Whichever aspect of sociology you are studying, the library has books, journals and databases to suit your needs.
Welcome to our guide to resources for Sociology. As the Learning and Research Librarian for Sociology, I am here to support you in your learning and assignments.
Ruth Collingwood - Learning & Research Librarian for Sociology
LibrarySearch is CCCU’s library discovery tool and a key resource for you. It allows you to easily search across library resources, including books, e-books and journal articles. Many of the resources available via Library Search are not freely available on the web, and rather than worrying about paywalls, it automatically limits your search to full-text. Remember to sign in to access all the resources.
Google Scholar is also an excellent resource. It can be used to search for scholarly information on the internet, including ebooks, journal articles and conference papers. It can also be linked to library holdings, showing you where CCCU has paid for access to a resource and allowing you to link through.
Searching LibrarySearch alongside Google Scholar for your assignment topics is a good place to start.
You can also access databases individually for more in-depth searching or for specific types of resources such as statistics, reports or documentaries (please see under Databases below for some recommendations)
You can use LibrarySearch to search for the books you need. Just type in a few words from the title plus the surname of the author(s) into the search box. If you get stuck – please ask!
We use the Dewey Decimal System to classify the books so it’s easier to find them. Each number refers to a different subject area. In Augustine House, the lowest numbers are on the first floor and the highest numbers are on the third floor.
You will find most of the sociology book collection at classmark 301 onwards, on the 1st floor at Augustine House.
Remember to check the different areas housing the 7-day loan (open shelves) and 4-week loans (moving shelves).
The library also has thousands of e-books. To search for e-books in LibrarySearch, limit your results in the left-hand pane of the search screen to e-books and click on the link to CCCU e-book to download or read online.
Remember also that books may be available as e-books as well as in print format and the details for these may appear separately in LibrarySearch. For example, the following book has one print copy at Augustine House but there is also an e-book version:
Atkinson, W. (2012) Class inequality in austerity: power, difference and suffering. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
You can browse printed copies of journals on the 2nd floor of Augustine House in the silent zone (west wing). These are for use in the library only. Most sociology journals are also available online.
You can see which journals are available online by using LibrarySearch. Make sure you log in first! (You will need your university username and password). Try entering the title of a journal into the search box or using the “Find e-journals by title” link.
You can also browse e-journals by subject, using Browzine. This software allows you to read a journal like an e-book, so you can look through the whole journal rather than just individual articles. There is an app so you can use it easily on your phone or other mobile device.
You can find individual journal articles to read online by doing a quick search in LibrarySearch. Try searching for a key word or phrase connected with your research topic, e.g. “street gangs”. See our quick guide for more information.
The Directory of Open Access Journals includes sociology journals. Open access journals are usually scholarly, but the difference is, the publishers of these journals believe in making their research freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This means that you (or your institution) don’t have to have a subscription to the journal to be able to read the articles they publish.
There are lots of databases that contain articles about sociology, and they are all available via LibrarySearch – just click on the “Find databases” link in the left-hand menu and you will see an alphabetical list. Browse the list until you find the one you want.
The most useful databases for your subject include:
AM Explorer: Provides access to millions of pages of primary sources for social sciences and humanities, spanning the 15th – 21st centuries, developed in collaboration with leading libraries and archives. Supports teaching and research on themes such as: Borders and Migrations, Gender and Sexuality, Global History, and War and Conflict. Includes the Mass Observation Archive, which specialises in material about everyday life in Britain. (Guide to AM Explorer)
ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts): ASSIA is aimed at practitioners, researchers and students in the caring professions. It is focused on a core of around 500 key English language scholarly journals covering aspects of health and social care from a broadly social scientific perspective, including psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education. (Guide to ASSIA)
Census.ac.uk: providing access to census counts for areas, data on migration and commuting between areas, samples of anonymised census records and the boundary files necessary to map them. This now forms part of the UK Data Service.
JSTOR: Provides access to scholarly journals. Spans many disciplines, but coverage primarily in the humanities and social sciences.
Migration to New Worlds: Migration to New Worlds charts the emigration experience of millions across 200 years of turbulent history through to the modern era. Investigate unique primary source personal accounts, shipping logs, printed literature and organisational papers supplemented by carefully compiled teaching and research aids.
SAGE Journals: a multi-disciplinary database with a strong coverage of social science and sociological journals, and providing full text for many of them.
Scopus: the largest abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources. With over 22,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, Scopus offers researchers a quick, easy and comprehensive resource to support research, including in the social sciences.
Social Policy and Practice: An important source of evidence-based social science and applied psychology research articles. In particular the database is useful for information about government policies and their impact on society. (Guide to Social Policy and Practice)
Web of Science (WoS): A multi-disciplinary service, where you can search for articles from over 18,000 journals in the social sciences and arts and humanities fields as well as the sciences. (Guide to Web of Science)
Wiley Online Library: searches across a multi-disciplinary collection of journals covering life and physical sciences, social science and the humanities.
There are a lot of websites that may be relevant to your studies, but there are also many that are not, so it is essential to evaluate the material carefully to decide whether they are scholarly enough.
The following websites are a good starting point:
Recommended websites:
Archive of Market and Social Research: AMSR is both a history of UK market research and UK history through market research, containing rich data and commentary generated since the 1950s by the market and social research industry in the UK. The search program includes data on sociology and cultural and social history, and is a source of information on trend data.
British Sociological Association
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): the UK’s largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. Information online includes their publications, research evidence briefings and case studies of how the research is being used to improve policy and practice.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) elibrary: Provides free access to the IMF’s periodicals, books, working papers and studies, and data and statistical tools. Subjects and topics include macroeconomics, globalization, development, trade and aid, technical assistance, demographics, emerging markets, policy advice, poverty reduction, and more.
Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme: a UNESCO initiative to broaden access to Social Science Research. The Digital Library gives access to reports on such topics as migration, intercultural dialogue and poverty, all in an international context.
NatCen: an independent social research body. Their research covers a wide range of social policy areas including social inclusion, social policy and social attitudes.
Office for National Statistics: Provides statistical data on economy, population and society for the UK at national, regional and local levels.
Social Science Bites: a podcast series of interviews with leading social scientists. Each episode explores an aspect of our social world.
Social Science Space: Social Science Space brings social scientists together to explore, share and shape the big issues in social science, from funding to impact. Features blogs with the most current thinking from key players in social science, a forum for discussions, a resource center with free videos, reports and slides that support these discussions, as well as funding and job opportunity notices.
UK Data Archive: Acquires, curates and provides access to the UK’s largest collection of social and economic data. This includes data from research projects and major studies.
UK Data Service: the UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population data resources, for archiving and disseminating data. It includes major UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate, business data, and qualitative data.
Archival Sound Recordings: Listen to a selection from the British Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings, which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound. Includes oral histories.
BFI Player: Explore and view short films and features, showing the best from the BFI, national and regional archives, including 120 years of Britain on film, offering a unique window on Britain’s changing political, economic and social landscape in the age of film and television.
Box of Broadcasts: On-demand TV and radio service for education. Allows staff and students to record programmes and create clips from over 60 free-to-air channels, both TV and radio, and search an archive of over 2 million broadcasts. If you’ve seen or heard something on TV or radio that you think would be useful to your learning or teaching, there’s a good chance you can access it via B.o.B. Access within the UK only (Guide to B.o.B)
EU Screen Portal: Offers free access to thousands of archival audio-visual items from across Europe, bringing together clips that provide an insight into the social, cultural, political, and economic events that have shaped the 20th and 21st centuries.
Kanopy: Access to a large, curated catalogue of over 30,000 educational documentaries and classic films. A wide range of subject coverage (e.g. Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, Health and Sciences). Watch anytime, anywhere and on any device including via media streaming apps.
