The Sociology Collection
The Sociology Collection
The Seeley Library is responsible for the print material which supports Sociology courses. This includes theoretical and textbook material which appears on reading lists for Sociology papers. Older material is stored on the mezzanine and can be identified by their yellow strip at the top of the book spine. More modern material is integrated in the ground floor collection.
The Seeley also holds MPhil dissertations for the Sociology Department (details below).
Students studying Sociology also have access to a comprehensive collection of online material, including ebooks, databases and online journals. The Seeley Library team develop this collection and welcome recommendations from members of the University.
For more information about the Sociology collection and relevant online resources, look at the dedicated LibGuide:
https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/sociology
Training and subject specific support for Sociology is provided by Dr Meg Westbury, Academic Services Librarian (Human and Social Sciences): mw528@cam.ac.uk
Accessing scanned material on Moodle
The Seeley Library provides a selection of scanned material for Sociology. If you are enrolled on one of these papers you should have access to our Moodle site. If you don't currently have access but think you should, please get in touch with us and we'll try to get you added as soon as possible!
What you'll find on Moodle... Where an item is marked as core on a reading list and has a chapter specified, we'll try to upload a scan of the chapter to Moodle. We try to upload scans of anything that we think you may struggle to obtain, for example, a popular book that's out of print.
Anything that's available as an eBook or eJournal can't be scanned, but you should always have access via iDiscover.
We are, however, bound by the copyright rules from the Copyright Licencing Agency (CLA); full details can be found on the CLA website.
How to search for Sociology MPhil Theses
The Seeley holds the MPhil theses for Sociology between 1993 - 2017/18. All dissertations need to be requested in the library and read in the reading room.
In order to find a Sociology MPhil thesis, log into iDiscover. Use the search terms 'SPS thesis' for a list of theses from 1993-2010; and 'HSPS thesis' for a list of theses from 2011 onwards.
- Filter the results by restricting your search to the Seeley Library using the 'Location' filter.
- As above, use 'SPS thesis or 'HSPS thesis' and relevant search terms/keywords for your area of interest e.g. 'refugees', 'gender' or author name/title keywords if known.
- If performing a broader search, use 'SPS thesis or 'HSPS thesis' along with a broad category term such as 'sociology', 'politics' or 'media'.
If you still cannot find relevant titles, do contact library staff and we will try to assist with searches.
Please be aware when using these search terms that CFR (Centre for Family Research) theses will also display as part of the Margaret Lowenfeld Collection. If you would like to view CFR titles please contact the CFR administrators: cfr-admin@lists.cam.ac.uk, or ask us at the issue desk.