Download Sociology 140: Senior Research Seminar

Sociology 140: Senior Research Seminar
Review of Library Resources
Patty Wade Fall 2013
The Collections:
On the whole, the library is well prepared to meet the resource needs of the proposed course. For
many years the library has worked towards building a collection that will support undergraduate
research in sociology. As a result, we have a collection that should address theory and
methodology, as well as topics involving social issues, problems, and phenomena that will be
studied by students in this course.
Books:
The library has a strong collection of books related to the field of sociology and social problems.
Since these books are used by students across the curriculum the budget allocation for this area is
comparatively large. A special effort is made to purchase the works of classical and
contemporary sociologists and books about their work. These should support students in the
work for this course.
Reference Sources:
The library has access to the following reference sources online through Blackwell Reference
Online
Encyclopedia of Sociology
Blackwell Companion to Major Classical Social Theorists
Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists
Blackwell Companion to Sociology
The library also has access to the following reference sources through the Gale Virtual Reference
Library
Encyclopedia of Sociology.
Encyclopedia of Social Theory
The Sage Knowledge eBooks database also provides a number of encyclopedias and handbooks
on subject areas relevant to sociology.
Another useful source for students in this class is the Annual Review of Sociology which is
available online.
Periodicals:
1
Thanks to the library’s subscription s to large publisher packages such as Blackwell, Sage,
Wiley, and Springer as well as access to a number of full-text databases, the library’s periodical
holdings related to sociology extend well beyond our print subscriptions. The Periodicals List
does not have one category for Sociology. However the following categories should be relevant.
The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of titles in the category. There is probably a
great deal of overlap between categories.
Sociology & Social History







Communities - Rural Groups (10)
Communities - Social Classes (6)
Communities - Urban Groups (92)
Family & Marriage (96)
Social Change (309)
Social Conditions (141)
Societies & Clubs (8)
Social Welfare & Social Work







Child & Youth Development (130)
Criminology, Penology & Juvenile Delinquency (225)
Disabilities (72)
Family Violence (6)
Gerontology (57)
Social Welfare & Social Work - General (247)
Substance Abuse (64)
Databases:
The library subscribes to over 100 electronic databases, many of which contain information
relevant to sociology. For this course the important databases would be:
Sociological Abstracts
Social Services Abstracts
Media:
There is no mention of media use in the course proposal. The library purchases many DVD’s for
use in courses as well as a large number of videos available for streaming online. If any
additional media are needed for this course they can be purchased as provided the budget can
support it. Media can be expensive therefore their purchase needs to be weighed against other
formats such as books.
2
Further information on the library’s resources in sociology is available at http://www.stmarysca.edu/library/subject-guides/sociology
Information Literacy:
This advanced course in sociology offers an important opportunity for students build on the skills
they have learned in the intermediate level Sociology 101 course. In this course, students will be
required to write an integrated literature review which should inform the original primary
research study that they will conduct. This is a key skill for advanced students and something
they can take on to graduate school or future employment. As mentioned in the proposal,
students will be meeting with me as they begin working on their annotated bibliography which
will form the basis of the sources used in the literature review for their final papers.
The project for this course will address the following information literacy objectives outlined in
the Library’s “Information Literacy Learning Outcomes and Objectives” (the full document is
available at http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/library/referenceinstruction)

The student understands how to select and use access/finding tools important to research
in his/her field of study, and to identify and locate sources of information in the Library
and elsewhere.

The student understands the importance of evaluating the quality and credibility of
information and has developed strategies for evaluating citations, records, full-text
sources and information obtained in the library, on the Internet, or elsewhere.

The student can formulate a search strategy for a term paper, senior thesis, master's
thesis, project, or dissertation that includes gaining a theoretical background, formulating
a research question/statement, determining useful search terms, and identifying
appropriate and useful sources of information

The student is familiar with how scholarly/professional knowledge in his/her field is
communicated and documented through published and unpublished sources.

The student engaged in an original research or experimentation understands the laws,
regulations, institutional policies and etiquette related to the access and use of
information resources

The student builds on their discipline knowledge and prior research experience to
formulate research strategies and to complete research projects within their discipline.
3