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Almost all of the resources described are accessed through the links on the OSU Libraries’ homepage:
OSCAR is the catalog for the Ohio State University Libraries. Use it to find books, videodiscs and videocassettes, maps, records of periodical holdings, etc., at any OSU location. OSCAR shows records of periodical holdings, but it
can only be searched for articles when the periodical is an online file. Individual records in OSCAR show the location of the item, the Library of Congress call number, and whether it can be checked out. If the status bar shows
“AVAILABLE”, any user at any of the OSU libraries can request it. An OSCAR search defaults to the entire OSU collection but a specific location can be designated instead; the symbol for the Newark Campus Library in OSCAR is NWK.
OhioLINK is the network of 79 college, university, community and technical college libraries (plus the State Library of Ohio) to which OSU belongs. There is a link to its central catalog on the Libraries’ homepage; all students, faculty and staff at member institutions may request materials in the same way that they can order items in OSCAR. OhioLINK also provides access to many reference databases such as periodical indexes, online encyclopedias, and other information sources. It sponsors a statewide document delivery service that allows users to request copies of periodical articles and other materials that their own institution does not own.
Periodical Indexes give citations to specific articles in magazines, professional journals, and sometimes to other sorts of information such as chapters in books or Ph.D. dissertations. The Newark Campus Library owns many indexes in hard copy; most of the subscriptions were cancelled in 1995, when the OhioLINK online indexes became available. Increasing numbers of the online indexes have links to the full text of many of the articles cited; the article can be printed from the record in the index. The NWK library does not charge for articles printed in this way. Many of the indexes in the list below exist in both hard copy and online format; those in the list will be the most useful for graduate research in sociology and social work.
Academic Search Premier:
Citations to articles in hundreds of periodicals with links to the full text of
over 60% of the articles. It
frequently offers a choice of full text or page image if illustrations are
important.
Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis): Provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information. Various portions of the database are updated daily and most information is full text.
Book Review Digest: A major source of book reviews. Online and hard copy; full text links.
Book Review Index: Another source of book reviews; does not duplicate coverage in Digest. Hard copy.
Essay & General Literature Index: Indexes information sources such as essays, which are found in collections; find citations and then locate source. Coverage includes both social sciences and humanities. Online and hard copy.
E*Subscribe (Select Full Text of ERIC Documents): Full text of documents indexed in ERIC (does not include journal articles) and available from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS) from 1993 to the present.
Newspaper Source: Indexes and abstracts articles from 27 newspapers. It has full text.
Ohio Capitol Connection: Contains Ohio Legislation, Legislative Committee agendas and reports; Ohio Senate and House calendars and actions; Bulletins, Court Decisions and Opinions; Current Committee Schedule; Directories and Newsletters.
Social Sciences Abstracts: Indexes periodicals in economics, ethnic studies, criminology, minority studies, corrections, social work and public welfare, sociology, and urban studies.
Online; full text, but getting to the full text is complicated.
Social Sciences & Humanities Index: Indexes the literature of both social sciences and humanities from 1965 until 1974. Hard copy.
Social Sciences Index: Continuation of above without humanities. Indexes the literature of both social sciences and humanities from 1974 to 1995. Hard copy.
Social Sciences Citation Index: ISI Citation Databases provides access to Social Sciences Citation Index, which indexes over 1500 journals. Online; full text.
Social Work Abstracts: Index to journals on all aspects of social work, including homelessness, AIDS, child and family welfare, aging, and substance abuse. Online; abstracts.
Sociological Abstracts: The Sociological Abstracts database indexes and abstracts the literature of sociology from over 1500 journals published worldwide, and bibliographic citations for relevant dissertations. Online; full text.
The Gateway to Information: A massive multi-subject guide to books (generally reference), periodical indexes and abstracts, both hard copy and online, and reviewed websites. The link to the Gateway is on the Libraries’ homepage.
A Few Tips:
Both the reference and circulating collections will contain useful books that are shelved according to the Library of Congress system. The L. C. designation for social sciences is H; sociology is HM, social history is HN and family, marriage and women are in HQ. HV files materials on social pathology and social services. Reference books dealing with those aspects of social work will be found in those areas. While the major access point to the collection is OSCAR, browsing in the relevant parts of the stacks can sometimes be useful.
Academic Universe, used properly, is an excellent source of statutory and case law related to social work and social problems. Also, it can be used to find law review articles, which will often give a detailed history of a problem and the legal responses to them.
Using all available resources-
Smaller public libraries are less useful to serious researchers, while large public libraries (Cleveland Public Library, Columbus Metropolitan Library) are research institutions in every sense of the word. However, members of even the smallest Ohio public libraries have access to research databases subscribed to by OPLIN (the Ohio Public Libraries’ Information Network). Use your public library card to access the OPLIN databases using this URL:
Select your public library from the list in the window at
the top of the page and enter your card number in the space provided.
Select your database from the list using the window at the top of the
page (database descriptions are on the same page).
04/26/01