Sociology 140: Senior Research Seminar



Sociology 140: Senior Research SeminarReview of Library ResourcesPatty Wade Fall 2013The Collections:On the whole, the library is well prepared to meet the resource needs of the proposed course. For many years the library has worked towards building a collection that will support undergraduate research in sociology. As a result, we have a collection that should address theory and methodology, as well as topics involving social issues, problems, and phenomena that will be studied by students in this course.Books:The library has a strong collection of books related to the field of sociology and social problems. Since these books are used by students across the curriculum the budget allocation for this area is comparatively large. A special effort is made to purchase the works of classical and contemporary sociologists and books about their work. These should support students in the work for this course. Reference Sources:The library has access to the following reference sources online through Blackwell Reference OnlineEncyclopedia of SociologyBlackwell Companion to Major Classical Social TheoristsBlackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social TheoristsBlackwell Companion to SociologyThe library also has access to the following reference sources through the Gale Virtual Reference LibraryEncyclopedia of Sociology. Encyclopedia of Social TheoryThe Sage Knowledge eBooks database also provides a number of encyclopedias and handbooks on subject areas relevant to sociology.Another useful source for students in this class is the Annual Review of Sociology which is available online.Periodicals:Thanks to the library’s subscription s to large publisher packages such as Blackwell, Sage, Wiley, and Springer as well as access to a number of full-text databases, the library’s periodical holdings related to sociology extend well beyond our print subscriptions. The Periodicals List does not have one category for Sociology. However the following categories should be relevant. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of titles in the category. There is probably a great deal of overlap between categories.Sociology & Social HistoryCommunities - Rural Groups (10) Communities - Social Classes (6) Communities - Urban Groups (92) Family & Marriage (96) Social Change (309) Social Conditions (141) Societies & Clubs (8) Social Welfare & Social WorkChild & Youth Development (130) Criminology, Penology & Juvenile Delinquency (225) Disabilities (72) Family Violence (6) Gerontology (57) Social Welfare & Social Work - General (247) Substance Abuse (64) Databases:The library subscribes to over 100 electronic databases, many of which contain information relevant to sociology. For this course the important databases would be:Sociological AbstractsSocial Services AbstractsMedia:There is no mention of media use in the course proposal. The library purchases many DVD’s for use in courses as well as a large number of videos available for streaming online. If any additional media are needed for this course they can be purchased as provided the budget can support it. Media can be expensive therefore their purchase needs to be weighed against other formats such as books.Further information on the library’s resources in sociology is available at Literacy:This advanced course in sociology offers an important opportunity for students build on the skills they have learned in the intermediate level Sociology 101 course. In this course, students will be required to write an integrated literature review which should inform the original primary research study that they will conduct. This is a key skill for advanced students and something they can take on to graduate school or future employment. As mentioned in the proposal, students will be meeting with me as they begin working on their annotated bibliography which will form the basis of the sources used in the literature review for their final papers.The project for this course will address the following information literacy objectives outlined in the Library’s “Information Literacy Learning Outcomes and Objectives” (the full document is available at )The student understands how to select and use access/finding tools important to research in his/her field of study, and to identify and locate sources of information in the Library and elsewhere.The student understands the importance of evaluating the quality and credibility of information and has developed strategies for evaluating citations, records, full-text sources and information obtained in the library, on the Internet, or elsewhere.The student can formulate a search strategy for a term paper, senior thesis, master's thesis, project, or dissertation that includes gaining a theoretical background, formulating a research question/statement, determining useful search terms, and identifying appropriate and useful sources of informationThe student is familiar with how scholarly/professional knowledge in his/her field is communicated and documented through published and unpublished sources.The student engaged in an original research or experimentation understands the laws, regulations, institutional policies and etiquette related to the access and use of information resourcesThe student builds on their discipline knowledge and prior research experience to formulate research strategies and to complete research projects within their discipline. ................
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