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Social Work Resources

A social work library resource guide for ESU students and faculty.

Resources for SOSW 220 "Fields of Practice Paper"

Select a Field of Practice that Interests you!

What social work field of practice do you want to learn more about?

Consider the practice areas from the NASW: Aging, Behavioral Health, Child Welfare, Clinical Social Work, Ethnicity & Race, Health, LGBT, School Social Work.

 

4 Resources to Use:

 
1) National Association of Social Workers (NASW) website:

NASW is a professional organization of social workers and provides guidance, research, advocacy, and other resources to members and social worker in general.

 
2) Social Work Reference Center (link below)

Browse the "Trending Topics in Practice" or use the search box at the top to search for keywords (such as the population or a health/social topic).  I recommend using both the:

Quick Lessons are evidence-based summaries of common conditions; Includes causes and risk factors, assessments and care plans, practices, prevention, etc. 

Evidence-Based Care Sheets provides you with evidence (i.e. the "what we know" section) to inform the practice and care of clients (i.e. the "what we can do" section).

 
3) Government Websites:

Search keywords about your field of practice to find current government information, statistics, policies, services, etc. 

Example: When I search for School Social Work in USA.gov, I found a recent blog post from the Institution of Education Sciences about school social work during COVID-19, discussing current challenges in the practice. 

See the Policy Resources page of this guide for more links. 

 

4) SocINDEX:  Find social work journal articles about you field of practice using this library database (link below).

Tips for using SocINDEX:

  • Click on "Advanced Search" under the search box to get multiple search boxes. 
    • In the first search box, type in:   social work practice
    • In the second search box, type in:   your field of practice  OR a typical task performed in your field of practice
  • Use the "Refine Results" column on the left side to limit to Peer Reviewed, limit the Publication Date range, select Academic Journals, and other optional limiters such as Language or Geography. 
  • See the next tab "Peer Reviewed Journal Articles" for more information.

Databases to Search for Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

 

Not getting many results? Try using broader search terms:

  • If you're having trouble finding information, try broadening your scope a little by using a more general keyword.

Example:  If you're researching grandparents raising their grandchildren, then using SocINDEX you could get very different number of results depending on your broad and narrow keywords.

Custodial grandparents: 75 results

Grandparent caregiver: 111 results

Grandparenting: 258 results 

Grandparent and child: 1,739 results

 

Do not limit to Full Text only:

  • Full Text access is nearly instant and amazing!  But by limiting to full-text only, you miss out on finding useful articles by reading through the abstract (that summarized the article). Don't overlook articles from journals because we do not have immediate access to the full text. Instead, you can request the article through our Interlibrary Loan service called ILLiad. The turn around time is relatively quick (2-5 business days), but don't wait until the last minute. Start your searching early!

Searching for Scholarly Books at Kemp Library:

Here is a direct link to the library's catalog Primo!

This will search for books and a majority of the library's electronic holdings (electronic articles, etc.)

Academic Book Search Tips:

  • After typing in keywords, select Library Catalog in the drop-down menu to narrow your results.  This will eliminate results for journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. 

Limit to Library Catalog in Primo

  • Then narrow on the right side.  Under Resource Type, check off Books and Book Chapter (if available).  Then click on the green Apply Filters button at the bottom of the column.

Narrow to Books in Primo

  • If you want e-books, then remember to check off Full Text Online also. Then click on the green Apply Filters button at the bottom of the column.

For e-books, check off Books and Full Text Online. Then select the green "Apply Filters" button.