Guide to Shelfmarks
Electronic Books
Useful Reference Books
Online Bibliographical Databases
Other Useful Library Resources
Useful Web Links

 Guide to Shelfmarks

The main collections of books can be found on Levels 4 and 5 of the Library.

Books in heavy demand are placed in the Short Loan Collection on Level 1. The Short Loan Collection contains 1 day loan  books; 7 day loan books are shelved with the ordinary loan books on the upper levels.

Use the Library catalogue to find the exact shelfmark and location for each book. If you are searching for books on a particular topic, use a keyword search.

The main collection of books for Sociology is on Level 4 at shelfmarks beginning 301.

Communication 302.2
Criminology 364
Culture 306
Ethnography 305.8
Film studies 791
Gender 305.3
Mass media 302.234
Music 780
Politics 320
Social policy 361.61
Social research 300.72
Social welfare 362
Sociology 301
Television studies 302.2345
Youth culture 305.235

 Electronic Books 

You can use the Electronic Books page to access eBooks on Sociology. The most useful collections for Sociology textbooks are NetLibrary, Ebrary and MyILibrary.

For dictionaries try Credo Reference.

There are also links from some titles on the Library catalogue to electronic versions of the text - look for "e-link"

 Key Reference Books

• Printed Sociology dictionaries are shelved at 301(03)
• International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (26 volumes)   300.3/INT
• Selective inventory of social science information 301/UNE  Quick Reference
• Directory of social research organisations 3.001/SYK Quick Reference
• Encyclopedia of Race and Racism
• Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender

 Online Bibliographical Databases

Online Databases are the best way to search by topic for journal articles. Some databases will link to the full text of articles, others will only supply bibliographic details. Key databases for Sociology are:

IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences: 1951 onwards. The essential online resource for social science and interdisciplinary research. Broad coverage of international journals and books, incorporating over 100 languages and countries.

Sociological Abstracts: 1952 onwards; Abstracts from 1963. This database covers sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences.

Criminal Justice Abstracts: 1968 onwards - comprehensive coverage of international journals, books, reports, dissertations and unpublished papers on criminology and related disciplines.

ISI Web of Knowledge: Web of Science (Science Citation Index)Explore the world’s leading citation database with multidisciplinary coverage of over 10,000 high-impact journals including the sciences

 Other Useful Library Resources

Newspapers

The Library takes certain daily British broadsheet newspapers. Recent copies are on Level 1 of the Library and older copies are kept on Level 2.

British newspapers and a huge variety of international papers can also be read electronically on Nexis.

Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985: The complete digital edition of The Times (London) capturing the entire newspaper, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.

Also of interest may be The Times (1910-1999) and The Sunday Times (1970-1999) which are held on microform on Level 2 of the Library.

Statistics

Printed statistics are on Level 2. The collection includes statistics from the British Government and international organisations such as the UN.

There are two sequences in the statistics collection, books all with the shelfmark beginning 31 and also statistical journals shelved in A-Z order by title.

Some useful publications in the Statistics Journals section might be:

• Annual abstract of statistics
• General Lifestyle Survey
• Key population and vital statistics
• Social Trends

See also the Statistics page.

The following sites might also be of interest:

UK National Statistics : the official site of the Government Statistics Office

Eurostat : The official site of the EU statistical agency

UN Statistics : statistics covering all aspects of the work of the United Nations

OECD : Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's site on economic and social statistics on member countries

Official Statistics on the Web : a site hosted by the University of Auckland, New Zealand containing free statistics about most countries

Statistics Agencies: Comprehensive listing of UN, national and other statistical agencies

The following guides to UK statistics are in the Quick Reference section on the ground floor:

Guide to Official Statistics is at 016.3141/GUI

Sources of Non-Official UK Statistics is at 016.3141/SOU

Census

Tables of the Censuses for 1971 onwards are in the Library store.

Census Data Resources gives online access to full data from the UK Census from 1971-  (registration required)

Good Study Guides

Critical thinking skills  370.152/COT

Study skills handbook  378.170281/COT

Writing for social scientists 808.0663/BEC

Doing qualitative research  300.72/SIL

Guides to Referencing

Look at the help pages provided by the University of Surrey.

Further guides are available from:

University of Birmingham and Bournemouth University (especially good for guidance on citing electronic references)

Also look at Pears, R. A and Shields, G. (2010) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 8th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan which is available in the Library at 808.02 PEA

Exam papers

Online Exam Papers are available from 2006.

Articles Collection

Photocopies of recommended readings may be found in the Articles Collection in Short Loan. These may be a chapter from a book or a journal article which is not otherwise in the Library stock. Your lecturer should indicate to you if they have placed readings here.

 Useful Web Links

Gateways

Allyn & Bacon Sociology links
Links are divided into a number of sociological headings including culture, deviance, family and race inequality.

BUBL Link : Media Studies
A list of selected Internet resources

BUBL Social Science links
The Social Science section of the Bulletin Board for Libraries Information Service offers a large list of internet resources on socialogy, social welfare, social problems, criminology and politics.

Intute: Communication and Media Studies
High quality resources on the internet evaluated by subject specialists in UK universities (previously Sosig)

Intute Social Sciences
High quality resources on the internet evaluated by subject specialists in UK universities.

MCS
Award winning portal to Internet based resources in media and communication. Gives priority to issues of interest to the media in the UK.

Moving Image Gateway
Collection of websites that relate to moving images and sounds.

Sociosite
Wide variety od sociological resources

WWW VirtualLibrary:Sociology
World wide websites for Sociology. Resources sub-divided in to 12 catagories

General Resources

Census
This portal provides free online access to 1971-2001 census data resources, detailed metadata and census guides, and provides access to other census related data.

CESSDA
European Data Archives

National Statistics
The official UK statistics site contains the latest comprehensive range of official UK statistics and information about statistics as well as providing free access to a selection of recently released publications in downloadable pdf format

Survey Question Bank
Social Surveys Online

Associations/Institutions

American Sociological Association

British Sociological Association

Economic and Social Research Council
Information about ESRC research projects and full-text research reports.

Institute for Social and Economic Research
Links to current research and full text of publications