
on what volumes and years we have will be provided. To access
full-text, click on the database name.
If the results screen states "Iona College Libraries Print/Microform
Collection" click
on that link to see what issues are owned by the library.
Paper Copy and Microform
In Ryan Library, current year periodicals and newspapers in paper
copy are shelved on the 1st floor in the REFERENCE ROOM. Older
issues in paper copy are shelved in the PERIODICALS
ROOM, also on the 1st floor. Periodicals in the fields of Computer
Science, Mass Communication (including journalism, broadcasting, advertising
and public relations), and Education are housed at the Helen Arrigoni Library
behind Murphy Center.
You may also search ORION to determine if the library owns a particular
periodical in paper copy or microform. Note "Library Has" information
for each periodical.
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Electronic Databases
Need articles from journals, magazines or newspapers?
Iona College Libraries provides access to literally millions of articles
in our subscription electronic databases. Frequently, these databases
provide the full-text and often full-image for these articles.
The databases listed below are available to current Iona College
students, faculty, administrators and staff from on or off-campus.
If an article is not full-text in a database, use the list of Journal
Titles to determine if Iona has a print or electronic version of
the journal in full-text, and for what years.
Social
Work Abstracts
http://rocky.iona.edu:2048/login?url=http://spweb.silverplatter.
com/waldo?sp.form.first.p=srchmain.htm&sp.dbid.p=S(SW,C)
Produced by NASW (National Association of Social Workers, Inc.) and spanning
1977 to present, this database contains abstracts from more than 45,000 abstracts
(over 450 journals) covering social work, human services, and related fields.
PsycINFO
http://rocky.iona.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/
login.asp?profile=web&defaultdb=psyh
Contains over 1 million records from more than 1700 periodicals from 1887 to
present in all fields relating to psychology and related disciplines.
PsycARTICLES
http://rocky.iona.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/
login.asp?profile=ehost&defaultdb=pdh
Full-text of approximately 50 psychology journals, 40 published by the American
Psychological Association. *All full-text articles can also be accessed when
searching the much larger PsycINFO database.*
CQ
Researcher
http://rocky.iona.edu:2048/login?url=http://
library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher
Produced by Congressional Quarterly Press, this database yearly releases 44
single-themed reports covering a controversial and/or current issue. Non-biased
coverage of political and social issues with excellent sources for additional
research.
Encyclopedia
Britannica
http://rocky.iona.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.eb.com
Provides the full-text of the current version of Encyclopedia Britannica, as
well as the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus.
NASW
Clincal Register
http://rocky.iona.edu:2048/login?url=http://spweb.silverplatter.
com/waldo?sp.form.first.p=srchmain.htm&sp.dbid.p=S(CLIN)
NASW Register of Clinical Social Workers, 10th Edition, provides a listing
of clinical social workers who have met national standards for education and
experience. It does not contain journal articles.
More
databases
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Print Periodical Indexes
You may also use
print periodical indexes which are listed below and kept in the Ryan
Library Periodicals Room. The Reference Librarian
or Periodicals Supervisor can assist you in using print periodical indexes.
These indexes are particularly useful when searching for older articles
published before the early 1980s which which are not always available
in electronic databases.
Examples:
- Social Sciences Index: v.1 (1974) - v.23 (1997)
- Readers Guide to Periodical Literature v.1 (1900) - v.57 (1997)
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Reference & Internet
Subject
Research Guides