|
1. Purpose of the collection
The subject areas collected support teaching and research in Social Work and Social Policy. Titles purchased for these areas are also used by readers from many other schools (see3.1).
2. Primary user groups served
The School of Social Work and Social Policy offers courses leading to a Bachelor of Social Work and to Graduate Certificates, Postgraduate Diplomas and course work Masters.
The School offers a range of postgraduate research programs leading to Masters degrees by research or to a PhD degree - programs that encourage professionals to pursue innovative and original ideas and research questions. Themes in research work include:
- Contemporary human services and social policy
- Social inclusion and social exclusion
- Ageing
- Children and families
3. Description of the collection
The collection supports work in social work, social planning, family studies, gender studies, class and stratification, urban and regional sociology, cultural studies, policy analysis, crime and deviancy, race, ethnicity and migration, ethnomethodology and conservation analysis, work and occupational studies. The strengths of the collection include:
- The academic periodicals devoted to the social sciences in general;
- Australian publications - academic publications and data sets.
Australian material includes all Commonwealth parliamentary papers and other Australian Government Publishing Service publications, and the publications of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, including the 1986, 1991 and 1996 censuses on CD-ROM. Morgan gallup pools are held, but few of the expensive and more detailed or customized social profiles oriented to market or consumer analysis. Much popular Australian culture is represented in newspaper holdings, but most of the recent more avowedly popular, media (e.g. newsstall women's magazines, equivalent TV shows) are not held.
A very great amount of detailed social analysis of overseas countries, particularly U.S.A., is included in the periodicals held, but relatively few overseas government policy documents are now collected. Assessments of the collection set out below have often been lowered because of the relative lack of detailed monographs discussing social conditions outside Australia.
Bibliographical tools most used include Social Work Abstracts, Australian Family database, ATSIRom, Sociofile, Australian public affairs information service, Web of Science, Social sciences index and Criminology, penology, and police science abstracts.
Social psychology is one of the stronger areas for titles on theory and methodology.
Collecting on crime and deviance focuses on the social environment and social work with individuals rather than on techniques of crime detection.
The Law Library holds the interrelated continuing sets of statutes, regulations, law reports, and law textbooks, which many of the courses mentioned above touch on. Some administrative manuals in social security and the like are held in other collections mentioned, particularly the Social Sciences and Humanities Library.
4. Interdisciplinary relationships
All teaching and research areas with some social orientation are likely to share some of these collections. Students of the politics of class and other social groups, and of public opinion, find much material useful. Psychologists and community or urban planners also use this broad subject area for the social dimensions for their research. Students and staff within the Social Work area also use materials in other branches - particularly the hospital libraries.
5. Scope of current collecting
1. Languages collected
The bulk of the collection is in English, though no languages are excluded. Writings by foreign authors of great standing in social theory are collected by preference in English translation, but also in the original language if this is taught in The University of Queensland, and if such editions are thought likely to be called on in research.
2. Geographical areas collected
There is a strong emphasis on maintaining depth in Australian material, and also of providing multiple copies on Australian subject matter for undergraduate use. Other geographical emphases are on countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (for generalized comparison rather than specialized study country by country); South-East Asis, including Hong Kong; developing countries generally.
3. Chronological periods collected
No chronological period is excluded.
4. Types (forms) of materials collected
No particular form of material is excluded. The emphasis is on journal and monograph literature. Australian Government publications also form an important part of the collection.
Some publications (back runs of serials, primary sources or materials not available in other forms) are purchased in microform.
The audio-visual collection in this subject area is strongest in video and sound recordings for women's studies, including related topics such as domestic violence. Multiculturalism, and social work related to drug users, suicides, and those with disabilities, are examples of other topics covered.
5. Publication dates
The emphasis is on collecting recent publications, although important primary source materials are collected regardless of publication date.
6. Special considerations
Important Australian material is also held in the Fryer Library.
7. Conspectus
In the great majority of these subject lines, Australian material is held at level 3b or 4 : this comment is not repeated for each line. The principal deficiencies in Australian material are titles particularly relevant to states other than Queensland, such as state government publications.
|
