Today is #WorldSocialWorkDay! We thought we’d give you a taster of social work resources available to students and staff here at the University of Edinburgh Library.

1. Have you seen Social Services Abstracts? This database provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services and related areas, including social welfare, social policy and community development. The database abstracts and indexes thousands of serials publications and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations and citations to book reviews.

Coverage includes community and mental health services; crisis intervention; the family and social welfare; gerontology; poverty and homelessness; professional issues in social work; social services in addiction; social work education; social work practice; violence, abuse, neglect.

You can access this and other relevant databases at databases for social work.

2. The Library has a large collection of books on various aspects of social work. Have a look on the 2nd floor of the Main Library for books with shelfmarks that begin with HV. HV covers books on social and public welfare, criminology and social pathology and you will find a large number of social work related titles within this shelfmark range. Use the Library Catalogue to find more books and remember that some books may be held in the HUB Collections on the ground floor, under the same shelfmarks.

3. Find e-journals like the British Journal of Social Work by searching the Library Catalogue or e-journals list.

4. You can use some of the newspaper databases the Library subscribes to, such as Factiva, Nexis UK and Lexis Library, to search for full text news stories, editorials, comments, experts and popular opinions. Or you can use them to compare how different newspapers have been covering the same news story. Access these and other resources from newspaper databases.

Or why not take a look at Box of Broadcasts (BoB) where you can view or listen to previously recorded TV or radio programmes from over 60 stations, you can also record programmes yourself, create clips and create playlists. From documentaries such as Baby P: The Untold Story and Protecting Our Children to film and TV depictions of social workers in Tracy Beaker or Oranges and Sunshine. You can find all of these and lots more on BoB.

5. You’ll find e-books on social work on the Library Catalogue or Searcher – like this one The SAGE Handbook of Social Work.

Need more? Have a look at the Subject Guide to Social Work.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for Social and Political Science