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Social Work: Graduate Student Toolkit

Fall 2009
Course sites available in bSpace

Questions about your library research?
Contact Susan Edwards (sedwards@library.berkeley.edu or 510-643-6224)

Finding Articles

There are two core social work databases, Social Services Abstracts and Social Work Abstracts. Another very useful database is CSA Illumina -- which in addition to Social Work, includes PsycInfo, Sociological Abstracts, ERIC, HealthSciences, etc. Interdisciplinary databases such as Academic Search Complete can be helpful, as can the numerous databases in allied disciplines such as sociology, public policy, law, economics, ethnic studies, etc. Hundreds of electronic resources are available, listed by subject or by name, or by type of database.

Although there are several different "flavors" of databases, often you can make your searching more effective by using these features:

Power search features for most article databases:

• Use synonyms -- there are many ways to express a concept (teenager or teenagers or adolescent)
• Use "controlled vocabulary" (descriptors or subjects) if the database has them ... they bring related terms together. For example, do they use the term African American or Black?
• Use truncation to get different forms of the word, for example homeless* also searches on homelessness or teenage* will retrieve teenagers, teenager, teenaged, etc.
• Use quotation marks when you want an "exact phrase"

Specialized Databases

There are also some specialized fulltext databases that complement the article/abstract databases above. These databases search every word on every page -- not just the abstract, or the keywords or tables of contents. JSTOR and Project MUSE search and display the fulltext of selected scholarly academic journals -- and unlike most e-journals, JSTOR goes back to the very first volumes -- but it doesn't include the past FIVE YEARS or so!. Fulltext searching is particularly useful when you are looking for an exact term that isn't a subject heading -- for example, "family preservation". Google Scholar (UCB works with Google to pass you through to the content that we pay for) also searches the fulltext of many many scholarly articles and "think tank" reports. Lexis Nexis Academic is another extremely powerful database which searches each and every word of of law reviews, newspapers, and legislation. Searching L-N can be a bit tricky, partly because there is so much there -- and if you just search on two concepts it can find the first one on page one and the second on page 200. The following quick tips can help you target your search:

The Greenbook Another specialized resource is the Green Book (in progress). It provides updated data and information on programs such as Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, Foster Care and welfare. Additionally, it includes a discussion of related issues, such as the well-being of the elderly and of children and families. (If the program you're interested in hasn't been updated yet, you can also try the 2004 Green Book.)

Citation Indexes

Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science) is a very specialized and powerful tool. If you find the perfect article -- but perhaps it's a bit dated -- the Social Sciences Citation Index will tell you the articles that subsequently cited your article. It can be a great way to update your article. It's a bit complicated to use, but this tutorial explains the steps. ISI also produces the Journal Citation Reports, which contain a variety of ways to measure the impact of an article or journal. All of these measures are controversial, but it can be a useful tool for seeing the key journals in a field, for example.

Citation Linker Sometimes you find an article in a bibliography, a book or a footnote -- and you want to see if we have it. We have a very cool tool called the Citation Linker that searches through our online databases to see if it is available fulltext. If not, it sets up a search for the paper journal in Melvyl, and then allows you to request it through Interlibrary Loan if not at UCB.

Finding Dissertations

Dissertations can also be a useful research tool -- there are several ways to search for dissertations, and the fulltext of UCB dissertations are available online since 1996.

Finding and Borrowing Books:

There are library catalogs that search for books in all the libraries of Berkeley, in all the UCs, from all over the U.S., or even internationally. When we don't have material enough here at UCB, you can quickly borrow material from Stanford or UT Austin via the Research Library Cooperative Program or for material outside of UC, UT and Stanford you can use Interlibrary Loan. This is a fantastic service, and is free to you -- but it does take a bit of time. The Library Catalogs tab at the top of this page will take you to all of the catalog choices. We are going to start with Melvyl. If you don't know a specific title or author, or the exact Library of Congress Subject Heading (and who does?) use the dropdown arrow and select KEYWORDS. You can start with one or two keywords, and if you find a book that looks relevant, look at the bottom of the record to see the Subject Headings. Subject headings are powerful terms ("controlled vocabulary" in library speak) that bring together various ways to say the same thing. For example, Homeless persons -- Services for -- Law and legislation -- United States is a "subject heading".

Citing Your Sources:

Citation and Paper Writing provides an overview of using RefWorks (freely available to UC Berkeley students) to format your citations. It also includes the very useful "cite while you write" Word plug-in. Other options you might want to consider include EndNote and Zotero.

Off-Campus Access:

The Library pays for access to thousands of electronic journals, databases, etc. You can access these from off-campus, by following these directions.

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