SWG 693 Applied Project
Contact Joe Buenker, Social Work Librarian
This page provides suggestions for effectively researching your applied project. Make sure to consult the Social Work Research site for additional information - such as APA Citation Style and Articles: Recommended Journal Article Indexes.
Identify: Articles · Using Subject Descriptors · Books · Using Subject Headings
Assessments & Tests · Associations & Organizations · Census Data · Search Engines
Identify Articles
- 1. Identify concepts
- 2. Identify keywords that represent the concepts
- 3. Determine the subject terms or descriptors that a database uses to represent a concept
- 4. Set search limits
- 5. Search and review results
- 6. Repeat steps 3-5 in other databases (journal article indexes)
Subject Descriptors: The Key to Improving the Relevancy of Your Article Results
Example: The Social Work Abstracts Journal Index
When searching electronic journal indexes, you can dramatically improve the relevancy of your results by going beyond the default basic keyword "Search" option.
- Learn to take advantage of the "Advanced," "Index" and "Search History" tabs.
- Use the "Change" limits option - especially with journal indexes that index foreign-language publications, when you are only interested in current results, etc.
- After performing the basic keyword search, idenfity the most useful results and learn how the database is describing their intellectual content or focus, by reviewing their descriptor field.
What makes journal indexes superior to "free" web resources - besides the quality of the information itself - is the way journal indexes organize their information.
Most "free" web search tools only allow for basic keyword matching. The user enters the terms that she hopes are used by others to express the concepts being researched, presses "find" and begins to make her way through the results.
Although there is nothing wrong with the above approach, it is generally inefficient because it typically fails to identify all relevant resources and often produces results that don't truly match the information you are seeking.
Descriptors - the DE Field in a Database Record
With Social Work Abstracts, you can search/browse for available descriptors by using the "Index" tab.
- While in the "Index" tab, use the drop-down menu to select the descriptors (de) option.
| Keyword Search: homelessness drug use | Results:1 |
| The 1 result appears to be on-topic and is current (2002), but that can't be it, can it? | |
| Descriptor Search: homelessness | Results: 514 |
| Descriptor Search: substance abuse | Results: 1,495 |
| Advanced Search: HOMELESSNESS in DE AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE in DE | Results: 34 |
In the above example, we can see that using descriptors can have many positive results.
- 1) Descriptors sometimes produce more results than basic keyword searching and
- 2) More importantly, each and every result is likely to be "on-target" or relevant to your information need.
When you begin to emply limits and descriptors in your search strategy, you are moving beyond mere retrieval - you are truly utililizing research techniques.
Identify Books
Use the Identifying Books: Social Work page.
Subject Headings: The Key to Improving the Relevancy of Your Book Results
The Identifying Books: Social Work page provides hyperlinks into the those resources owned by the ASU Libraries' that focus on some of the key social work issues.
- The ASU Libraries' Catalog can be used to identify books and videos that match keywords or Library of Congress Subject Headings.
- Similar to the use of descriptors with journal indexes, you eventually will want to move beyond the basic keyword search - you will want to use the catalog's subject search option.
Learn to use the limits option.
- The ASU Libraries' Catalog includes the limits option in the Keyword Search, but you can apply limits after you have conducted a search by selecting the "Modify Search" option.
Learn to use the "Subject (Library of Congress)" search option.
- With the ASU Libraries' Catalog, you can browse through alphabetical lists to identify subject headings.
- Oftentimes, if a subject is broad or has undergone changes in terminology over time, you will be informed of additional related subject headings.
Note: one limitation of the ASU Libraries' Catalog is the current inability to combine 2 or more Library of Congress Subject Headings in a single search strategy.
Identify Assesments & Tests
Use the Resources for Identifying Assessments and Tests page.
Identify Associations
To identify local/state, national and/or international associations that are conducting research on specific topics or providing services to specific populations, consults Associations Unlimited.
Directory of Organizations Online: Medical & Social Sciences
http://www.west.asu.edu/jbuenke/organizations/
This site provides alphabetical access to the homepages of a couple of thousand important social and medical science organizations.
Census Data
American Factfinder (U.S. Census Bureau)
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
From the "Fast Access to Information" section, change the pull-down menu to Arizona, press the "Go" button and then - if you want more focused information - enter information into the city/town, county, or zip text-box and press the "Go" button.
Census 2000 Gateway
http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html
FEDSTATS
http://www.fedstats.gov/
"FedStats is the new window on the full range of official statistical information available to the public from the Federal Government. Use the Internet's powerful linking and searching capabilities to track economic and population trends, education, health care costs, aviation safety, foreign trade, energy use, farm production, and more. Access official statistics collected and published by more than 100 Federal agencies without having to know in advance which agency produces them."
United States of America: Government Websites
http://www.west.asu.edu/jbuenke/government/
This site provides alphabetical access to the homepages of a couple hundred important U.S. government sites.
- The course webpage for SWG 697: Special Topics in Working With Diverse Groups, contains links to numerous web sources for identifying Census or demographic information
Search Engines & Metasearch Engines
Google (Search Engine): Advanced Search
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Do a phrase search of "business retention and expansion." Add the word Arizona and consider limiting by language and domain (example: exclude all .com results)
Google Directory
http://www.google.com/dirhp
Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/
Search Engines & Metasearch Engines
http://www.west.asu.edu/jbuenke/librarianship/engines.html
This page provides alphabetical access to about 100 of the most useful search engines.
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