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Poverty, The Structure of

SLU Libraries Catalog

The SLU Libraries Catalog consists of the holdings of all of the Saint Louis University libraries. It includes books, books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and media materials, but does not include individual articles.

It is part of MOBIUS, a shared catalog of 70+ mostly academic libraries in Missouri. And MOBIUS has partnered with the Prospector group of Colorado and Wyoming libraries to make many more resources available. To look for a book, begin the search in the SLU Libraries Catalog.

  • If the book is owned by Pius Library and currently available, it should be at the shelf location identified by its call number.
  • If the book is unavailable at Pius but can be found at another SLU library, use the Catalog's Request feature to borrow it from that other SLU Library. You also can go and check it out yourself from these libraries.
  • If the book is unavailable from a SLU Library, click Search MOBIUS button  to search the MOBIUS Catalog and make a request to borrow the book.
  • If the book is also unavailable via MOBIUS, then use the Prospector feature to search the Prospector Catalog and make a request to borrow the book that way.
  • Finally, if the book is unavailable from both the SLU Libraries and MOBIUS, place an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request for it through the ILLIAD system. [Note: All requests for journal articles should be placed through ILL.]

Notes:

  • See Help Center on searching the SLU Libraries Catalog
  • The SLU Locust Street Library Facility (LSLF) holds valuable but less frequently used material in a high-density, climate-controlled, and closed-stack environment. The Facility houses over 500,000 volumes. Each item appears in the SLU Libraries Catalog with the location “Locust Street Facility.”. Collections at the Locust Street Library Facility include:
    • Most bound journals published before 2000, and journals that are no longer received in print
    • Government Documents
    • Law treatises
    • SLU theses and dissertations
    • Second or third copies of monographs

Request books, government documents, individual journal volumes, or other items using the REQUEST button in the SLU Libraries Catalog. Books will be delivered to the SLU library of your choice for pickup, usually within 24 hours, Monday-Friday. You will receive an email at your SLU email address when the item is ready for pickup or use in the library.

 

Tutorial: How to Search the LIbrary Catalog

Searching the Catalog by Subject

Listed for each of the following topical areas related to the structure of poverty are the primary Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) that may be used to search for them by SUBJECT in the SLU Libraries Catalog [You also could use them to conduct subject searches in the MOBIUS Catalog, to see what our consortial libraries have that SLU does not, and then request those items.] These same subject headings may or may not be used in the various databases that identify journal articles and other sources; nonetheless, they may help you determine the official subject terms used in those databases. Remember that different databases often use different subject terms to express the same topic.

Be alert for various sub-topics or "subdivisions" when viewing subject terms With LCSH and often with other database vocabularies as well, you may find

  • Geographic subdivisions with country or region names, e.g.,
                Topic - Latin America

  • Subject subdivisions, e.g.,
                Topic - Law and legislation
                Topic - Moral and ethical aspects
                Topic - Social aspects

Also remember that there may not (yet) be official subject terms in a database for some topics, especially those related to recent or very contemporary events. In such cases, you should do a keyword search. While keyword searches simply match the combination of letters/numbers you type into a search box, this approach can be helpful in the absence of appropriate official subject terms. Tip: In keyword searches in most databases, put multi-word terms in quotation marks so they are searched as phrases; AND it may be that you'll have greater success finding information on some topic using journal databases instead of the SLU Libraries Catalog and focusing on books.

Topics with a primarily local (St. Louis) focus, such as "Casa de Salud" (the SLU-sponsored health clinic targeting Latinos), may best be searched in databases that index the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; (see the St. Louis Post-Dispatch description under the Databases tab of this guide). However, you still should search for information on the broader topic (e.g., Community health services) so you can place whatever you find about the local situation in context.

Finally, remember that records in the SLU Libraries Catalog refer not only to books but to other types of resources as well (e.g., U.S. government documents).

Here is the aforementioned list, with the topics set off by bullets and followed on the next line with their suggested LCSH:

  • Income inequality, wages (e.g., efforts to raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation)
          LCSH: Income distribution; Indexation (Economics); Inflation (Finance); Minimum wage; Wages

  • Unionization, collective bargaining (e.g., recent efforts to undercut public sector unions)
          LCSH: Labor unions; Collective bargaining

  • Political participation, participatory democracy (e.g., Tea Party; Occupy Wall Street, recall elections, voting rights for felons)
          LCSH:Political participation; Political rights; Loss of-United States; Recall; Tea Party Movement

  • Community building, collective self-detemination (e.g., local community organizing)
          LCSH:Community organization

  • Institutional discrimination based on gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. (e.g., legal recognition of domestic partnerships; affirmative action; tax policies; entitlement vs. welfare programs)
          LCSH:Affirmative Action programs; Aid to Families with Dependent Children Programs-United States; Entitlement spending; Fiscal policy; Gay couples-Legal status, laws, etc.-United States; Medicaid; Public welfare; Same-sex marriage; Social Security; Welfare recipients

  • Housing, homelessness (e.g., recent “squatting” in foreclosed homes; “housing first” efforts to combat homelessness)
          LCSH:Housing; Housing-African Americans; Foreclosure; Homelessness

  • Hunger, food production or distribution (e.g., community gardens)
          LCSH:Community gardens; Food industry and trade; Food supply; Hunger

  • Immigration, legal or illegal (e.g., state laws to "crack down" on undocumented residents)
          LCSH:Aliens-Government policy-United States; Emigration and immigration law-United States; Illegal aliens-United States; Immigration enforcement; United States-Emigration and immigration-Government policy

  • Environmental degradation, pollution (e.g., toxic waste sites; lead paint poisoning)
          LCSH:Hazardous waste management; Hazardous waste sites; Industrialization-Environmental aspects; Lead poisoning

  • Employment and unemployment (e.g., efforts to retrain displaced workers)
          LCSH:Displaced workers; Employment; Structural unemployment; Unemployment

  • Distribution of wealth, social mobility (e.g., social welfare policies that redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor; home mortgage tax credits that benefit middle and upper class)
          LCSH:Income distribution; Mortgages-Taxation-United States; Social mobility; Tax credits-Law and legislation-United States; Wealth-United States

  • Health care access, services (e.g., clinic in St. Louis targeting Latinos)
          LCSH:Health services accessibility; Medically underserved areas; Minorities-Medical care

  • Education (e.g., public vs. private schools; funding of public schools; charter schools)
          LCSH:Charter schools; Education-United States; Public schools; School choice; Tuition tax credits

  • Violence and victimization (e.g., advocacy programs for battered women)
          LCSH:Abused women; Abused women-Services for; Victims of crimes; Violence against women

  • Incarceration, prisons (e.g., disproportionate incarceration of African Americans; programs to transition from prison to community; college-in-prison programs)
          LCSH: Imprisonment; Prisoners-Deinstitutionalization; Prisoners-Education (Higher)

  • Social safety net (e.g., Social Security, Section 8 subsidies, disability insurance)
          LCSH: Disability insurance; Economic assistance, Domestic; Federal aid to public welfare; Housing policy; Housing subsidies; Public welfare; Social Security

  • Capitalism and its variations or alternatives (e.g., capitalism intended to both make a profit and produce a social good)
          LCSH: Capitalism; Mixed economy

  • Foreign aid (e.g., the impact of U.S. or World Bank aid to specific countries)
          LCSH: Economic assistance, American-Country; International Monetary Fund-Country; United States-Foreign economic relations-Country; World Bank-Country

  • U.S. foreign policy (e.g., policies regarding sex tourism, human trafficking)
          LCSH: Human smuggling; Human trafficking; Sex tourism; United States-Foreign relations-Country

  • Global institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO, EU, UN) and their policies (e.g., reinforcing the dominance of the global north over the south)
          LCSH: European Union countries-Economic policy; International Monetary Fund; United Nations; World Bank; World Trade Organization

  • Corporate responsibility (e.g., Apple’s practices regarding their suppliers’ labor and environmental policies)
          LCSH: Company name; Industries-Environmental aspects; Industries-Social aspects; Social responsibility of business

  • Lending policies (e.g., micro-lending and IDAs)
          LCSH: Economic assistance, Domestic-United States; International Development Association; Microfinance; Sustainable development

  • Tax policies (e.g., incentives for employers to hire workers; tax incentives for corporations to move operations overseas)
          LCSH:Tax incentives