Social Work & Family Studies Tutorial

Information is plentiful and has been published in print and electronic formats. Much of the information is free and may be found on the Internet. Other information may be found in specialized databases to which the library subscribes.

Internet (Internet glossary)

To find information, try the following search techniques at search engines. A search engine searches documents by keywords and returns a list for linking to the documents. Four search engines are Google, Alltheweb, Yahoo and Altavista Notice that the advanced search tool allows choices for language, domain, etc. If you choose to use the basic search tool, i.e. Google,you must use the + sign, quotes, and an asterisk with your keywords to refine a search: +"welfare" +"families" +research .

Different engines have different techniques so it is best to click on "Help" for detailed search instructions for the engine you use. Try typing in "family services " +clearinghouse to retrieve a list of Internet sites that link to many other sites. Internet terms that are interchangable with "clearinghouse" are "gateway," "metasite," "pathfinder" and "directory," i.e.+"homeless" +metasite -domain:gov" (the - sign eliminates the domain .gov for this sample). Valuable information may also be obtained from the deep web content of PDF files, i.e. +"social work" +"advocacy" +filetype:pdf If one search engine does not retrieve satisfactory results, switch to another search engine.Whatever data you find, it is always wise to evaluate information .

Listed below are miscellaneous search strategies that you may tailor to the search instructions of the engine you use.

Need speech by former U.S. President Clinton on social welfare reform: +"social welfare reform " +"Clinton" +speech
Need bibliography on right to die: +"right to die" +bibliography
Need to read the poem entitled "Celebrate Life:" +"celebrate life " +poem
Need an online language conversion dictionary for Spanish: +language dictionary +"Spanish"
Need to find a picture, video or audio? Use Altavista search engine's Search screen and click choice at top

Specialized Resources

Research Central accesses fulltext and bibliographic electronic databases that you are encouraged to use during your studies with the university. However, you must have a southern.edu e-mail account to access the databases. Digital Dissertations is an excellent full text source. NetLibrary contains full text of books.

 


Other Resources

Digitized formats of valuable reference resources are slowly being added to the Internet but many are still in print form on library shelves. Research Subject Guides is a valuable resource for in-house use of reference materials at local libraries. Following are some online reference and other bibliographic and fulltext resources:

Social Work Resources Social Work Gateway Social Work Research Resources Index Job Resources Job Bank Great Books Online Electronic Ref Online Books & Journals

More information, contact Ann Greer