Social Work

Quick Links: Library Resources | Open Web Resources | Open Educational Resources (Textbooks, resources, courses, videos) | Associations

Library Resources

While the Search bar on the Library homepage will help you to discover most scholarly journal articles, books and streaming videos on social work topics, it is also helpful to dive into individual databases and resources.  For social work topics, try these:

Social Science Premium Collection
The Social Science Premium Collection provides abstracts, indexing, and full-text coverage of journal articles, books, dissertations, and more, across social science disciplines.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – V
“The standard diagnostic tool used by mental health professionals worldwide to promote reliable research, accurate diagnosis, and thus appropriate treatment and patient care. Each psychiatric disorder with its corresponding diagnostic code is accompanied by a set of diagnostic criteria and descriptive details including associated features, prevalence, familial patterns, age-, culture-, and gender-specific features, and differential diagnosis.”

Gale Virtual Reference Library
A database of subject encyclopedias which includes specialized reference sources about social work related topics.

Open Web Resources

Social Work–THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER Online
Magazine for Social Work Students and Recent Graduates–Articles, Jobs, & More  Welcome, social work students and professionals! Read articles from the Winter 2012 edition of The New Social Worker magazine, now in its 18th year! While you’re here–we have job listings, a lively discussion forum, and more for you and your social work career!

the encyclopaedia of informal education
Developments in informal education and social action practice within different areas of work.

Information for practice: news & new scholarship from around the world
To help social service professionals throughout the world conveniently maintain an awareness of news regarding the profession and emerging scholarship.

The Political Social Worker
Focuses on macro social work, macro practice, and politics. 

Code of Ethics
Professional ethics are the core of social work. The NASW Code of Ethics offers a set of values, principles and standards to guide decision-making and everyday professional conduct of social workers. It is relevant to all social workers and social work students regardless of their specific functions or settings. The Code was last revised in 1999 and is currently used by most social work licensing boards.”

Social Work Examination Services
Since 1983, Social Work Examination Services has been the leader in providing on-site review courses and home study programs specifically designed to prepare social workers for license examinations throughout the United States.

A Child Abuse Statistics and Research Reference Guide For Child Welfare Workers
This website by Florida Tech has many links that will help you with Social Work related research.

Texas Department of State Health Services, PLC Home Page
The DSHS Professional Licensing and Certification Unit consists of twenty-three regulatory programs. The programs evaluate and issue credentials, administer examinations, monitor continuing education activities, conduct complaint investigations, impose disciplinary sanctions, and otherwise regulate a variety of health professions and related facilities in the State of Texas.

Help Starts Here
Directory of Social Workers and information about social work.

National Conference on Welfare Proceedings
These proceedings were issued under earlier names of the Conference as follows: 1874, Conference of Boards of Public Charities; 1875-1879, Conference of Charities; 1880-1881, Conference of Charities and Correction; 1882-1916, National Conference of Charities and Correction; 1917-1956, National Conference of Social Work; 1957-, National Conference on Social Welfare.

Purdue University – College of Consumer and Family Sciences – CDFS
The Department of Human Development and Family Studies is widely regarded as a leader in the study of children and families. The department contributes to the well being of individuals and families across the life course by generating knowledge; preparing graduates for research, teaching, leadership, and professional practice; and by strengthening the interconnections of research, practice, and policy.

Resources in Social Gerontology
Provides hundreds of links on this topic.

Center for Healthy Aging – Penn State
Promoting healthy aging in the 21st century requires a better understanding of how social, psychological and biological processes interact to confer either risk or resilience for the aging individual. The Center for Healthy Aging Research aims to advance this understanding and build a basis for the development of successful intervention strategies that enhance and extend productive life.

University of Texas/Austin Learning Resource Center -School of Social Work
The School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin, the flagship institution of the University of Texas System and ranked in the Top 25 nationally among American research universities, offers programs leading to the BSW, MSSW, and PhD degrees.

Community Action Network
To achieve sustainable social, health, educational and economic outcomes through engaging the community in a planning and implementation process that coordinates and optimizes public, private and individual actions and resources.

All for Good
All for Good’s mission is to facilitate volunteerism and community service. To meet that goal, we have developed a custom volunteer opportunity oriented search engine that is powered by the largest database of volunteer opportunities on the Internet. Our database of volunteer opportunities includes those from our many prominent non-profit partners as well as those provided directly to us by smaller, grass roots based organizations.

Social Worker Helper
“SWHELPER is an award-winning, mission-driven, and progressive news website. We are dedicated to providing news, information, resources, and entertainment related to social work, social justice, and social good. Our audience is comprised of academics, policymakers, social workers, students, mental health practitioners, helping professionals, caregivers, and people looking for information to help themselves or a loved one in crisis. Our goal is to utilize evidence based data, research, and expertise of helping professionals when reporting on current events and societal problems in an effort to elevate the voices of vulnerable people.”

Congressional Research Service
The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a component of the Library of Congress, conducts research and analysis for Congress on a broad range of issues of national policy. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) endeavors to provide current, regularly updated public access to as many non-confidential CRS reports as possible.

Open Educational Resources (Textbooks, resources, courses, videos)

Merlot
MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.

OER Commons – Social Work
OER Commons provides a curated collection of textbooks and resources for social work studies.

Scientific Inquiry in Social Work Textbook

SocArXiv
Open archive of the social sciences. SocArXiv papers are moderated before appearing. Visit SocOpen.org for more information.

FutureLearn
“Browse our course list to find something that you’d like to learn about. We have courses in a diverse range of subjects and are always adding more. Courses vary in length. Most are six to ten weeks long but we also have some shorter two and three week courses.”

OpenLearn
“Search for free courses, interactives, videos, and more!”

American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare Webinar Series
Grand Challenges for Social Work – Videos include topics such as family violence and homelessness. 

Internet Archive Search
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

Associations

National Association of Social Workers
Founded in 1955, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with more than 120,000 members. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies.

International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW)
IFSW provides a news service providing information about developments in social work which we consider will be of interest to a world readership with an interest in social policy and social work.

American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare
The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (Academy) is an honorific society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the field of social work and social welfare through high impact work that advances social good.

Council on Social Work Education
The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is a nonprofit national association representing more than 2,500 individual members, as well as graduate and undergraduate programs of professional social work education.

Texas Association Against Sexual Assault
TAASA was founded on a simple principle: to assist sexual assault survivors and to create a Texas free from sexual violence. TAASA advocates for individual sexual assault survivors as well as sexual assault programs collectively. That advocacy takes many forms, from supporting legislation favorable to victims and strengthening laws against sexual predators, to advocating for increased funding for sexual assault programs at both the federal and state levels.