The University of Queensland

1. Purpose of the collection

The library collects in the field of Sociology primarily to support the teaching research and community needs of the Sociology section of the School of Social Science.

The discipline however has significant links to other teaching and research areas in the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences.

2. Primary user groups served

The school offers a Bachelor of Arts and Honours through the Faculty of Arts. The school also makes a substantial contribution to the Bachelor of Social Science in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Honours, and a Master of Social Science are also available through this Faculty.

A coursework Masters program is also offered – Plan areas are Criminology, Social Planning and Health Practice. A Masters of Development Practice is also offered as a Faculty program. Candidates for Higher Degree research are also accepted.

At the Undergraduate level, areas of teaching reflecting important contemporary issues include sociological theory and research methodology, development theories and practice, criminology & criminal justice system, multiculturalism and race, families and households, health and illness, sociology of sport, social planning and social impact research methodology, sociology of Australian society, class and gender studies, media and cultural analysis, globalisation, new technologies and future societies, environmental and regional sociology

At the Academic, Research and Postgraduate level research interests cover this same wide spectrum of important contemporary issues with the addition of advanced level theoretical and methodological subjects. Some current research projects are:

• Negotiating the Lifecourse: Household Organisation and Labour Force involvement
• Neoliberalism, Inequality and Politics
• Communicative Interaction on Kids Help Line
• Technical Advice giving on a Software Helpline
• Visual data in Social and Cultural Inquiry
• Engaged Government: a study of Government-Community Engagement for regional Outcomes
• Building Sustainable Social Capital in New Communities
• Site-Level Community Engagement Processes in the Australian Minerals Industry: a comparative analysis.
• Transnationalism and Taiwanese Young People in Australia
• Agriculture, the Environment and the Politics of Sustainability
• Globalisation, Localisation and the Restructuring of Regional Australia
• Sociology of Agribiotechnologies
• "Imagineering" the Nation
• Consumerism and Sustainable Development
• Determinants of Quality of Life in Cities: the South East Queensland in Comparative perspective
• Developmental Determinants of Crash Behaviour
• Longitudinal Study of Social Factors influencing the Health of Mothers and their children
• Summary of National Study of Health Intimacy and Social Relations
• Local experiences of Globalization: an Australian perspective
• New pathways and Belief formation in a High School setting
• Constructing Singapore: Elitism, Ethnicity and the National Building project
• Inequalities, Identities, Politics

3. Description of existing collection

The collections cover the School's broad theme areas: Family and Individual Well being, Indigenous Cultures, Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Science, Communication and Cultural Studies, Social Cohesion and Identity, and Development. Print resources consisting of books, reference material and journals are being significantly enhanced by access to many electronic bibliographic databases and full text e-resources.

Greatest strengths lie in the academic periodicals devoted to the social sciences in general, academic periodicals (both print and e-fulltext) devoted particularly to sociology and Australian publications, both academic and data sets like the Australian Bureau of Statistics publications and Census material.

Areas pertaining to sociological analysis of Australian society such as family, gender studies, feminism, urbanization, class analysis, criminology, media, aboriginal studies, race relations, social policy score a research (4)level. Newer contemporary areas such as future societies, cybercultures, aids and society, men's studies, and regional and environmental sociology are developing.

The library subscribes to the major international sociological indexing service Sociological Abstracts supported by other Social Sciences databases such as Apais, Apais-Atsis, Family, Mais (Multicultural affairs), Cinch(Criminology), Proquest Social Sciences Journals, PAIS, Social Services Abstracts, Infotrac , Cinahl (Nursing and Allied health)

Resource guides are also produced to link users to relevant information.

4. Interdisciplinary relationships

As previously mentioned all teaching and research areas with some social orientation are likely to draw on the general social science titles classified at H, for theory, methodology and empirical data and its subdivisions – HM, HQ, HS, HT, HV. Other areas shared are BF, BL, DU, GF, RA.

5. Scope of current collecting

1. Languages collected

The bulk of the collection is in English, though no languages are excluded.

2. Geographical areas collected

No Geographical areas excluded, however there is a strong emphasis on maintaining depth in Australian material.

3. Chronological periods collected

No chronological periods are specifically excluded.

4. Types (formats) of material collected

No types of material are excluded. However at present the emphasis is on journal and monograph literature.

5. Publication dates

The emphasis is on collecting recent publications, however older materials will be purchased to support teaching and research.

6. Conspectus

Substantial parts of the holdings were assessed as being of the intermediate introductory (3a) or intermediate augmented (3b) and /or research (4) level in the library's assessment of its collections by the Conspectus method in 1993-94.