Contact the Education Librarian
Counseling in Educational Settings: Welcome
This guide provides resources for graduate students in the Counseling in Educational Settings program. This includes resources available from Campbell Library, and also resources on state, federal, and school district policies that impact school counselors.
If you have questions or need assistance, please contact your librarian, Ash Lierman, at lierman@rowan.edu, or via the info in the box on the lower left!
Get Started with a Citation Manager
These are software tools designed to help you save, organize, and cite the sources you find for your research.
- Refworks This link opens in a new windowCreate or log in to a RefWorks account to save and organize book and article info, and automatically generate citations in many different styles.
- EndNoteA guide to using EndNote on the web or downloading it to your computer. EndNote does the same things RefWorks does, but has the option of a desktop application instead of being only online.
Find Journal Articles
The links below lead to library databases that include journal articles relevant to educational counseling. Try searching in several or all of these databases for best results.
- Education Source This link opens in a new windowEducation Source is a major education database. As well as scholarly journal articles, it also includes some book chapters and dissertations.
- ERIC This link opens in a new windowERIC is considered the top database in Education, provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Its focus is supporting teaching practice in K-12 education, although it covers other aspects. It includes mostly scholarly journal articles and reports from government agencies. It overlaps with Education Source, but each covers some areas better than the other, and searching both is highly recommended.
- PsycInfo (APA) This link opens in a new windowThe largest database in psychology, which overlaps with many educational psychology, counseling, and general education topics.
- Social Science Premium Collection (1914 - current) This link opens in a new windowA broader database with more newspaper and magazine articles as well as scholarly journal articles, which covers both education and psychology along with other topics.
- Education Database (1988 - current) This link opens in a new windowIncludes articles from many professional magazines in education as well as scholarly articles. This makes it useful for finding simpler articles with practical advice.
Find Books at Rowan Libraries and Other Universities
- Library SearchSearch for books, e-books, media (DVDs, music recordings and scores, etc.) and more in Rowan University Libraries.
To access e-books, click the title of the book in your results, and then click any of the links in the "View Online" section.
For physical books, find the call number below the book title in your results, and use it to locate the book on the shelf. - Interlibrary LoanUse this free service to get articles and books that are not in Rowan's libraries. ILLiad is best for articles and other electronic materials, and EZ Borrow is best for books and other physical materials.
Also note that Library Search actually searches for books and journal articles simultaneously, unless you narrow your search to only books, via the menu options on the left side of the screen.
Find State and Federal Policies: Starting Points
The links below lead to general collections of policy information for educators at the state and federal level.
Find School District Policies
Keep in mind that the policies of the individual school district may be more specific than policies at the state level. School district policy is also an important consideration in decision-making.
Tips on locating school district policies:
- Look up the school district's website directly.
- Policy information can most often be found under sections on the Board of Education for the district.
- Look for general policies by topic as well as policies specifically for counselors (for example, see general substance abuse policies for cases involving student drug or alcohol abuse).
- If policy information is unavailable online for any reason, consider looking for contact information for the Board of Education and reaching out to its members directly.
At the higher education level, college or university policies can usually be found via faculty and staff portals on the institution's website.
Search Within Sites
Google Advanced Search is a valuable tool in specifically looking for key topics within a website, such as a Department of Education or school district website.
- In the "site or domain" field on Google Advanced Search, enter the site on which you wish to search. (Ex.: "nj.gov" "state.nj.us/education")
- Under "Find pages with...," use the fields to add as many key words or phrases as you want to look for. Be sure to use the appropriate field for each type of word or phrase.
- Click Advanced Search to search within the site.
In the example below, "drug abuse" has been entered in the "this exact word or phrase" field, "counseling" and "counselors" have been entered in the "any of these words" field, and "state.nj.us/education" has been entered in the "site or domain" field. This will search for any pages on the New Jersey DOE website that contain the exact phrase "drug abuse" and either the word "counseling" or "counselors."
