In This Guide:

Why background?

Background sources (encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.) provide well established summary and factual information. Useful for:

Print and online resources in Social Welfare and Justice.

(Marquette University users only)

Biography in Context from Gale
Text, video, audio clips and images about 250,000+ people from throughout history, and across all disciplines and subject areas.

Formerly Biography Resource Center.
ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) from ICPSR
NOTE: you must create a "MyData" account in order to retrieve data.
Abstracts, longitudinal studies, project overviews, data collection instruments, and descriptions of variables found in the dataset. Most datasets and documentation can be downloaded, from on campus computers, for research and personal use.

For help and documentation, see:
Help and User Guide
ICPSR Youtube channel.
ICPSR holds a wealth of data from a number of sources. Among them:
Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys
Data Sharing for Demographic Research
Health and Medical Care Archive
National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging
NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate, 2003-2014
Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods
National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) Series
Terrorism and Preparedness Data Resource Center.
World Bank DataBank from World Bank
Free data from the World Bank, including: World Development Indicators (WDI), Statistical Capacity Indicators, Education Statistics, Gender Statistics, and Health Nutrition and Population Statistics, and more. Annual data only, mostly 1960 - present.
World Development Indicators -- see -- World Bank DataBank

NationMaster
A massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations on a range of sociological data. Sources include the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD.