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 Guide to finding resources in the George T. Potter library

Capstone Project in Sociology

   February 5, 2007

     Shirley Knight, Reference Librarian                 Erin Augis, Professor

      sknight@ramapo.edu                                     SOCI 410

 I. Library Homepage: http://library.ramapo.edu

  • Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, course reserves, interlibrary loan forms, etc.

II. Finding Books at the Potter Library

  • Catalog: use this to find books, journal titles NOT ARTICLES, government documents, reserve items, music,and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.
  • Search the catalog using Keywords to find material
    • For example: search for "gender violence" or " sociology empirical research" to locate a broad range of material and look for resources for your topics.
  • OR

                                                           

  • Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature ONLY if you know the Library of Congress Subject Headings, for example:

  • Bullying
  • Child Welfare
  • Gerontology
  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
  • Interviewing
  • Juvenile Justice
  • Sociology
  • Social Problems
  • Sociology--Methodology
  • Welfare

      • Tips

    1. Start with broad searches. It is much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
    2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Related Records tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
    3. Can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

III. Reference Material

  • The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).

          

    General Sources

    Call Number
    International Handbook of Sociology
    Ref  HM 585 .I57    2000
    Sociological Theory
    Ref  HM 585 .a33   2001
    Education of Sociology: An Encyclopedia
    Ref  LC 189.95 .E38 2002
    Social Research Sources
    		 
    The A-Z of Social Research: A Dictionary of Key Social Science Research Concepts
    Ref  H 62 .A5124   2003
    The Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods
    Ref  H 62 .L456   2004
     
    The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research

    Ref  H62 .H2455  2005

    A Guide to Empirical Research in Communication: Rules for Looking
    Ref  H 61.8 .S964 2001
    Encyclopedia of Social Measurement
    Ref  H 62 .E53     2005
    Interview Sources
    		 
    Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method
    Ref H 61.28 .H36 2001
    Constructing Questions for Interviews and Questionnaires: Theory & Practice in Social Research
    Ref  HM 48 .F57  1993
    Topical Sources
    		 
    Encyclopedia of Women and Genger: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender
    Ref HQ 1115 .E43  2001
    Handbook of Childdren, Culture, and Violence
    Ref HQ 784 .V55 H34  2006
    Encyclopedia of Juvenile Justice
    Ref HV 9104 .E58  2003
    Interracial Relations
    Ref H 31 .O62 I61   2000
    See Also:
    		 
    Career Sources
    		 
    Occupational Outlook Handbook
    O*NET

         

          Tips

  1. Use reference books to gain an overview of your topic.
  2. Use the Bibliographies at the end of encyclopedia entries to find more information on your topic.

IV. Electronic Resources

Sociological Abstracts
Covers abstracts on topics such as homelessness, child and family welfare, aging, community organization and more. Also, includes a listing of clinical social workers who have met national standards for education and experience established by the NASW competence certification commission.
A full-text database that provides information on hundreds of topics such as community development, culture and social structure, demography, social psychology and more.
See Also:
 
Contains more than two million citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, as well as related topics as social work, anthropology, sociology etc.
Encompasses a wide-range of topics from psychology, clinical social psychology, social welfare, criminology and more.
A multidisciplinary database that contains many full-text articles. May also limit to scholary (peer-reviewed) journals.

(Scholarly/Peer Reviewed/Refereed articles have been reviewed by a selected panel of experts in the discipline covered by that journal).

Tips
  1. Always switch to the Advance Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
  2. Always use Boolean Operators-AND, OR, NOT when running a search. For Example: "violence and sports"
  3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are Zero.
  • Journal Finder: this provides information regarding if a journal is available full-text online, in print in the library, or available on microfilm.

Sample Journal Titles:

  •  International Journal of Social Research Methodology
  • Social Analysis
  • Sociological Forum
  • Sociological Methodology
  • Sociology and Social Research
  • Interlibrary Loan: allows studens to borrow a book or article that the Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder page.

Both of these links can be found under QUICK LINKS on the library's homepage.

V. Web Sources

  • Use the following Subject Resources under Statistics to locate supplemental information/data on your topics .

    

VI. Bibliographies

  • Use Evaluating websites to determine if the site is authoritative enough to use in your paper.

Need more help? Visit or call the Reference Desk: 201.684.7574

Use QandA NJ a 24/7 virtual chat with a reference librarian.