New report on child poverty.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have released a new report called 'Doing better for families'. The report looks at the percentage of children living in poverty across a whole range of countries. You can click here to see the summary of the report. I'll be buying the full report in an electronic form in the near future.

The report was debated on Radio 4 this morning (28th April) so you can hear it for the next 7 days as 'listen again' by clicking here.

Clare in the Community

There's a comedy show that's been running on radio 4 since 2004 called Clare in the Community which deals with the work and personal turmoil of a social worker, played by the marvellous Sally phillips. It was originally a weekly comic strip in the Guardian which you can see here.

The title character is every social worker stereotype rolled into one but don't let that put you off.

After all, I'm a librarian. I know all about stereotypes.

That said, if you're in any way sensitive about the social worker stereotype then probably avoid it. It's usually broadcast at 6:30 in the evening so the rudeness is fairly low level, although my 9 year-old usually ends up asking awkward questions afterwards.

Thought I'd mention it as the show is back on radio 4 next week so click here for details.

All the cool 3rd year kids use Zetoc.

Well that's plainly not true but I'm trying to sell you something here so just go with it and keep reading if you're currently knee deep in dissertation searching. And this post isn't just for students writing dissertations. If you're coming to the end of Year 2 and want to make life easier for yourselves next year this is definitely for you.

Zetoc is the British Library journal catalogue. What makes it useful is it contains a basic record of pretty much every journal article published anywhere. Ever.
Now that doesn't mean you can suddenly get full-text access to everything-you can't, but it does give you an opportunity to find basic information about articles and if you're a final year student order articles through learning resources. Still reading? Okay.

Zetoc also offers the opportunity for you to create 'email alerts', which means that if new things are published which match keywords of your choice (for example "childhood obesity") Zetoc sends you an email to let you know what's just been newly published. The procedure is reasonably straightforward to set up but if you need help - ask. For those of you who want help I can organise a hands-on workshop and then you can all sit back and wait for the details of new journal articles to come to you. Just remember it won't be full-text.

Still with me? If you're still reading then you're serious about finding the newest and most relevant research on your dissertation and will sweep all before you.

This link here will take you to the login page for Zetoc.

Once you're in Zetoc you'll find instructions on how to set up the email alerts.
This is a fairly simple thing to do (promise!) and it can make finding resources a little easier.

Good luck and contact me if you need help.

A database to find social information on different countries.

You may on occasion be given assignments where you're asked to compare different countries across a whole range of perspectives.
These assignments may touch on health provision, wealth, employment or any number of other social factors.

We have a database called Marketline which has in-depth reports on 100's of individual countries from all around the world. Marketline is primarily a business studies database but that's no barrier to anyone using it.

Let me give you a quick overview of how to use it.

I'll give you the link to log in to Marketline shortly but if you scroll down you'll see a screenshot of what the Marketline homepage looks like.

If you want to find a profile on a particular country click where it says 'Browse All Countries Information' and choose an option. On average the reports are around 80 pages covering many aspects of a country's make up.

Okay? The link to log-in (use the same log-in details as usual) to Marketline is here.

If you'd like me to go through the database again in preparation for a future assignment then just ask.

Radio 4 series following newly qualified social workers.

Heard the trailer for a new radio 4 series on the way to work this morning.

The series is called, 'Who'd be a social worker?' and begins on Monday 2nd May at 4:30pm. Click here to read some details about the first episode. I'll certainly be listening and I've no doubt my admiration will grow even larger for anyone prepared to work with children and families.

"Dad, can I go on the laptop?"

These words, usually uttered by my 9 year-old, but increasingly by the 4 year-old, always make me want to shout, 'NO, THE WEB IS AN INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS HOTBED OF DEPRAVITY-READ A BOOK INSTEAD'.

And then I turn my brain back on and the negotiations begin.

I was talking to another parent a while ago about on-line security and remembered back to the 'Safer children in a digital world' report by Dr Tanya Byron. Although the report came out in 2008 it is still incredibly prescient.

If you're interested in how children learn by using on-line technology and video games then I'd urge you to look at the report which you can find here.

What made me think about this whole issue again recently was the story that a small number of children had been granted shotgun licenses. The BBC broke the story here. I took to wondering if Steve Bloomfield (who says age should not be a restriction to shotgun usage) of the British Association of Shooting and Conservation had a similarly relaxed attitude to allowing children to shoot virtual games.
                          
I think the age rating system for video games is clearly a good thing and I won't allow my boys to play that are age inappropriate. However, I also know that if I had to choose between real or virtual shotguns I'd hand over the virtual version to my own children every time.

The Times online and "adoption apartheid".

This post is about 2 things really but they are linked.

Okay. The first thing is that The Times yesterday ran a story highlighting the disparity in waiting times between white and black children looking to be adopted. This story is part of a broader campaign which The Times is currently running to look at how adoption is run in the UK. Now usually I'd give you a link to The Times website but I can't because The Times online is now subscription only. It's the first newspaper in the UK to go this route but I'm prepared to bet it won't be the last.

Now for the good news. I've mentioned a database called Newsbank before but it's worth repeating because of this story. Newsbank is a database which just has full-text newspaper articles from the UK. There's a 24 hour publication delay but yesterday's article from The Times is now available.

One more thing. The report which The Times was quoting from is the statutory guidance given to adoption agencies published by the Department of Education. So click here to see the report and click here to arrive at the log in screen for Newsbank UK.