Social Work Abstracts Tutorial
This tutorial will review how to use the Social Work Abstracts database. Social Work abstracts indexes over 45,000 records on topics of Social Work and Human Services dating back to 1968.
To begin, select the multi-field screen to optimize your search results. The multi-field search screen provides search boxes to enter multiple search terms and connect them with AND, OR, NOT. There is also a limit option located on this initial search screen, which you can use to narrow down your results.
For this tutorial we will focus on searching for articles about elder abuse. For an initial search, type in the term Elder Abuse and click search. You will notice on the left hand side of the results screen there are a total of 164 results. However, this search can be improved upon. In order to retrieve the most extensive search results, think of some relevant search term synonyms. For example, in scholarly articles the word aged is often used to describe the elderly. Use the multiple search boxes to type the terms Aged OR Elderly AND Abuse. The combination of similar terms will broaden your search for the elderly but also narrow it down to articles focused on elder abuse.
Sometimes keyword searches can be too broad. For example, the first record is from the journal “Child Abuse & Neglect,” this article may mention all the keywords but not specifically focus on elder abuse. To narrow down your results, select one or two of your search terms that are the most significant. Use the drop down menu to select Subject Heading for the terms aged and elderly. Initially there were 279 results, but when we click search, there is now a total of 79 results. Click the first blue hyperlinked article title to view all of the article’s subject headings. Subject Headings are specific terms publishers have chosen to describe some of the main ideas of the article/publication.
Back on the records screen, along the left side,there are several available options you can use tonarrow, or filter, your results. For example, you can narrow down by suggested subjects, specific authors or journals, or publication type.
To investigate your current set of results, click on the blue hyperlinked title to view the article’s abstract and the rest of citation information. Social Work Abstracts is an index with no full text located directly within the database. To retrieve the article click on the Get it@BU link to the right of the citation. If we have electronicaccess to the article, you can retrieve it in another database, if not the publication will need to be interlibrary loaned. Refer to the Get it@BU tutorial for more information.
If you need any additionalhelp go back to the Binghamton University Libraries page, and use the Ask Us link at the top right-hand corner of the page.
[Updated 2/10/12 by AL]