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Social Work (HE): Books & E-Books

Textbooks are the first place for you to start when learning about Social Work.

Where can I find the books? Social Work books start at classmark 361.3 and Social Policy is at 361.61. You may also need to read books in other subject areas:  use the Library Catalogue or your reading lists to find these books. 

How long can I borrow the books for?  Most books can be borrowed for 2 weeks. 

Do we have any e-books? We have large collection of e-books for Social Work. E-books can be accessed 24/7 from phones, tablets and laptops.  Find the book you need by using the Library Catalogue or your reading lists.  Just enter your usual College (Moodle/Teams) login when asked for a password.

Borrowing books for longer. 

You can borrow up to 15 items for 2 weeks.  

  • 2 week loan items will automatically renew for up to 20 times - unless another user requests an item, in which case you will be given 5 day notice to return that item.
  • Reference items and journals can be used only in the library

Email reminders about your library use are sent to your College email account. To access your College email account go to Student Links.  You will receive an email confirmation when you borrow an item, and you will receive an email confirmation when an item is due for return.  PLEASE NOTE: if an item cannot be automatically renewed you will receive an email reminder telling you the item and date it must be returned by.  If you do not return an item you will receive email reminders on the due date, 7 days after due date, 14 days after due date, and 28 days after due date.

If you do not wish to regularly check your College email account it is vital that you set up a forwarding rule from your College email account, so that any emails received will be sent to an email address of your choice.  To find out how to do this, click here

You can check the items that you have on loan on the 'My Account' tab at the top of the Library Catalogue.

When you put your search terms into the Library Catalogue, you search the description or summary of every book in the library including e-books.  However, you can also search within the full text of e-books by going to the website of the suppliers (the people we buy the e-books from). 

We buy e-books from three main suppliers which are listed below.  Click on each of the links below and enter your search terms.  The contents of all the e-books in the collection will be searched. 

Most books in the Library are bought to support academic courses taught in college, but it is worth checking if your book is aimed at an academic or professional audience.  Ask the following questions:

  • Is it a general interest book or is it written for a professional or academic audience?  Check the back cover which will usually indicate who the book is aimed at.    
  • Is there extensive referencing or a bibliography?
  • Is it published by reputable publisher?  Many Social Work books are published by Critical Publishing, Policy Press, Bristol University Press, Policy Press and Learning Matters (which is an imprint of Sage).  Also look for scholarly and university publishers such as OUP, CUP, Palgrave, MacMillan, Sage, Wiley, and Elsevier. Check the publisher online if you are not sure. 
  • Are the authors affiliated with a university or an organisation in your field, or are written by well-known practitioners and educators, such as Siobhan MacLean?