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Sociology of the Family
Spring 2003

Library Instruction Program - Research and Instructional Support
For more information about this topic contact Michelle Harrell

Resources to cover

  1. The Library Catalog 
  2. Indexes and Databases
    Academic Search
    Sociological Abstracts
    Social Sciences Full Text
  3. Government Information
  4. News Sources
  5. Web sites 

Research Tips

  • Use the Library Catalog to locate books and documents and to determine if the Library owns the journals.
  • Use Indexes/Databases to locate articles within journals.
    Articles may be available full text on-line or in the bound journals on the shelves.
  • Check "Electronic Journals" link to determine if the article is available online

Tips for Constructing a Search

  • Write down research question and underline key concepts
  • Think of synonyms and alternate terms for each of the main concepts
  • Think broader, or narrower, depending on results of initial searches
  • Consult a thesaurus or index, if available, to narrow and focus the search

For example: Is family stress a predictor of job loss?

Sample searches:   family stress and employment                  family relations and work*

The Library Catalog

Panther Cat
Truncation symbol is ?    For example work? searches work, works, working, worked...
Sample Keyword (and, or, not) search in the catalog:   "family stress" and work?

Indexes and Databases

Academic Search
This is a good starting point. This is a broad index. Indexes over 4,100 scholarly journals in the areas of business, social sciences, humanities, general academic, general science, education, and multi-cultural studies.

Sociological Abstracts
Provides citations and abstracts to over 2,500 journal articles, books, and association papers in the field of sociology and related disciplines, such as anthropology, gender studies, social science, social work, and urban studies.

Social Sciences Full Text
1983-present; indexes more than 500 international, English-language periodicals in sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, political science, and law. Full-text is available for 169 journals starting with January 1995.

Government Information

GPO Monthly Catalog [Government Printing Office]
The GPO Monthly Catalog, or Catalog of U. S. Government Publications, indexes publications of the United States federal government. The material indexed covers a broad range of subjects, including congressional committee reports and hearings, debates, documents from executive departments, and more. 

News Sources

Newspaper Abstracts
1986-present; coverage of 29 national and regional newspapers, including the Boston Globe, New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. 

Wisconsin Newsstand
Dates vary, most titles 1991-present, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 1994-present. Full text of several Wisconsin newspapers including Madison Capitol Times, Wisconsin State Journal, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, with selected coverage of other regional sources. 

Web Sites and Web strategies

These Subject Directories lead to web sites that have been evaluated by people (as opposed to "selected" by a computer)

Librarians' Index to the Internet    http://www.lii.org
Search by keyword or look through the directory - keyword can lead to directory sections to search further

Internet Scout Report  http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
Subject Directory maintained by UW Madison

Infomine - Scholarly Index Resource Collections http://infomine.ucr.edu/
Contains over 20,000 well-selected and described links to scholarly resources on the Internet. Searchable. 

How to evaluate and cite Web Sites

Evaluating Websites (from Colorado State University Libraries)

Citing Web sites  (from Bedford / St. Martin's)