For Help

Contact liaison librarian Erika Behling

Go to AskUs! to chat with a librarian, to send us your question via email, or to call us at the Reference Desk.

• Learning Outcomes
• Locating Books
• Locating Journal Articles

• Relevant Websites
• Citing Sources

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Use the Library catalog to perform simple searches to locate materials on your topic
• Find full text print and/or electronic articles using various library databases
• Locate websites relevant to your project
• Locate style guide help sheets to assist you in properly citing materials

Back to Top

Quick Links

Sociology Portal

Just For Your Class
SOCA 300 Program Evaluation
SOCA 328 Asians in American Society

Sociology/Anthropology Department homepage

Locating books in this library: Use the Library Catalog to find books owned by the UWP library. Use one of the catalog's keyword search options. Then look at the subject headings used in the records you retrieve. Is there one that describes what you're looking for? If so, click on it to find other books on your topic.

Books in other libraries: To find books and other materials from public, school, and academic libraries across Wisconsin, search BadgerCat. To locate materials in libraries worldwide, try a search in WorldCat.

UW System Search: UW System Search/Universal Borrowing (UB) allows you make arrangements yourself to borrow materials from other UW libraries. All of the 13 UW libraries participate in this program. UB is built on the idea that the UW System libraries together are now one virtual library.

Using the UWP library catalog, you can simultaneously search other UW libraries to determine if the item you want is available. Simply select the "Multi Library Search" link at the top of our library's catalog and conduct your search. If the item is available from another UW library, you can complete an online request form, which will be transmitted directly to the owning library. The owning library will retrieve the material and send it to the UWP library. A courier service runs between the UW libraries five days a week and delivers the requested materials. You can use the UB service to request books and A/V materials, however, requests for periodical articles and for books/media items not owned by the UW Systems should still go through the traditional InterLibrary Loan process.

Some specific reference books you may find useful in your research include:

Profiles of Wisconsin (REF HA715 P764 2007): Racine City/County Data begins on page 328. Poverty status data is included beginning on page 615.

County and City Databook (REF HA202 A36): Education, Income, and Poverty data of relevance to Racine County is on page 257.

County and City Exrta (REF HA203 C68): Crime, Education, Money, Income, and Poverty data is located on page 783.

Back to Top

You will need to use a periodical index to find articles in journals that we own electronically or in print. The indexes listed below will help you find citations to journal articles and other publications on poverty related issues.

Step 2: Now that you have a citation to an article, does the Library own the journal?

After you've found a citation to a journal article in which you're interested, if you don't see a full text link, click the FindIt! button to see if the library has the journal in either print or electronic form. If the Library doesn't own the item you will still be able to request it from InterLibrary Loan.

Conversely, you can check the UWP Periodicals List to see if the Library subscribes to the journal in either print or electronic format.

Off-campus access: These databases are licensed by the Library for the use of the University's students, faculty, and staff, and can be accessed from off-campus. If you are asked to login, you must enter your UW-Parkside email username and password. Your email account must have been previously activated.

Back to Top

The following Web sites contain valuable information on topics relating to Poverty in the United States and Racine County:

• Census Bureau Data on Poverty
• Racine County Quickfacts
• American Fact Finder
• American Community Survey Data (2006)
  • To locate relevant data:
    • Select "Subject Table"
    • Select your "geography" (in this case County), then select Wisconsin and then Racine County
    • Click on "Next"
    • Choose "Poverty" from the "Select a Subject" dropdown near the top of the page
    • Click "Go"
    • Choose the relevant table
    • Remember: " Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability"
• Census Tract Poverty Data (Wisconsin)
• 2000 Census Data Sets (Summary File 3 has a lot of data relating to poverty)
  • To locate relevant data:
    • First choose Summary File 3
    • Select "Deatailed Tables"
    • Choose "Census Tract" under "Geographic Type" then select Wisconsin and Racine County
    • Select the Census Tract you want to find data for (if you select ALL tracts, you will get info for the entire county, not data for each individual tract)
    • After you select a tract, you may want to click "Map It" and print out the map provided -- you can make notes on the map later
    • Click add to add the tract to your data set -- even though you can add multiple tracts I would advise against this at this point because it can wind up more confusing in the end!
    • Choose "Next"
    • With the "Show All Tables" (defaults to this) tab selected, "Add" whatever general tables you want to include data for. I generally included "Total Population," "Race," and maybe "Sex by Age."
    • Make sure to hit "Add" after EVERY table you want to include.
    • Select the "Keyword" tab
    • Enter "poverty" and hit "Search"
    • Choose any additional tables relating to poverty that you wish to add to your data set
    • I generally chose data related to race but you may find others that are useful!
    • Select "Show Result"
    • You will then retrieve the data for the tables you selected
    • Be careful to distinguish between the tables for the ENTIRE census tract and the tables you selected that only refer to poverty data
• Diversity Data (Racine Metro Area)
• Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (2005)
• State of Working Wisconsin (2006) (2007 update here)
• Institute for Research on Poverty
• Health and Human Services: Poverty Guidelines, Research, and Measurement
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Profile of the Working Poor (2005)

Back to Top

Always check with your instructor to determine which citation style to use for class!

ASA style guide (Reference Desk HM73 .A54 1996) presents the style recommended by the American Sociological Association. A copy is available at the Reference Desk. This style guide is also available online at the following URL: http://www.calstatela.edu/library/bi/rsalina/asa.styleguide.html

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Reference Desk BF 76.7 .A46 1994) presents the APA style. How to Cite References Using APA Style ,an online guide prepared by this library, is also available in paper format in the guide rack near the Reference Desk.

The MLA handbook for writers of research papers (Reference Desk LB2369 .G53 1999) provides the recommendations of the Modern Language Association for formatting papers and references. How to Cite References Using MLA Style , an online guide prepared by this library, is also available in paper format in the guide rack near the Reference Desk.

Back to Top