Social Work

The Division of Social Work at the University of Wyoming, in the College of Health Sciences, offers Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) degrees fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The Division of Social Work prepares students as generalist or advanced generalist social work practitioners to work with individuals, groups, families, organizations, communities, and institutions to achieve more effective and efficient functioning. Students select elective courses in areas such as child welfare, aging, substance abuse, corrections, child and adolescent services, mental health, and disability services. The program culminates in a 450 hour supervised field practicum; it allows students to work as social workers in one of Wyoming's many human service agencies.

This page is a selective guide to books, articles, reference sources, and Internet resources for Social Work and related areas.

Keyword Search Strategies:

"Books & more" takes you to the UW Libraries catalog where you can search for books, reports, theses etc. Keyword search generally gives you the most flexibility. Just use the Keyword Search tab on the main catalog page. Try searching general terms such as social work, social workers, social service, etc. as a phrase. To combine general terms with more specific words in order to focus your search, enter terms in the additional box(es) such as welfare reform or government policy to restrict your results to sources covering the particular aspects of interest to you.

LC Subject Headings:

More structured subject searching than is possible in keyword searching is facilitated by a standardized vocabulary system called Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings. To take advantage of the navigational help they provide, highlight Subject in the "Find Results In" box on the Basic Search screen. If this approach doesn't seem to work, use the Keyword Search tab as mentioned above, then highlight Subject in the "Find Results In" box. This, again, allows for additional flexibility in defining a desired topic.

Some recommended headings to try, with explanatory notes where needed:

	Social service (used for the general topic of social work as a field or profession); can also be subdivided to narrow the scope, e.g.:
Social service research
social service vocational guidance
social service, rural United States

	Human services (a more general term encompassing social work/social service among other related fields)

More specific treatments do include the phrase social work. Selected examples:

	Social work with African Americans
	Social work with children
	Social work with criminals
	Social work with minorities
	Social work with youth
	Social workers

Other useful headings:

	Medical social work
	School social work
	Social case work
	Social group work
	Social work administration
	Social work education

Reference Sources:


Encyclopedia of Social Work. HV 35 .S6 (latest edition in Coe Ref) Published by the National Association of Social Workers, the primary professional organization for the field, this is the key reference work in social work and related service fields. Kept up to date in between editions by supplementary volumes.

Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America. Coe Ref HV 12 .E497 2005 Covers basic information on the history of social welfare in the USA, Canada and Mexico, with emphasis on how the three countries have dealt with social welfare issues.

Social Work Almanac. Coe Ref HV 90 .G53 1995 A single-volume compendium of data important to social workers and interested readers.

The Social Work Dictionary. Coe Ref HV 12 .B37 2003 Has brief definitions/discussions for several thousand terms.

Social Workers' Desk Reference. Coe Ref HV 40 .S6464 2002 A comprehensive reference work on clinical social work practice. Consists of concise, accessible chapters covering each topic, with emphasis on best practices for social work.

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Coe Ref H 41 .I58 2001 A 26-volume set surveying the state of knowledge in the social and behavioral sciences as of the end of the 20th century. Its interdisciplinary coverage makes it a valuable source of background information for the various fields relevant to social work students and practitioners, as well as researchers investigating areas outside their primary field of expertise.

NASW Clinical Register An online directory of clinical social workers in the United States. Contains contact information, employer, education, and employment history as well as type of practice and licensing information.

Article Indexes:

Academic Search Premier
AgeLine
Criminal Justice Abstracts
Family and Society Studies Worldwide
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts (NCJRS)
PsycINFO
Social Services Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts

Electronic Journals:

This is a partial list of journals in Social Work and other social science areas whose content is available online, entirely or in part. Check dates of availability as shown beside each link.

Government Documents:

Federal publications, agency web sites, and programs.

University of Wyoming Government Documents Library Web Page

Internet Resources:

This is a selective list of free web sites that have been evaluated for quality and usefulness to the field. Most contain numerous links to related sites, so they tend to serve as helpful starting points for locating additional relevant Internet resources.

	Children, Youth and Family Consortium: Electronic Clearinghouse. Provides paths to information relevant to the health, education, and welfare of children, youth, and families.
	Clinical Social Work Association. This site is maintained for clinical social workers and students. The CSWA is primarily an individual membership assocation involved in promoting professional standards and practice for clinical social work.
	Council on Social Work Education. The Web site of the primary accrediting agency for social work degree programs in the U.S.
	Economic Success Clearinghouse (formerly titled: Welfare Information Network). A "clearinghouse for information, policy analysis and technical assistance on welfare reform," W.I.N. is a foundation-funded project aimed primarily at states and communities working to design and implement welfare reform. It provides easy access to a wide range of material relevant to this effort, and contains links to additional welfare resources on hundreds of other sites. W.I.N. produces electronic and print publications intended to assist policymakers; it also links to such sources as federal welfare legislation summaries, state agency sites, reform implementation plans, "best practices," and discussions of "hot topics" and emerging issues.
	Information for Practice: News & New Scholarship from Around the World. Designed to give social service professionals worldwide an easy way to keep up to date with news and current scholarship relating to the profession. Includes links to new published scholarship (some of which is fee-based, although some of this material is subscribed by UW Libraries and hence freely available to UW users), daily news items, and "grey literature" (for example, government documents, reports from various sources, clinical practice treatment protocols, etc.) A monthly update of added content is available via a free subscription.
	National Association of Social Workers. The Web site of the largest professional organization of social workers.
	New Social Worker Online. This online publication is for social work students and recent graduates. It features job/career search guidance, networking, discussion topics, and links to other relevant Internet resources.
	Social Policy WWW Virtual Library. Includes a variety of WWW resources relevant to the interdisciplinary field of social policy. Covers organizations, libraries, research institutes, publications, databases, mailing lists, and discussion groups. Now part of the site, E-library for global welfare . It is a "collection of online resources for international and comparative policy analysis, research & teaching."
	Social Sciences WWW Virtual Library. Has links to leading information sources such as directories, data archives, electronic journals, and scholarly societies in all social science areas, and accesses numerous related WWW virtual library servers. Updated frequently.
	Social Work Examination Services. Offers lecture programs and home study courses for recent graduates and practitioners preparing for social work licensing examinations in each state. Includes home study workbooks, sample questions, general information about licensing, a list of state licensing boards for social workers, and links to other related online resources.
	Social Work Search: A Directory of Social Work Related Links. Originally created in 1996, this site has continually grown to become "a major portal for the online Social Work community in providing Internet related services to social workers and other helping professionals." Claims to be the "largest online database of services devoted solely to the Social Work profession." Includes a variety of services beyond basic linking, such as a Social Work Webring to link together Web sites worldwide.
	Socionet. The WWW site of Sociometrics Corporation, a research/development firm specializing in social science research resources. A particular focus is contemporary social problems such as adolescent sexuality and pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse, American families and their challenges, aging, and mental health. Facilitates access to a large number of social research "toolkits" and machine-readable data archives for mainframes and personal computers. Its primary stated applications are basic social science research, policy development, teaching social science and data analysis, meta-analysis, and program development/evaluation.
	SWAN: Social Work Access Network . A loosely organized group of caseworkers, counselors, therapists, students, administrators, and professors in the social work field. Dedicated to promoting professional connectivity and social work effectiveness through computer networking.

Specific Course Guides:

	Selected Research Sources: Social Work	141.2Kb
	Selected Research Sources: Social Policy	49.4Kb