The following databases and internet sites will lead you to books, United States government publications, journal and newspaper articles, and interest group publications which will help you in your analysis of a particular social welfare policy.
These are only a selection of what is available. Please ask at the Reference Desk in Canaday for further suggestions.
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SOWK 151 : Social Welfare Policy (BMC)
Where do I start?
Get an overview of your topic and its history using books and CQ Researcher reports.
CQ researcher
Holdings:
(Bryn Mawr College) Available from 1991-present.
(Haverford College) Available from 1991-present.
(Swarthmore College) Available from 1991-present.
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
Start here: The CQ Researcher contains hundreds of full-text research reports on topics of social policy interest. Each report includes a chronology, charts, graphs, bibliography, and other overview materials. You may browse reports or search by keyword. (1991 - present).
Tripod library catalog.
Tripod gives not only references to books held in the Tri-College Libraries -- Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore -- but also to government publications such as Congressional hearings and reports, U.S. statutes, and government agency reports. It also includes links to online sources.
WorldCat
Provider: OCLC
WorldCat can be used to identify books we might not have in our collection. Use E-ZBorrow or ILL to request books not in Tripod.
Associations, Advocacy Groups, and Policy Research Organizations:
Advocacy groups often put out alerts as legislation is proposed, and create their own policy papers on topics of interest. Think tanks and other agencies publish reports and assessments.
Search for reports from multiple organizations, across the political spectrum:
PolicyFile
Provider: Chadwyck-Healey
Provides abstracts and links to full-text research reports and studies from think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and policy publishers. (1990 to the present). Updated weekly.
Some liberal organizations and advocacy groups:
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Formerly the American Public Welfare Association. Links to national and international sources of information about welfare reform and social policy. Includes federal, state, and local human service agencies. Click on Issues & Policy, then Human Services for list of topics; the documents in that section are a bit out of date, but the APHSA front page provides lots of recent news.
Economic Success Clearinghouse (formerly the Welfare Information Network)
A project of The Finance Project, this is a clearinghouse for information, policy analysis and technical assistance related to welfare, workforce development, and other human and community services. (Highly recommended by Prof. Sandy Schram)
NASW - Legislative Issues
The National Association of Social Workers' site for advocacy on current issues.
The Urban Institute
A nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization." Site provides links to research reports on a wide variety of policy issues. Click on a topic in the left-hand column, then click on a more specific topic to find research reports.
Some more conservative organizations:
American Enterprise Institute
"The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is dedicated to preserving and strengthening the foundations of freedom--limited government, private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and a strong foreign policy and national defense--through scholarly research, open debate, and publications."
Cato Institute
Libertarian - "The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government."
Heritage Foundation
"Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute - a think tank - whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."
Systematic Reviews
The Campbell Collaboration
Provides systematic reviews of research on a variety of topics including social welfare, criminal justice, and education. Click "The Campbell Library" to access the reviews.
The Cochrane Collaboration
Provides systematic reviews of research on healthcare interventions. Fulltext content may not be available.
Newspaper Articles:
Get background information on your topic and find out the latest on legislation through newspaper articles. It helps to limit your search by date range, and to use terms like "bill" and "law" as keywords.
LexisNexis academic
Provider: LN
Choose News, select Natural Language, and the source of your choice for full-text searching of hundreds of media including national and regional newspapers, magazines, wire services, and transcripts. Highlights: New York Times from 1980 to date; Washington Post from 1977 to date; National Public Radio from 1992 to date; Newsweek from 1975 to date. Updated daily.
The New York times on the Web
Holdings:
(Bryn Mawr College) Available from 1851-present.
(Haverford College) Available from 1851-present.
(Swarthmore College) Available from 1851-present.
Publisher: [New York, N.Y.] : New York Times.
Between these three sources, you can get NY Times coverage from 1851 up through today.
Philadelphia inquirer (Philadelphia, Pa. : 1969)
Holdings:
(Bryn Mawr College) Available from 1981-present.
(Haverford College) Available from 1981-present.
(Swarthmore College) Available from 1981-present.
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Triangle Publications,
Full-text searchable interface to the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1981 to the present.
Government Information (Federal)
Need a refresher on the legislative process? Follow this link: How a bill becomes a law.
Use this source to get a play-by-play account of the legislative process of an important law
Congress and the nation.
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Congressional Quarterly Service, 1965-
Provides excellent, detailed descriptions of the controversies and actions involved with the passage of important laws. This print reference tool is issued every four years, with a volume devoted to each four-year presidential term. Each book is organized with chapters on major areas of the government, and there's a detailed index that will help you find the right section for your legislation.
Use these resources to find documents produced during the legislative process:
LexisNexis Congressional
Use this resource to find the text of bills, laws, hearings, Congressional reports, and much more. To find a legislative history, click Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws. If you know the law's number, click the Get a Document tab and enter it. If you just know the title, enter it in the keyword box.
THOMAS
Legislative Branch information from the Library of Congress. Includes current legislation, congressional calendar, committee information, directories and much more.
Use these resources to find out about court cases and the judicial side of your issue:
LexisNexis academic
Provider: LN
To find articles in law reviews, click Legal, then select US Law Reviews. Sort the results by relevance. To find court opinions, click General, then select Legal for full text access to Supreme Court, Federal, State, and some lower court opinions.
Use this resource to locate evaluation studies of federal programs.
Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the investigative arm of Congress and produces studies of the programs and expenditures of the federal government. Search reports by keyword, or browse by subject.
Use this resource to identify program websites, and to see how the government portrays its programs to the public.
U.S. Dept. of Heath and Human Services
This site provides links to government information, policy news, budgets, statistics, testimony, and more. You can try a keyword search of the site, browse by major topic, or use the A-Z index (linked from the top corner of the page).
Use this source to find brief articles reporting on bills under consideration and controversies in the legislative process.
CQ weekly
Holdings:
(Bryn Mawr College) Available from 1983-present.
(Haverford College) Available from 1983-present.
(Swarthmore College) Available from 1983-present.
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Congressional Quarterly,
Weekly magazine providing comprehensive, non-partisan, coverage of the U.S. Congress including bill status, votes, debates and amendments. Includes full-text articles published since 1983. Covers 1983-present.
Government Information (State)
Pennsylvania State Government
Pennsylvania General Assembly (legislative branch) site provides access to the PA Code (state regulations in force), the PA Bulletin (proposed regulations and agency notices, 1996 - current), the Electronic Bill Room (which includes bill tracking reports, bill history, text of bills, subject access to bills, some back to 1969). State website includes the Governor's Budget and agency web pages.
LexisNexis State capital
For all 50 states when available: full text of bills (1996- current), bill tracking reports (1990-current), proposed regulations (1997-current), code of laws and regulations currently in force, legislative directories (1994-current), selected state newspapers. Links to Web sites such as that of the Council of State Governments. Updated daily.
Purdon's Pennsylvania statutes, annotated.
Publisher: St. Paul, Minn. : West Group, c1930-
The subject-oriented listing of PA laws in force. Use the Index to identify laws, then read the annotations to find Public Law numbers and dates as well as citations to relevant court cases and other documents.
Legislative journal.
House of Representatives (1975-present online or in print; earlier avail. at Swarthmore)
This is the equivalent of the federal level's Congressional Record, and contains the text of remarks made by State Representatives during legislative sessions.
Location: Floor A, PA documents section, call number PGA 98.11/8
This is the equivalent of the federal level's Congressional Record, and contains the text of remarks made by State Representatives during legislative sessions.
Location: Floor A, PA documents section, call number PGA 98.11/8
Legislative journal.
Senate (in print: 1963 - present; online: 1993 - present)
This is the equivalent of the federal level's Congressional Record, and contains the text of remarks made by State Senators during legislative sessions.
Location: Floor A, PA documents section, call number PGA 204.11/8
This is the equivalent of the federal level's Congressional Record, and contains the text of remarks made by State Senators during legislative sessions.
Location: Floor A, PA documents section, call number PGA 204.11/8
Scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and more:
These resources give citations, abstracts, and sometimes full text for academic journal articles and other materials. Search two or three of these, in areas related to your topic.
General databases
ProQuest Research Library
Provider: ProQuest
Provides citations and full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines, both scholarly and popular in scope. Covers 1971-present.
JSTOR
Provides full-text and page images from many of the top journals in most academic disciplines. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years ago.
PAIS international
Provider: CSA
Provides abstracts of journal articles, books, government documents, statistical compilations, committee reports, intergovernmental, and private organizations reports. Areas covered include political, economic, social and public policy issues. Covers 1915-present.
Social services abstracts
Provides information on journal articles in all areas of social work and social policy. Covers 1980-present.
Social work abstracts
Provides abstracts of journal articles from social work and other related journals on topics such as homelessness, AIDS, child and family welfare, aging, substance abuse, legislation, community organization, and more. Covers 1977-present.
Sociological abstracts
Holdings:
1963-
Publisher: Bethesda, Md. : Cambridge Scientific Abstracts,
Provider: CSA
Provides abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and conference papers in the fields of sociology, social work and related disciplines. Try the useful Thesaurus feature to identify appropriate subject terms. International in scope. Covers 1963-present.
Special topics and populations
Child welfare information gateway
Provides access to print and electronic publications covering a wide range of topics from prevention to permanency, including child welfare, child abuse and neglect, adoption, search and reunion, and more. Use the "Library Search" feature to find citations to journal articles, books, and evaluation reports on these topics.
ERIC
Provider: CSA
Provides abstracts to journal articles and ERIC Digest records on all aspects of education. Many digest records are in full-text. Covers 1966-present.
Family & society studies worldwide
Provider: Ebsco
Provides abstracts for journal articles, books, book chapters, government reports, and more about all areas of family studies, including marriage, divorce, chidren, aging, domestic violence, and much more. Materials from all areas of the social sciences are included (i.e., psychology, sociology, social work, public policy, education, law, history), and some full text is linked. Covers materials published since 1970.
Women's studies international
Provider: Ebsco
Provides citations and abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, newspapers, dissertations and bulletins, in the core areas of women's studies. Subjects include, feminism, women of color, science, health and technology. Includes different women's studies resources. Covers 1972-present.
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Reference Desk phone: (610) 526-5279
Ask a Librarian - Fill in the form, give us your email address, and we'll write back within 24 hours!
Canaday Library Reference Desk Hours
ACADEMIC YEAR:
Monday - Wednesday, 10 - 12n, 1 - 5pm, 7 - 9pm
Thursday - Friday, 10 - 12n, 1 - 5pm
Saturday - Sunday, 1 - 5pm
Reference Desk phone: (610) 526-5279
Ask a Librarian - Fill in the form, give us your email address, and we'll write back within 24 hours!