The Dewey Library Blog

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) is a comprehensive bibliographic database funded by the federal government. The University at Albany Libraries now subscribes to this database through the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) platform.

This resource covers roughly 197,000 criminal justice publications. The most robust aspect of NCJRS is its collection of reports from federal, state, and local governments and organizations. The database coverage runs from 1972 to the present.

NCJRS access is available from the library Databases and Indexes page. If you use NCJRS, let us know your thoughts about the CSA platform. We welcome your comments –whether made on this blog or directly to a librarian.

Are you looking for tips to search more effectively? Do you have other research questions? You can contact the Reference Desk (stop by, phone 442-3691, send an e-mail). For questions specific to Criminal Justice Research, contact Mary Jane Brustman to set up an appointment.

Posted by Elaine Lasda Bergman at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LIbrarians who are Subject Specialsts here at UAlbany have created online guides, to help you get the "lay of the land" with regard to key library resources for your academic discipline. These guides are found on the sidebar of our Dewey pages, under the heading: My Research Subject . You will also find them in the pull-down menu of the UA Libraries' main page .

Bibliographer (also the Head of Dewey) Mary Jane Brustman has updated the Subject Guides for Social Welfare and Criminal Justice.

The guides now include information about resources relevant resources in our Special Collections Department. For example, Special Collections has an archive of materials from Neighborhood and Community Associations, which may be useful for Social Welfare researchers; and The National Death Penalty Archive, of interest to some Criminal Justice researchers.

In addition to a slightly redesigned format (e.g., the guides now display an image of a recently published work by departmental faculty), the Social Welfare and Criminal Justice Subject Guides also have a "mini-update" at the bottom listing upcoming classes and library events that pertain to the subject.

We hope you'll take a look at the Subject Guides and provide us wiith feedback -- how helpful are these guides? What can we do to make them more useful? Our purpose is to make the library easier for you to use, so we welcome your opinions.

Posted by Elaine Lasda Bergman at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mary Jane Brustman and Richard Irving were contributors to the recently published reference series Resources for College Libraries. This seven-volume set offers a core collection of hand-selected titles in 58 curriculum-specific subject areas. The purpose of this reference is to assist academic librarians with the selection of materials in their subject areas. Dick served as a bibliographer for the Criminal Justice section (i.e., he selected which resources would be included) and Mary Jane was the editor of that chapter.

If you are interested in perusing Resources for College Libraries, it may be found in the Dewey Reference section, call number REF Z 1039 C65 R35X 2006.

Posted by Elaine Lasda Bergman at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Criminal Justice Abstracts now contains fulltext articles from 17 major research journals.

With the University Libraries’ subscription to Criminology:a Sage Full-Text Collection, articles from Crime and Delinquency, Homicide Studies, Police Quarterly, Theoretical Criminology, and other journals published by Sage Publications are available as PDF files within the Criminal Justice Abstracts database.

Access to Criminal Justice Abstracts is available through the Database Finder.

For assistance with searching this database, or other criminal justice research, contact Mary Jane Brustman.

Posted by Elaine Lasda Bergman at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Title: Punishment in America: A Reference Handbook.
Author: Cyndi Banks
Publication information: (2005) Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, Inc.
Dewey Location: REF HV 9466 B35 2005

The idea of punishing people in our society raises many questions. Our first Reference Resource begins to answer such questions as:

“Why should offenders be punished at all? How did punishment originate, and what should be its purpose? Howe does society decide what are the most appropriate ways to punish and how have these methods of punishment changed over time and why? Do we punish because we believe in retribution, or do we just think it is better to lock up all criminals and incapacitate them so they cannot reoffend? ”

The book is organized into several sections. The first is a section titled: “The History of Punishment in America,” which discusses: the use of corporal punishment, the growth of the penitentiary, reformatories, and the movement toward rehabilitation and community service. Another section, “Problems, Controversies and Solutions,” discusses major policy issues surrounding punishment, such as: gender issues, capital punishment, white collar crime, and privatization of prisons. The global perspective is touched upon, and a chronology of major events in the history of punishment is provided. Very brief, one paragraph biographical sketches of notables who influenced our concept of punishment in America include: John Augustus, Alexis de Tocqueville, Thomas Eddy and others. A “Facts and Data” section gives information on the prison population, number of sex offenders, incarceration rates, and death penalty statistics. In addition, there is a section providing agencies and organizations that deal with this topic, as well as a bibliography of print and non-print resources.

The heart and soul of this book is the section providing the history of punishment in America, and it is a good resource to get the “big picture” on this important topic. This background information may be helpful to provide the context for an issue that is being researched or possibly help a researcher focus from a broad concept to a research thesis.

You will find this book in the Reference Section of the Dewey Library.

Posted by Elaine Lasda Bergman at 02:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)