Online Help

General Information
Internet Sociology
Our Homepage on the Internet

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GENERAL INFORMATION

Sociologists have begun to use the internet in a variety of ways to benefit their efforts in teaching and research. For those of you who are still relatively new to the cyber age, you may first wish to read some of the following resources that provide information on using the internet in very general and introductory terms:

Imp's Internet GuideThis beginner's guide to the Internet covers all the basics, from browsers to e-mail to RSS feeds to chatting and beyond.
How to do research on the Internet - From Monash University.
Finding Information on the Internet - A tutorial created by the library staff at the University of California, Berkeley
ILT Publications on Education and the Internet - From the Institute for Learning Technologies, Columbia University.

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INTERNET SOCIOLOGY

Once you have mastered basic skills in using the internet, you may wish to read more specific information about resources available to sociologists on the internet:

WWW Virtual Library: Sociology - Developed and maintained at McMaster University in Canada, this is a good jumping off point to begin your exploration of the world of sociology on the Internet

Intute: Social Sciences Guide to Sociology on the Internet - Formerly known as SOSIG (Social Sciences Information Gateway), Intute is a British site compiled by editors at the University of Surrey.

noodletools.com - A site that can quickly help you locate the right search engine to use to get the information you need. Highly recommended!

Using the Internet for Sociological Research - From Monash University Library, Australia.

sociolog.com - Julian Dierkes' comprehensive guide to sociology on the Internet

SocioWeb - An independent guide to the sociological resources available on the Internet, compiled by Mark Blair at Sonoma State University

A Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace - A guide put together by sociologist Michael Kearl at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX.

sociosite.net - The website of the Social Science Information System based at the University of Amsterdam

cybertheory.htm - Mathieu Deflem's guide to sociological theory on the internet, initially published in the July 2001 newsletter of the theory section of the American Sociological Association.

The Internet for Sociologists - By Rob Kling, Center for Social Informatics, Indiana University. Somewhat dated, but still contains useful insights

Also, here are a few useful resources for using the Internet for historical research:

History On-Line: websites and online resources - A British site containing historical research links sorted by type of history, geographical area, time period, and type of resource (library, dataset etc.)

Primary Sources on the Web - A useful guide from the American Library Association on finding, evaluating, and citing primary sources on the Web

In line with our interest areas, section members may also wish to learn a bit about the history and sociology of the internet itself:

A Brief History of the Internet - Written by a collective of some of theinternet's creators.

History of the Internet - Dated but very nicely illustrated presentation at the Computer Museum History Center.

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OUR HOMEPAGE ON THE INTERNET

This homepage not only provides links to pages constructed by the Wed Editor on the basis of information offered by the section members but also contains links to information available on other servers outside the homepage. An example are the Funding Opportunities on the Research Tools page, such as the NSF Sociology program.

The Recent Publications page and Online Library contain online articles and books (or their abstracts) in a variety of different formats, which may need an additional word of clarification.

Online Papers: Some papers are readily available on the internet, typically on the authors' server or that of their institution. See for example:

"From Class Compromise to Class Accommodation: Labor’s Incorporation into the Indian Political Economy", in Mary Katzenstein and Raka Ray, Social Movements and Poverty in India, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).

Subscription-Based Online Publications: Other papers are only available online if you work from a server at an institution that has a subscription to the online provider. The most famous example of these subscription-based providers is JSTOR, to which most all universities and colleges will subscribe. JSTOR allows direct linking to individual articles. For example:

Rethinking the Modular Nation Form: Toward a Sociohistorical Conception of Nationalism
Manu Goswami
Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 44, No. 4. (Oct., 2002), pp. 770-799.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-4175%28200210%2944%3A4%3C770%3ARTMNFT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W