Finding Books :

For students taking classes on campus at North Park University, the easiest way to start finding books is to search the library catalog. (For help in searching the online catalog, see here.) Often, a subject search will give you more focused information on a topic. To perform a subject search, type a word into the catalog, and then select "Subject" in the box to the right.

Popular sample subject words in the area of community development:

• social justice
• urban policy or city planning
• economic development
• Chicago

Many books on this subject can be found on the second floor of the library in the H section, but other subject areas will also be helpful.

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Finding Database Articles:

Begin by searching the list of databases by subject under your category. If you'd like to try to search them all at once, try the multisearch. Remember to decide if you'd like to search just for books or articles, and to try to narrow your search by picking one area to search (perhaps social sciences?).

• Sociological Abstracts indexes all sorts of social science articles and journals. Remember that this database has abstracts only (no full-text), so be sure to check our catalog and Journal A-Z list to see which articles you can get right away before trying to interlibrary loan them.
• Academic Search Premier includes full-text magazine and newspaper articles which track current events, as well as several journals in sociology.
• Chicago Tribune online will give you lots of information about current and past events which occured in Chicago and across the country.
• ATLA, our main religion database, includes tons of information about social justice issues.

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Helpful Webpages:

Try looking at our Chicago website to find more facts about the city itself.

You can also look at our United States statistics website to learn more facts about our country and its citizens.

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