Social Welfare at the British

Library

J.M. Grimshaw

www.bl.uk 2

The Vision …

• Is to provide a single point of access to research evidence to

practitioners who need it to support their work and professional

development

• Is to provide access to the British Library’s print and digital collections

on social welfare to people who are unlikely to visit our reading rooms

• Is to provide alerting services to keep people up-to-date with the latest

developments

www.bl.uk 3

The audience…

• Researchers working in think tanks, charities or the

voluntary sector

• Policy makers and those influencing policy

• Social work practitioners and students

• Social work managers and learning development leads

www.bl.uk 4

What subjects?

Services for .. Reform of … Policies on …

Children and

families

Health services Housing

Older people Education Mental health

Disabled people Benefits Employment

Minority groups

Criminal justice Substance

misuse

www.bl.uk 5

We focus on …

Policy ideas

from think

tanks, etc

Policy

development

via

consultation

Policy

implementation

Policy

evaluation

www.bl.uk 6

What’s on the portal?

• Full text research reports

• Parliamentary papers

• Government documents

• Statistical reports

• All rights-cleared and

available free, 24/7

• All hand-selected by curators

www.bl.uk 7

Welfare Reform Digest

• Monthly current awareness bulletin

• Indexes journal and magazine

articles, quality press, books

• Hotlinks to full text of articles – if free

• Otherwise link goes to journal

volumes list – here you may hit a

paywall

• Includes health service reform, mental

health, & learning disabilities

www.bl.uk 8

British Library Collections

• Search our catalogue for details of

books, journal articles, theses, etc in

our main collections

• Articles and theses can be delivered

electronically

• This service is fee-based

• Ask your librarian to arrange an inter-

library loan (if possible)

www.bl.uk 9

Register for our newsletter

• Tailored to your subject interests

• Delivered monthly by email

• Two or three references chosen by us

+ editorial

www.bl.uk 10

Next steps …

• Please visit the portal at:

http://www.socialwelfare.bl.uk

www.bl.uk 11

Need more information?

• Contact me:

– Jennie Grimshaw

Curator, Social Policy Collections

British Library

96 Euston Road

London NW1 2DB

Email: jennie.grimshaw@bl.uk

www.bl.uk 12

Thank you