Collection Guidelines: Sociology: Subject Definition

These are the guidelines by which materials are purchased for the Sociology collections of the UW Libraries (Seattle Campus).  For questions or more information, please contact the Sociology Librarian, Kathleen Collins.  

UW Libraries: Collection Goals

The UW Libraries is committed to providing convenient and timely access to collections and information resources that are outstanding with respect to their quality, depth, diversity, format and currency to support the research and teaching missions of the University of Washington.

Sociology is the study of the functioning of human societies and of social structures, processes, and relationships.

The collection will be useful to those researching and studying in the Social Sciences and Sciences.  The Sociology Research Guide will help you to begin using the materials (books, documents, electronic databases, journals, magazines, newspapers, and data) in the UW Libraries collection.

Library of Congress Classification (LC):

Sociology research is represented in many Library of Congress Classification ranges; however, these are the core areas:

• HM, general sociology
• HN, social history and conditions; social history; social reform
• HQ, the family; marriage; women
• HS, societies (secret, benevolent, etc.)
• HT, cities, communities, classes, races
• HV, social pathology;social & public welfare; criminology
• Support material is cataloged throughout the LC range, but major overlaps occur in BF, psychology (including social psychology); D-F (history, including social history);GN anthropology (including sociocultural anthropology); H general social sciences; HA statistics; RA 418 (medical call number: WA 30-31) medical sociology