Finding Books
Searches books, journal titles, government documents, videos, and compact discs. Use the HELIN Library Catalog for locating books in the RWU Library. HELIN is the shared catalog of seven Rhode Island academic libraries. You may request books from any HELIN library by using the online Request link found at the top of the book information screen.
HELIN offers two search types: Heading and Keyword.
Heading Searches:
Headings searches are by Subject heading, Author or Title.
- Look for words that match the search word, or follow it alphabetically.
- Display subheadings which can be very useful when searching broad topic areas.
- Can often provide accurate results when searching for broad topic areas.
Use this type of search when you know the name of an author, a correct title, or a Library of Congress Subject Heading.
Sample subject headings for this class:
racism - United States
sexism - United States
social classes - United States
ethnicity - United States
feminism - United States
Keyword Searching:
Use this type of search when you do not know the proper LC Subject heading for your topic, or when you know some of the words but not all the words in a title. Or to expand or narrow your search.
- Allows you to use Boolean operators (AND, OR and NOT) to broaden , narrow, or define your search.
- Allows for truncation of search terms.
Sample keyword searches for this class:
gender and class
gender and class and education
race and wealth
Finding Reference Materials
Gender:
- American Masculinities
- REF HQ1090.3 A453 2003
- Encyclopedia of Homosexuality
- REF HQ76.25 E53 1990 v.1-2
- Encyclopedia of Women and Gender
- REF HQ1115 E43 2001 v.1-2
- Encyclopedia of Women's History in America
- REF HQ1410 C85 2000
- From Suffrage to the Senate: An Encyclopedia of American Women in Politics
- REF HQ1236.5 U6 S32 1999 v.1-2
- The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History
- REF HQ1410 R43 1998
Race and Ethnicity:
- American Immigrant Cultures
- REF E184 A1 A63448 1997 v.1-2
- The African-American Almanac
- REF E185 5 N34
- The Columbia Documentary History of the Asian-American Experience
- REF E184 O6 C63 2002
- Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History
- REF E185 E54 1996 v.1-5
- Encyclopedia of American Immigration
- REF JV6465 E53 2000 v. 1-4
- Encyclopedia of Black Studies
- REF E185 E554 2005
- The Encyclopedia of Multicultural America
- REF E184 A1 G14 2000 v.1-3
- The Hispanic American Almanac
- REF E184 S75 H557 1997
- The Mexican-American Experience
- REF E184 M5 M4535 2003
- Native Americans
- REF E93 N32 2002
- The Native North American Almanac
- REF E777 N37 2001
Class:
- Child Labor
- REF HD6231 H63 1999
- Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics
- REF HD8064 A63 2004
- Work and Family in America
- REF HD4904.25 S84 2001
- Working Americans, 1880-1999
- REF HD8066 D47 2000 v.1-4
- Political and Social Issues:
- Civil Rights in the United States
- REF E184 A1 C47 2000 v.1-2
- Comparative Guide to American Suburbs
- REF HT123 C616 1997
- Demographics of the U.S.
- REF HB 849.49 R87 2000
- Encyclopedia of Community
- REF HM756E53 2003 v.1-4
- Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy
- REF JK9 E526 2004
- Encyclopedia of Public Health
- REF RA423 E53 2002 v.1-4
- Encyclopedia of Rural America: The Land and People
- REF E 169.12 E5 1997 v.1-2
- Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education
- REF LC1099.3 H35 2004
- St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
- REF E169.1 S764 2000 v.1-5
- Urban Sprawl
- REF HT384 U5 W55 2000
- Work in America : An Encyclopedia of History, Policy and Society
- REF HD8066 W637 2003 v.1-2
Finding Articles using Online Databases
Academic Search Premier - Ebsco
Some Full Text |
General periodical index providing full text for nearly 3,460 scholarly publications. |
Academic Universe (Lexis/Nexis)
Full Text |
A news, law, and busines information service with full-text access to nearly 6000 newspapers, periodicals, and reference sources. |
CQ Researcher
Full Text |
Each week CQ Researcher explores a single "hot" issue in the news. Articles are then archived and searchable within this database. |
| Communications & Mass Media Complete |
Research related to communication and mass media. |
| ContmpWomenIss (CWI) |
Contemporary women's issues. |
| Criminal Justice Abstracts |
Provides indexing for the major journals, books and reports in criminology and related disciplines. Topics include crime trends, prevention projects, corrections, juvenile delinquency, police, courts, offenders, victims, and sentencing. |
| SAGE Full-text Criminology Journals |
Includes the full-text of 15 journals published by SAGE and participating societies, some journals going back twenty years, encompassing over 4,100 articles. It covers such subjects as Criminal Justice, Juvenile Delinquency, Juvenile Justice, Corrections, Penology, Policing, Forensic Psychology, and Family and Domestic Violence. |
| ERIC (Ebsco) |
ERIC from Ebsco |
| ERIC |
Educator's Reference Desk -- public access site to search the ERIC database. |
GenderWatch
Full Text |
GenderWatch is a full-text database that focuses on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas |
JSTOR
Full Text |
JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) is an archive of scholarly journals. Browse or search the full text back files of publications in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. For a complete listing of currently available journals, refer to the JSTOR Contents page. |
New Dictionary of the History of Ideas
Full Text |
A searchable version of Gale's New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. The History of Ideas deals with topics (both current and historic) in the intellectual life of human beings. |
| PsycINFO |
Contains more than 2 million citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in psychology and related disciplines, dating as far back as the 1800s. |
| SocINDEX with Full Text |
Social Science database containing full text for 235 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895, and 72 "priority" coverage journals. This database also includes full text for 545 books and monographs, and full text for 6,601 conference papers. |
| Worldwide Political Science Abstracts |
Citations and abstracts of political science literature, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy. |
Finding Information on the Web
Comprehensive Social and Public Policy websites:
- The Brookings Institution
- Provides extensive information on cities and suburbs, social policy, politics, education, etc.
- Pew Partnership for Civic Change
- The Resources link provides the full text of several documents proposing strategies for social change.
- Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
- Urban Institute: A Nonpartisan Economic and Social Policy Research Organization
Class and Labor:
- Economic Policy Institute
- Includes briefing papers, reports, statistics and data related to economics, the labor market, employment, and standard of living.
- U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey
- U.S. Census Bureau: Income
- U.S. Census Bureau: Poverty=
- U. S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Statistics on consumer spending, wages and earnings, productivity, safety and health, international and occupational statistics and demographics.
Education:
- Economic Policy Institute:Education
- Institute for Urban and Minority Education
- From Columbia University's Teacher's College.
- National Center for Educational Statistics
- Comprehensive web site providing data on all aspects of U.S. education.
- Rethinking Schools
Gender:
- Gender Statistics Database
- From United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Provides in-depth statistics on a country by country basis, including the United States.
- U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Violence Against Women
- Provides reports and statistics on partner violence, rape and sexual assault, workplace violence, etc.
- U.S. Department of Labor: Women's Bureau
Health Care:
- Gay and Lesbian Health
- From the National Institutes of Health.
- Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies: Health Policy Institute
- Provides information on health care pertaining to people of color.
- National Center for Health Statistics
- The National Women's Health information Center
- From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- Office of Minority Health: Racial and Ethnic Populations
- From the Center for Disease Control.
- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- It's Research Center provides abstracts to publications reporting on healthcare disparities, public health issues, vulnerable populations, etc. The full-text of the organization's newsletter as well as the full-text of other publications are available through the Publications and Resources link.
- U.S. Census: Health Insurance Data
Housing:
- County and City Data Book
- REF HA202 .A36
Official population and housing data from the 2000 Census plus business and other data for all U.S. counties, cities with 25,000 or more inhabitants, and places of 2,500 or more inhabitants.
online at: www.census.gov/statab/www/ccdb.html
- U.S.Census Bureau Housing Topics
- Includes fact sheets and data based on surveys such as the American Housing Survey and the Residential Finance Survey.
- Homes and Communities: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Includes information on fair housing and reports through the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity link. Also links to an Online Library for information on Native American housing, homelessness, community development, etc.
Race and Ethnicity:
- American Immigration Law Foundation
- Institute on Race and Justice
- From Northeastern University. Provides a helpful links page and provides data pertinent to racial profiling from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. More information is available at the Northeastern University Racial Profiling Data Collection Research Center.
- Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
- Provides a "comprehensive warehouse of data on racial populations" via the DataBank link.
- U.S. Census Bureau: Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, For The United States, Regions, Divisions, and States
- U.S. Census Bureau: Minority Links
- "Quick and easy links to the latest data on racial and ethnic populations in the United States."
Racism, Discrimination, Civil and Equal Rights:
- American Civil Liberties Union
- The Civil Rights Project
- From Harvard University.
- Fairvote.org
- People for the American Way
- Concerned with promoting equal rights, religious freedom, equal access to public education, etc.
- Poverty and Race Research Action Council
- Provides information on the relationship between race and poverty or economics and how that impacts issues of health, housing, community development, racism, etc.
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- Advocates for an end to racism and discrimination through education and the teaching of tolerance.
- The Sentencing Project
- Provides fact sheets, data and statistics on the racial composition and racial disparity within the prison system.
- U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Statistics (General):
- Statistics Subject Guide from RWU Libraries
- Statistical Abstract of the United States
- REF HA202 .A35 2004/5
The National Data Book. Contains a collection of statistics on social and economic conditions in the United States. Selected international data are also included. The Abstract is also your Guide to Sources of other data from the Census Bureau, other Federal agencies, and private organizations.
online at: www.census.gov/statab/www/
Humanities and Social Science Citation & Research
APA:
- Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the APA
- Updated on June 1, 1999. This guide shows how to cite email communications, web sites, specific documents on a web site and articles and abstracts from electronic databases.
- Bibliographies: APA Format
- Examples from the University of Illinois Writer's Workshop Web site.
- A Guide to Writing Research Papers
- Based on Styles Recommended by The American Psychological Association.
- Guide for Citing Electronic Information
- Sarah Byrd Askew Library, William Paterson University .
- APA Style Resources
- PsychWeb Resources.
MLA:
- Bibliographies: MLA Format
- Examples from the University of Illinois Writer's Workshop Web site.
- A Guide to Writing Research Papers based on Modern Language Association (MLA) Documentation
- Capital Community Technical College.
Bibliographic Management:
- Refworks
- Refworks is an online bibliographic management program that allows you to create your own personal database of references.Please see our research guide on how to use this tool located at http://library.rwu.edu/researchhelp/refworks.html
