1. Your Librarians humscilib@swansea.ac.uk
Your Librarians
Before we start, we’d like to find out a few things about you....
Katrina, Marion, Clare, Stephen, Elen, Alison

2. Quick information search refresher
Useful places to search
Reading lists
Google Scholar Reference lists
iFind Research Ask an expert (Lecturer, Librarian)
ASSIA database Specific journals you know of (e.g.: Journal of Social Policy)
Social Policy websites (e.g.: Social Policy Digest Online)

3. Library Support for Social Policy students on Blackboard

4. Make sure you have a search strategy!

5. Searching on a database
Aim
Boolean Operator
Search Examples
Retrieval Formula
To narrow
your search results
AND
housing AND older people
Only retrieves records containing both terms
To broaden your search results OR
housing OR accommodation
elderly OR “older people”
Retrieves records containing either one or more terms
To exclude a term from your search
NOT
Wales NOT Australia
Excludes records containing the second term

6. Looking for facts and figures....
If you were researching the demographic of a particular (e.g.: Swansea) and wanted to find statistics what would your search strategy be to find it?

7. Finding UK and Wales Statistics
Office for National Statistics - Statistics are available on all areas of government policy, such as: Economy, Education, Energy, Environment,  Health and Welfare. 
ONS – Neighbourhood Statistics - wide range of statistical information. You will find statistics on population, employment, socio-economic classification, etc. from the 2011 Census.
StatsWales - is a website of social statistics about Wales which includes the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation which is the official measure of small area deprivation in Wales.
Data Unit Wales - Data sets available on Education, Finance, Housing, Population & migration, Social Services and Transport. 

8. European and Global Statistics
Eurostat - is the statistical office for the EU. It gathers in stats from EU countries, plus other European countries + key countries around the world so that comparisons can be made and trends can be identified.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Statistics Portal. The OECD provides figures on national economies, including agriculture, trade, transport, energy, labour, environment and demography and health.  

9. What are official publications?
Acts of Parliament
Command papers
Departmental publications
Green papers / White papers
House of Commons and House of Lords bills and papers
 Also the equivalent literature which emanates for the devolved governments.

10. How official publications are organised
Parliamentary (HoC, HoL)
Sessional (the business of Parliament) –
House of Commons bills, papers and command papers:
House of Lords – as above (but not command papers)
Proceedings (what happened and what was said)
House of Commons Journal
House of Lords Journal
Hansard (verbatim (word for word) account of what was said by whom).
Legislation
Acts (Statutes) and Statutory Instruments
Non-Parliamentary - i.e publications of government departments

11. UK and Welsh Information
Google site search
Gov.uk- This site contains a full listing of Command Papers and House of Commons Papers (HCPs) from 17 May 2005 to the present.
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers - Over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present also Hansard ( ) Current Hansard are available from Parliament.UK
Legislation.gov.uk - Legislation.gov.uk carries most types of UK Legislation including Welsh Legislation. 

12. European and Global Information
European Sources Online - an online database and information service which provides access to information on the institutions and activities of the European Union, the countries, regions and other international organisations of Europe.
ELDIS- hosted by the Institute of Development Studies, ELDIS catalogues and links to reports, data, articles, policy documents about development issues such as health, welfare, climate change, agriculture and food security and much more.

13. Finding legal information and information from newspapers
Citizens Advice Notes (CANS) - accurate and up-to-date legal information on British and European law. Relevant and updated daily, this is a complete legal resource for anyone with a question about the rights and responsibilities associated with living, working or engaging in life in Britain.
Nexis UK- Access to hundreds of newspapers and other news sources from many countries around the world, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the USA. Nexis UK contains the text of many newspaper articles from the early 1990s onwards.

14. Your Librarians humscilib@swansea.ac.uk
Need help? Just ask
Your Librarians
Book a librarian:
Katrina, Marion, Clare, Stephen, Elen, Alison, Izzy
Find us on /swanuni.iss
@swanuni_iss