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Belzberg Library welcomes students in the Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue to SFU Vancouver. This guide will help you to use our library to find and evaluate research material for your projects. If you have any further questions about library services, please contact Jorge Cárdenas, at or .
Research Sources for Being About Action: Local Leaders, Global Futures
Library research involves selecting your topic, identifying the best sources and appropriate research tools, accessing the items found and evaluating your results. Start Your Research Here is a brief guide that will help you with this process.
Start your hunt for information "at home" by visiting the SFU Library home page. This gathers all the best research tools, guides and research help in one place.
Books, ebooks, Films, Music, Sound, Slides
Search the Catalogue to find all books, reports and media materials in the SFU Library at all three campuses (Belzberg - Vancouver; Bennett - Burnaby; Fraser- SFU Surrey).
- Searching by KEYWORD is generally the best way to start. Once you have found some good results with your keyword searches, use the subjects on those items to focus your search.
- Browse search the following SUBJECT headings:
- Leadership
- Community leadership
- Civic leaders
- Community
- Community development
- Community development, Urban
- Community organization
- Social change
- Social action
- Social movements
- Social advocacy
- Organizational change
- Local government
- Municipal government
- Sustainable development
- Partnership
- Political participation
- Social participation
- Civil society
- If the item is not available at Belzberg Library, or is out on loan, please request it!
- For a step-by-step interactive guide to searching the SFU catalogue, see the SFU Library Catalogue Search Guide.
Journal and Newspaper Articles
- All print and electronic journals subscribed to by the SFU Library are listed in the catalogue. Electronic journals are also listed in the Electronic Journals Database by title, subject and by the association/organization who publishes the journal.
- Connect to Article Indexes and Databases to find articles in academic journals, trade magazines and newspapers, as well as financial and statistical data. Many indexes provide online access to the full text of the articles or allow you to directly request photocopies of articles through the "where can I get this?" link. Use the appropriate subject lists to identify the most useful databases for your topic.
- Good article databases for Being About Action: Local Leaders, Global Futures:
- Academic Search Premier - multidisciplinary index to academic and popular journals.
- Alternative Press Index - indexes alternative and independent media sources.
- Business Source Premier - full text for over 3,700 business journals.
- Canadian Newsstream - full text of major Canadian newspapers and Canwest's small market BC papers.
- CBCA Complete - multidisciplinary index to Canadian journals and magazines.
- Humanities and Social Sciences Index - Covers basic periodicals on all social sciences and humanities topics.
- JSTOR - Searchable, archival collection of core scholarly arts, humanities and social sciences journals.
- Sociological Abstracts - Theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science.
- Web of Science - excellent multidisciplinary source. Indexes thousands of social science and humanities journals in addition to science journals. Other features include cited reference searches and personal alerts.
- Try the same subject terms as suggested for books, or check the thesaurus or list of subject terms within the database.
- For help with searching databases, check Finding Journal Articles and/or Moving From Citation to Article.
- For books and articles not online or at SFU, request an Interlibrary Loan.
Statistics and Government Information
- The Local Government Department of BC's Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development includes a very useful links section. The ministry also hosted a page on the World Urban Forum.
- BC Stats website includes sections on Regional Statistics and Regional Socio-Economic Profiles
- Canadian Research Index lists all depository publications of research value issued by the Canadian federal, provincial and territorial governments
- Statistics Canada allows you to find statistics by subject and community profiles based on the 2006 Census.
- UN Habitat's site for World Urban Forum 3.
Selected Internet Sources
In addition to the library catalogue and article indexes and databases, you will find much good information on the web. Governments, research institutes, non-profit organizations, industry and other associations and companies all have websites - many with publications freely available. Use one of the web search engines to find additional information, including the websites of interest groups and other organizations.
Useful sites for Being About Action: Local Leaders, Global Futures
- Ashoka social entrepreneurship and leadership
- CasePlace developing leaders for a sustainable society from the Aspen Institute. Includes a large collection of free online case studies in many areas including Leadership and Business, Government and Society. Requires a free sign-up.
- Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University includes a good resources section.
- Centre for Sustainable Community Development SFU research centre. Includes a useful links section.
- Changemakers an Ashoka initiative connecting insights of Ashoka's social entrepreneurs with the best work in the citizen sector.
- CivicInfo BC - official website of the union of British Columbia Municipalities.
- Civicus World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Echoing Green providing funding and support for social entrepreneurs.
- Federation of Canadian Municipalities
- Global Development Research Centre carries out initiatives in the spheres of environment, urban, community, economy and information.
- Leadership for a Changing World encouraging public dialogue about leadership for social justice. Includes a selection of leadership dialogues
- Leadership Learning Community developing leadership that can address a range of social issues. Includes a resources section
- Leader to Leader Institute to strengthen the leadership of the social sector
- NextBillion development through enterprise from the World Resources Institute. Has a good links section.
- Community Futures Pan West is a gateway to a network of 268 Community Economic Development offices across Canada.
- Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
- Social Edge By social entrepreneurs. For social entrepreneurs.
- Vancouver Social Enterprise Forum evolving thoughts on the state of social enterprise in Vancouver that includes a great set of links.
- World Urban Forum and Youth
Sites of organizations profiled in the course text How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein:
Research guides for related subjects
- Subject Research guides are produced by SFU liaison librarians to point you to the best external sources as well as providing information about publication available in the library. Try these guides for further suggestions.
Ask Us!
If you would like any further assistance or information about the library or your research, don't hesitate to Ask Us! in person, by phone, email or interactive reference.