With holdings at about 39,000 pieces, SSA Library's collections cover all aspects of social services, social welfare, and social work, including material on child welfare, public welfare, mental health, and urban policy, as well as information on psychotherapy, the aged, and delinquency. In addition to book and journal holdings, the Library has a collection of microfilms, microfiche, and pamphlets.
The general book collection is located on the west side of the Library and is arranged by call number.
Search Lens or The Library Catalog to find items in all campus libraries, including books, periodicals, sound recordings, videos, DVDs and more.
See our Library Guide, How Do I Find Books? for more information.
Search our Ejournals database to check for online access.
See our How do I Find Journals? guide and our How do I Find Articles? guide for more information.
SSA's hardcopy or print journal collection is 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 we have a printed copy of a journal search for the journal title in Lens or The Library Catalog.
The reference collection is located east of the general book collection, at the end of the journal collection.
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.
The SSA Library maintains a reserve collection for courses taught at the School of Social Service Administration.
To view course reserve lists, login to Chalk with your CNET ID and password.
Reserve items may be requested by call number at the SSA circulation desk.
Please be aware of the due date and time when checking out reserve items since fines for late returns are steep.
More information on accessing course reserve material via Chalk is here.
For faculty: Submittiing Reserve Requests.
Records for most U. of C. dissertations (1893+ ) should appear in Lens, the Library Catalog, and ProQuest's dissertation database. The University of Chicago relies on the ProQuest dissertation database for dissertations completed after June 2009 and forward. The Library holds a print copy of most University of Chicago doctoral dissertations deposited before Summer 2009, as well as some early masters' theses. Records for our dissertations appear in ProQuest's dissertation database within 8-12 weeks after convocation. Records will appear in Lens and the Library Catalog also, but this takes about a year.
Search only SSA dissertations
note the "refine search" option to search within this list.
A pamphlet collection relating to the field of social services is located in file cabinets at the west end of the library.
The collection is fully cataloged and searchable in Lens or The Library Catalog.
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.
Here is a list of films, videos, DVDs, slides, etc. at SSA.
Videos and DVDs are located in the SSA Library bookstacks, next to the journals and newspapers.
The loan period for SSA Library videos is 7 days.
For more information about finding films at the University of Chicago see our How do I Find Films? guide.
See also the Counseling and Therapy in Video database for online access to counseling sessions and demonstrations, consultations, lectures, presentations, and interviews, and teaching and discussion guides.
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