With holdings at about 37,000 pieces, SSA Library's collections cover all aspects of social services and social work, including material on child welfare, public welfare, mental health, and urban policy, as well as information on the aged, psychotherapy and delinquency. In addition to its book and journal holdings, the library has a large collection of microfilms, microfiche and pamphlets by governmental and voluntary agencies.
The general book collection is located on the west side of the Library and is arranged by call number. Search the University of Chicago Library Catalog for call numbers. The Horizon catalog contains book titles, journal titles, and other materials. Search using one of the many indexes, including title, author, and subject alphabetical browse, or use keyword searching Searches can be limited to retrieve only items in SSA Library.
Titles in the hardcopy SSA journal collection are located in the middle of the library. The collection is arranged by journal title. Items are primarily for use in the Library, but can be checked out overnight two hours before the library closes.
To see if the University has online subscriptions to a journal search LENS.
Journal titles not in the SSA Library should be searched in LENS to see if they are located elsewhere on campus.
Articles from journals not owned by the University of Chicago Libraries can be requested through Interlibrary Loan.
The reference collection is located east of the general book collection, at the end of the journals. Items are arranged by call number, and are primarily for use in the Library, but can be checked out overnight two hours before the library closes.
SSA maintains a reserve collection for courses taught at the School of Social Service Administration. The Reserve collection also contains readings for the PhD qualifying exam and a few high-use general reference books. Most items circulate for either two hours or forty-eight hours. Phd readings which are not being used for a course are loaned for one week. To obtain items from reserve, request them (by call number) from the attendant at the circulation desk. Please be aware of the due date and time when checking out items from reserve, reference, and the journal collection, since fines for late return of this material are steep.
The pamphlet collection is located in the file cabinets at the west end of the library. Items circulate for the same period as material in the book collection.
Microfiche and microfilm are located in the file cabinets at the west end of the library, next to the microfiche and microfilm readers.
Videos in the SSA collection are available from the circulation desk. They may be checked out for 7 days.
Dissertation proposals dating from the 1970's to the present are kept in author order behind the circulation desk. Please provide the author's name to one of our staff and they will retrieve the title and circulate it to you. The proposals circulate like regular books, on a quarterly basis for students and staff and indefinitely for faculty. The dissertation proposals are in the library catalog, but the catalog cannot be refined to list just SSA's dissertation proposals. We provide a list generated periodically from the catalog for consultation.
© The University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street Chicago Illinois 60637
Phone Numbers
