Selection for this discipline is designed to support undergraduate teaching and research in Social Work through the Masters level. As of Spring 2018, the School of Social Work offers the following degree programs:
Faculty and students conducting research depend upon the many different resources of the University Library, offered primarily in print and digital formats. For the Social Work researcher, monographs, peer-reviewed journals, and audio-visual materials are especially important. These materials are included in the SJSU King Library’s online discovery system, OneSearch.
Considerable overlap exists between Social Work and other areas of research. Thus, the School of Social Work also makes use of materials in the fields of Anthropology, African-American Studies, Health Sciences, Justice Studies, Legal Studies, Mexican American Studies, Nursing, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Women’s Studies, and others, depending on the curriculum taught and the research undertaken by the students.
As a result, responsibility for acquisition of titles in areas of overlap is decided in consultation with librarians responsible for collection development in the fields listed above. Acquisition of specific materials outside of the usually collected fields is considered on a case-by-case basis by the librarian responsible for the library’s Social Work collections.
Materials are purchased in the format that most effectively delivers the information needed by the discipline.
The successive work of subject expert librarians has resulted in strong collections covering classic/traditional, more recent, and emerging fields of the profession.
The collections are further strengthened by a wide selection of electronic journal databases. A selection of the most relevant databases can be accessed here.
Additionally, the library offers streaming media with institutional licensing. The large selection of movies, documentaries, and related classroom media, can be accessed here for streaming video, and here for streaming audio.
To obtain materials not held by the SJSU King Library, students, faculty, and staff can use the following free-of-charge services: CSU+. Interlibrary Loan (ILL), and Link+. Please note that Link+ requires a San Jose Public Library (SJPL) card.
The overarching goal is to build and maintain a balanced collection of monographs, academic journals, electronic resources, instructional media, and related resources to support the department’s curriculum.
When acquiring new materials, special emphasis is placed on the cornerstones of the department’s programs and curricula. The liaison librarian selects materials primarily in consultation with teaching faculty, but also by consulting appropriate, professional resources.