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Library Session Goals | Scholarly Research | Reference Resources | Articles | Books and Journals | Citing Sources | Research Assistance
Social Work 401: Overview of generalist social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Designed to introduce core concepts, values, and ethical principles of the profession as well as to provide basic skills, and knowledge related to generalist social work practice with a broad array of client systems. Emphasis is give to the biological-psychological-social-spiritual framework, person-in-environment, strengths perspective, and system theory. Skills in developing beginning professional relationships, which are characterized by mutuality, collaboration, empowerment, and client self determination within the problem-solving process are addressed.
1. Identify sources of social work research and evidence.
2. Understand how to structure an article database search.
3. Practice search in Social Services Abstracts, including search tips (truncation and thesaurus) and Discover Full-Text.
4. Learn about citation management tools (Refworks).
Refereed materials are publications reviewed by "expert readers" or referees prior to the publication of the material. After reading and evaluating the material, the referee informs the publisher if the document should be published or if any changes should be made prior to publication. Refereed materials are also referred to as Peer Reviewed. Refereed materials are significant to the research and the literature of most academic fields because they assure readers that the information conveyed is reliable and timely.
Many article databases now allow you to limit your search to display only peer-reviewed (refereed) results. Use this option to eliminate guesswork and rest assured that your results are all from peer-reviewed sources. For more information about peer-reviewed articles, see the Research Articles and Peer-Reviewed Guide.
Note: beware the "scholarly" label...as we've seen, a source can be "scholarly" but not necessarily peer-reviewed. Look for "peer-reviewed" or "refereed" to be sure.
Reference resources are sources of solid background info. All books are located in Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library reference collection.
309.12 So15 and Online
Encyclopedia of Social Work
Comprehensive overview of social work from a United States perspective. Contains a topical outline of entries, directory of contributors, and comprehensive index.
361.32 So1344 2009
Social Worker’s Desk Reference
Resource for those engaged in the social work profession or for students looking to familiarize themselves with the techniques and strategies of intervention in the clinical setting.
808.066301 Sz71w 2011
Writing with Style: APA Style for Social Work
Information about how to write different sections of a paper, including writing a literature review.
361.3072 Sa184 and Online
The SAGE Handbook of Social Work Research
Divided into sections on the purposes, contexts, practices, and domains of social work research.
www.library.illinois.edu/eref/
Start by keyword searching larger collections of encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks. It's also possible to browse an specific online reference source by subject. Suggestions of specific reference sources are listed after the collection name.
Scholarly journal articles are one of the primary means of communicating research ideas. They are an important component of academic research and give you some insight into ongoing debates and scholarly conversations about your topic. You can find articles through database searches.
Finding articles is a two-step process:
OR
Library catalogs are used for two purposes. First, if you know exactly what you are looking for, for example you know the exact title or an author's name. This works for book titles and journal titles. Second, you can use library catalogs to discover material that might be helpful to you by doing subject and keyword searching.
Location - in which library the item is kept (or libraries, if we have multiple copies)
Call Number - this number is essential for finding the item on the shelf
Status - is it available for you to check out?
Guidelines for citing electronic and print resources are available from the Reference Library's Cite a Source page and the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library's Style and Writing Guide.
A great tool for writing papers, RefWorks helps you export bibliographic records from databases, change the citation styles as needed, and import the citation directly into a Word document so you can create bibliographies on the fly.
Use the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library's Ask-A-Librarian service to contact a librarian via Instant Messenger/chat, email, phone, or in person.
Contact a librarian to request an appointment for an in-depth Research Consultation.
University LibraryFor comments on this page contact: Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library
Last modified by: Paige Cunningham on 4/22/13