Guide to Resources for Sociology

Reference Books

Reference books are a good place to start research. They can help you find background information, choose topics, and understand concepts and terminology. To access online resources from off campus you will need a your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password; host provider students may obtain a login from the instructor or librarian.

Dictionaries

These dictionaries define specialized terms, identify important figures and concepts, and explain symbols. The most general printed dictionaries of are found under 300.3 and 301.03 in the Dewey Decimal Classification. Most printed dictionaries are in the Reference area of the library near the entrance.

A variety of online dictionaries of social science are found in Oxford Reference Online.

Encyclopedias

Subject encyclopedias are an excellent place to start a research project; there are other specialized encyclopedias in the catalog.

Specialized encyclopedias, which cover a single subject area, have longer and more detailed treatments of subjects than either dictionaries or general encyclopedias. The Encyclopedia of Sociology (5v) is shelved in Reference at 301.03 En1 2000. Another special encyclopedia is International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2008, shelved at REF 300.3 In8 2008. The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 9v, 2008 is also available online.

For other encyclopedias dealing with social science topics, see also the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Finding other books and and audiovisual materials

Use the library catalog to look for additional materials. The Chemeketa catalog page includes instructions on using the catalog and on requesting materials through the catalog. There are also links to other library catalogs. You can search by key words, by authors, or by subject headings. A suggestion on where to find subject headings to use in the catalog is given below.

The Library of Congress has a Web site where you can search for subject headings. When you put in a search term, the results will list terms in a table. Those with a red button marked, "Authorized and references" are terms that the Library of Congress uses in subject catalogs. Clicking the button may show more specific ("narrower") terms.

Fig. 1. The catalog search

You may have to do several searches to find books that might be pertinent to your subject.

If you live in the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service (CCRLS) district, you may also access the catalog online at your local public library. In addition to the books in the Chemeketa College Library, the catalog also contains the collections of the 17 public libraries located in the regional library district. You can request books through the catalog, and can pass your search through to Summit (see below).

Summit

Chemeketa students registered for credit may use Summit, the Orbis Cascade Alliance catalog, to request items from 34 member libraries in Oregon and Washington. Summit uses a search called WorldCat. Authorized users have access to all of the material in the Chemeketa Community College library, plus about 28 million items in Summit. Chemeketa users may request items using the barcode number from their ID card, and have them sent to Chemeketa, or they may set up a Visiting Patron account at another Alliance library.

Summit: http://summit.worldcat.org/
How to use Summit: http://library.chemeketa.edu/information/Summit.htm
More Summit Help: http://www.oclc.org/worldcatlocal/help/default.htm
Libraries & Map: http://orbiscascade.org/map/

Electronic books are found in NetLibrary. To access these books from off campus you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.

Databases & Indexes

All the electronic databases listed in this section may be accessed by going to the library's Database Page. If you are accessing the databases from a computer not on the Chemeketa Community College network, you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.

Journal Article Databases

Academic OneFile [Gale]: Index to over 12,000 publications, including thousands of peer-reviewed, abstracted and indexed journals, many of which are in full text.
LexisNexis Academic: An excellent source for news and statistics.

Internet Sources

Intute Social Sciences Resources: Searchable gateway of social science resources on the Internet
Useful sites for statistics: FedStats collects U.S. government statistics in one searchable portal. Statistical resources on the Web, at the University of Michigan, lets you look for statistics sites by subject.

Updated by Reference.