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Social Research Methods

    February  6, 2007

     Shirley Knight, Reference Librarian                 Hank Frundt, Professor

      sknight@ramapo.edu                                     SOC 307

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

  • Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, 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 "iraq war culture " or " terrorism" 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:

Subject Headings
  • Culture-Conflict
  • Culture-Conflict--United States
  • Iraq War, 2001-
  • Iraq War, 2003-
  • Iraq War--Public Opinion
  • United States--Foreign Relations- Iraq
  • War on Terrorism, 2001-

 

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 Materials

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

          

    General Sources
    Call Numbers
      The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research
    Ref  H 62 .H2455      2005

    Qualitative Inquiry: a dictionary of terms

    Ref  H 61.8 .S4435   1997
    A guide to Empirical Research in Communication: Rules for Looking Ref  H61.8 .S964      2001
    Sage Encyclopedia of Social Research Methods
    Ref  H 62 .L456         2004
    Encyclopedia of Social Measurement
    Ref  H62 .E53            2005
    Encyclopedia of Evaluation Ref  H62 .E583          2005
    A Guide for Writing Sociology Papers

    Ref  HM 585 .G78      2001

    Course Reserve/Circulation Desk
    War Sources
    		 
    Law  of War: a documentary History
    Ref  JX 4505 .F7        1972
    Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict
    Ref  HM 291 .E625    1999
    The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: theory and practice
    Ref  HM 1126 .H35   2006
    Encyclopedia of Prisoners of War and Interment
    Ref  UB 800 .E53      2000
    Psychology of Terrorism: a public understanding
    Ref  HV 631 .P798    2002
    Parry & Grant Encyclopedia Dictionary of International Law
    Ref  KZ 1161 .P37    2004
    Media Source
    		 
    Encyclopedia of Media and Politics
    Ref  P 95.82 .U6 E47  2007

         

          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

Covers abstracts on topics such as community organization, criminology, child and family welfare, aging and more.
Offers newspaper and journal articles on foreign language news, general news, legal news, news transcripts, public opinion poll surveys, congressional hearings transcripts, medicine and other reference sources.
Full-text living record of 70 years of public opinion polls.
See Also:  
GPO Access Full-text information that dates back from 1994 of the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative branches of the Federal Government
Social Science Journals A full-text database that provides information on hundreds of topics such as community development, culture and social structure, demography, social psychology and more.
JSTOR Complete Covers archival full-text scholarly articles in social sciences, humanities, arts and sciences, statistics, business etc.
Psychology Journals Encompasses a wide-range of topics from psychology, clinical social psychology, social welfare, criminology and more.
PsychInfo Contains more than two million citiations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, as well as related topics sociology,  psychology, anthropology, etc.

(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: "United States" and "Islamism relationships"
  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.
  • 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

VI.  Other Websites

 

VII. Bibliographies

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

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