This year's Sociology theses cover a fantastic range of topics. This page provides a general starting place. Please feel free to make an appointment for personalized help from a librarian.
Subject Portal » Sociology » Course Guides »
Need Help?
- Susan Turkel, Outreach and Information Technology Librarian (BMC)
- Arleen Zimmerle, Media & Reference Librarian (BMC)
Sections:
- Introduction
- Searching for books
- Searching for scholarly journal articles
- Searching for newspaper & magazine articles and tv & radio transcripts
- Finding online primary sources & historical documents
- Finding images
- Finding statistical information & public opinion poll responses
- Managing your citations
- Getting human help
Related Subjects:
Databases A-Z:
Other:
SOCL 398 : Senior Conference (BMC)
Introduction:
Searching for books:
Interlibrary Loan and E-ZBorrow
The books and articles you need for your research may not be available within the Tri-colleges. We have two systems available to help you retrieve the materials you need. See this page to place your requests.
Searching for scholarly journal articles:
MAIN DATABASE
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 in the social and behavioral sciences. Covers 1963-present.
SUBJECT-SPECIFIC DATABASES
You may also want to try other databases of scholarly materials, each focused on a particular subject area:
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY DATABASES
JSTOR
Excellent place to start your research. Provides full-text searching of many important scholarly journals. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years before today.
Web of science
Provider: ISI
Provides access to the Social Sciences Citation Index, Science Citation Index, and Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Search for scholarly articles in any discipline, or for articles that cite a known author or work. Coverage varies.
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.
Searching for newspaper & magazine articles and tv & radio transcripts:
LexisNexis academic
Provider: LN
Full-text of thousands of newspapers -- foreign, domestic, and local. Includes NY Times (1980-current).
Includes TV and Radio broadcast transcripts.
Includes TV and Radio broadcast transcripts.
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.
Provides full text searching and PDF page images of the New York Times from 1855 until three years ago. Outstanding resource for historical research! Click the link for your school, then the "ProQuest Historical Newspapers" option.
Readers' guide retrospective
Provides indexing of general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. Covers popular magazines from 1890 - 1982.
Access world news
Provider: NewsBank
Newspaper collections from NewsBank provide full-text articles from the electronic editions of record for more than 700 newspapers around the globe, including the NY Times (2000-present). Database covers 1977-present.
Ethnic newswatch
Offers full-text articles from newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press in America.
Finding online primary sources & historical documents:
There are many online sources for primary documents, some freely available on the web and others by library subscription only. For a long list of library-subscribed resources, see the History - Primary Sources subject guide.
Here are some good online digital library collections:
Here are some good online digital library collections:
American Memory
Provides information on, and access to, digitized versions of primary-source collections on American history and culture, including photographs, documents, sound recordings, and motion pictures.
Women and social movements in the United States 1600-2000
This resource provides documents pertaining to women and social movements. Includes document projects that interpret and present documents to address a question or a scholarly debate. Also includes images, a dictionary of social movements, a chronology and teaching tools. Covers the 17th century to the 21st century.
Internet archive
Offers permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format, such as Internet sites, movies, interviews, images, etc.
Finding images:
AP images
Electronic library containing the Associated Press's current photos and a selection of pictures from their 50 million image print and negative library.
flickr
To find personal photos uploaded and "tagged" by thousands of individuals. This isn't a scholarly resource, but can be a quick way to view recent images from around the world.
Finding statistical information & public opinion poll responses:
If you want to back up your arguments with numbers, you will need statistics. LexisNexis Statistical can help you to get data tables, and to identify the organizations that collect the data you need.
If you're interested in public opinion polling data, consult Polling the Nations for poll questions and answers. The libraries are about to purchase a subscription to the Roper Center's iPoll database, which is another source of poll questions and answers as well as raw data for analyzing; this database will be available later this semester.
If you're interested in public opinion polling data, consult Polling the Nations for poll questions and answers. The libraries are about to purchase a subscription to the Roper Center's iPoll database, which is another source of poll questions and answers as well as raw data for analyzing; this database will be available later this semester.
LexisNexis statistical
Provides abstracts and indexes of statistical information from U.S. government publications from 1973, state and private sources from 1980, and approximately 2000 documents from international organizations from 1983. Full-text or web links provided for some citations.
Polling the nations
A compilation of more than 14,000 surveys conducted by more than 700 polling organizations in the United States and more than 80 other countries from 1986 to the present. All the surveys reported were conducted using scientifically selected random samples. Covers 1986-present.
Managing your citations:
There are several tools available for managing and tracking your citations to books, articles, websites, etc.. You can use these tools to maintain a database of citations with your research notes; you can also use them to create your in-text citations and list of sources cited.
To learn about the options, check out the library's Managing your Citations page.
To learn about the options, check out the library's Managing your Citations page.
Getting human help:
If you need help: ASK A LIBRARIAN!!! Please come see us and we will walk you through your search.
Canaday Library Reference Desk Hours
Canaday Library Reference Desk Hours
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 - Linked from Library home page. Fill in the form, give us your email address, and we'll write back within 24 hours!