Social Work

1. Use Subclass HV, Library of Congress (LC) Classification (Call Numbers).  Main ones are listed in the Search for Ebooks section.
    
2. Search for LC Subject Headings (LCSH) to use in Library Search to use or select and paste a terms from  Subject Headings for Social Work.  Alternatively, from the result for Books & Media in Library Search, select subject terms that appear in the subject field.

• LCSH is a controlled vocabulary for indexing/cataloging books, media and  other library collections.  Each subject heading shows synonym (variant) terms and hierarchical relationships among subject headings.
• There are also geographic and demographic/ethnic group headings.

3. Use E-ZBorrow and ILLIAD (Interlibrary Loan) to request materials not available at Temple.
4. Use WorldCat to discover and locate resources anywhere in the world.
5. To search online books only, go to the Search for Ebooks section.
6. For additional help contact the Social Work librarian.

APA PsycInfo is on the Ebscohost platform. All the other databases in this section are on the ProQuest platform and uses the Sociological Thesaurus.

PubMed indexes contents that are about or related to a health outcome.  Social determinants of health articles are included, so the database is relevant for many different areas, including social work.

The databases listed below are on the EBSCOhost platform:

Use these databases and websites to search for articles that cite a specific article. This is a good way to identify responses to articles, follow-up studies, etc.

Web of Science LibGuide.  Explore the research on a subject PDF.  Web of Science Taining portal
Data Citation Index Video 

In addition to Library Search and talking with Subject Librarians, use the library research guides (or LibGuides) and databases and resources listed on this page to search and identify journal articles, books, book chapters and other publications in Social Work and related fields.

1. Use all relevant terms or keywords and, if available, the database controlled vocabulary or indexing and cataloging terms ( thesaurus, subject headings, descriptors) in advanced search. Subject dictionaries, thesauri, and Credo Reference can help identify concepts and words for searching.  These guides maybe useful:

• Social Work topics keywords prepared by a Washington University librarian.
  Examples: Abuse/Domestic Violence; Addiction; Ages; Barriers; Diversity;  Homeless; Housing;; Police Violence; Poverty; Social Determinants of Health;
• Topics in APA PsycInfo of Relevance to Social Work
  APAPsycInfo uses the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.  APA Publishing Training video.
• PubMed has Automatic Term Mapping, matching user terms to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
• Topic-Specific PubMed Queries provide useful MeSH and keywords for select topics, including healthcare disparities, and population health, electronic health records.
• Web of Science has "Social Work" as a subject category and micro topics such as Homeless and Intimate Partner Violence. Browse and search meso and micro subjects/ Download the 2024 schema. Download the Micro-topics updates  Learn more about topics schema
• Subject Headings for Social Work or search the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
  External library guide to subject headings with links to the PDF of LCSH by letter.
• Science.gov Topic Pages (Science.gov searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites)
• Social Determinants of Health, Health Disparities, and Health Equity guide
• Look for hedge or filter for systematic or scoping reviews and other evidence synthesis.  See for example, PubMed search filters

2. Search one concept at a time and then combine them using "AND" or "OR".  Most databases automatically add "AND" between terms so AND may not be needed.

• Parentheses can be used to specify the search order for operators in a search string.  If not, for example, in ProQuest and Web of Science, the order is PRE, NEAR, AND, OR, NOT. 
• Watch Build Better Searches in Web of Science (5 min), to know how to use truncation, operators, parentheses (to set order for operators) and proximity. These functions are similar for other databases.
• Be aware that Google operators work differently than those in library databases.

3. Use database fields and filters, such as Date, Peer-Reviewed, Source Type, and Methodology  to focus and narrow your search. This may also be referred to as filtering by using facets.
   Check documentation to see which fields are mandatory or required to appear in every record.  In APA PsycINFO, for example, the only required fields in every record are title, abstract, author, keywords, publication date, publication type, release date, unique identifier. PubMed check tags appearing in nearly all indexed records include human, animal, male, female, pregnancy, age. These tags are ignored if not mentioned in the article. See also PubMed Special Queries
   Geographic location:  For library catalogs, use location field and the geographic subject headings.  For APA PsycINFO search in geographic location field. For ERIC, there are location, laws, polices and programs and assessment and surveys identifiers.
   Use the How to apply methodology filters and Find Empirical and Evidence-Base Articles guides.
   EBSCO Database Help Files for meaning of all fields.
4. Use database guides, tutorials, search tips, tools, and help to efficiently search, filter, save/download, cite and more.

• Main database platform guides:  ProQuest, EBSCOhost, CINAHL(EBSCO), Embase, Web of Science, Web of science Help documentation,  Web of Science AI enabled topic and keywords search, Gale, ERIC, GovInfo,
  PubMed, PubMed publication types; How PubMed Works; Searching when MeSH changes
  • The EBSCOhost libguide covers the new platform interface. View ESCOhost new interface video, but note that the default shown is the basic search, whereas the default at Temple is the advanced search.
    Advanced Searching on EBSCOhost.
  • ESCOhost new interface quick start guide video
  • APA PsycInfo Beginner Search video tutorial; APA PsycInfo Advanced Search
  • APA EBSCOhost Quick Reference Guide PDF
• For Temple Libraries tutorials and upcoming workshops:  Enter the database name or other search term in Library Search and look at results under Library Website.
• Use library research guides for courses and subjects to identify relevant databases and resources.
• Google Search Tips: List of Operators and Google Search help.  Note that some of these operators may no longer work.
• This library guide from McGill University has operators and searching tips for many databases

  https://libraryguides.mcgill.ca/knowledge-syntheses/search-tips

5. Follow linkages, such as subject, keyword, author, title or series, organization links and links to Similar Titles, Citations or Cited By, References, and More Like This.

• Use tools like Google Scholar and Web of Science Cited Reference Search
  Learn more with our Chasing Citation guide and Citation Chasing Video Tutorial

6. Register/Create account and login to save your search history and create alerts.
    
7. Select the Find Full Text links to get the entire source for non-full text indexing databases.
   Link Google Scholar to Temple libraries to get full text within our collections.
    
8. To save time, save the largest database collection for a vendor, such as  ProQuest Social Sciences Premium collection, ProQuest Academic One, which includes ProQuest Central (nearly all disciplines/subjects and different media types) or EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete.

• Some database specific advanced filtering capability and thesaurus terms may not be available if you search the larger collection.  However, these collection will have a platform wide thesaurus or subject headings, such as the ProQuest Thesaurus. 

9. Use Browzine to browse and read scholarly articles in Social Work journals.
   To create an account with the Browzine App, select Temple University and login with your TU AccesNet ID.
    
10. Target Core Journals in Social Work and search all relevant databases.

• Use Library Search and Ulrich's Periodical Directory to look up journal titles and the databases to access them.
• Use Scimago Journal & Country Rank or Web of Science Journal Citation Reports to view rankings and journals impact factor.

Library Search will find ebooks from all of the sources to which Temple has access. You can search title words, topics, subjects and author names.  The results are first displayed by "Relevance", but you can order the results by date.

Library Search Tips:

• Use the filters along the left hand side of the results OR use advanced search fields to make the search more specific.
   
• Use Subclass HV, Library of Congress (LC) Classification (Call Numbers) for Social Work
  • Counseling   BF636.5-7
  • Social Work   Subclass HV
    • Social Policy HV13-19
    • Specific problems and services to specific groups HV697-3024
    • Ethnic and racial minorities HV3176-3199; Families HV697-700.7; Group Work HV45
    • Poverty, low-income, homelessness HV1-4630
    • Practice of social work, including casework HV43-435
  • Social Services   HV40-69
  • Social Welfare   Subclass HV
  • General Social Problems Subclass HN
  • Social Welfare Problems and Social Action  Subclass HN
  • Criminology   HV6001-7220
  • Criminal Justice Issues   HV6001-9960
  • Penal & Related Institutions   HV8301-9920
     
• Search for LC Subject Headings (LCSH) to use in Library Search or, from the result for Books & Media Library Search, select linked terms that appear in the subject field.
  • Subject Headings for Social Work
  • Demographic/ethnic group terms

Can't find something?

Ask a Librarian or explore other sources on our Ebooks Finding and Using Guide.