SOW 3232
Resources for Library Research in Social Welfare Policy
Ken Frankel

A Social Work research guide, including both electronic and print resources is available at:   http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/ref/rsguide/sociwork.htm

I. Locating books in the Library:

1. WebLUIS (the Library's catalog): click on "Catalog" or "Books." The following types of basic searches are available:

A. Keywords: This search looks for a word anywhere in the record. Keywords can be truncated with a ? e.g.. addict? will search for addicts, addiction etc. Also, you can search for 2 keywords next to each other this way: learning adj theory (adj stands for adjacent)
B. Author's Name: last name first, you don't need to capitalize
C. Title: if a title starts with The, A, or An, omit that and skip to the next word.
D. Subject: This search looks for items classified by a subject heading and organizes the results into sub-topics. Subjects must be entered in a specific manner. You may get a cross-reference to the preferred subject heading. Some subject heading examples that might be useful:

child welfare
family services
human services
social policy

*If you're not finding anything with a subject search, try a keyword search instead*

E. Journal/Magazine Title: be sure to check the "Library Has" link to see which dates the Library owns. (Note: not all electronic journals we have are cataloged in WebLUIS. There is also a link to a list of all electronic journals available at FAU.)

The Advanced search screen allows you to combine terms using "and,  or,  not" as well as limiting a search by location, date, format or language.

II. Searching for articles in databases:

To search for articles click on "Indexes/Databases" or "Articles." There are both alphabetical and subject listings of databases. The Library provides access to the two major social work databases: Social Work Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts. It's estimated that there is about a 60% overlap between the two, so to be thorough, try using them both. In addition, the Lexis Nexis Academic and WestLaw Campus databases provide coverage of federal and state laws, regulations, and court cases.

Note: when using these databases from off-campus you must log in through the EZ-Proxy link. You will need to enter the number from your Owl Card in order to do this.

Social Work Abstracts
Contains more than 45,000 records, spanning 1977 to the present, from social work and other related journals on topics such as homelessness, AIDS, child and family welfare, aging, substance abuse, legislation, community organization, and more.

Social Services Abstracts
Provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development.

InfoTrac OneFile
A very large interdisciplinary database which allows the option of limiting searches to refereed journals only, search results with full-text only, or both.

Sociological Abstracts
CSA Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

LexisNexis Academic
Accesses over a billion full text news, magazine, legal, and business articles and reports, including newspapers, magazines and government documents, state and federal laws and regulations, case law, newsletters, company and industry information.

WestLaw Campus
This resource includes access to the complete laws and statutes of the federal government and all 50 states, federal regulations, precedent-setting court decisions, KeyCite, American Law Reports, American Jurisprudence, and current and archived articles from hundreds of leading law reviews and journals.

PsycArticles
Contains the full text of articles from APA journals and selected EPF journals, most from 1988 to the present.

PsycINFO
Produced by the American Psychological Association, PsycINFO covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines.

Ethnic Newswatch
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text general reference database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press -- English and Spanish language.

For further assistance, contact:
Ken Frankel (frankel@fau.edu),
Library Ref. Dept. (297-0079)