For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Labour Studies by email moninder_lalli@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.

Guides: fake news, pandemic

• How to spot fake news: Identifying propaganda, satire, and false information
• Researching Covid-19, Pandemics and Society
• Media literature review guide: How to conduct a literature review of news sources

Research 

Essay: Start Your Research Here - For an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.

How to Read a Journal Article (pdf) - Tips and tricks to make reading and understanding social science journal articles easier from the organization, ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research).

Selected encyclopedias and books

It is useful to start by obtaining an overview of a topic by consulting scholarly encyclopedias, handbooks or even textbooks.  These assist with identifying key authors, debates and resources.

• Building a Better World: An Introduction to Trade Unionism in Canada [print]
• Cambridge handbook of the changing nature of work
• Canadian Labour Relations: An Information Manual [print]
• Handbook Global History of Work
• Handbook of Employment and Society: Working Space [print]
• Labour Market Economics: Theory, Evidence, and Policy in Canada [print]
• Palgrave handbook of workplace well-being
• Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking
• Routledge handbook of the gig economy
• Routledge handbook of the history of settler colonialism
• Routledge Handbook on Native American Justice Issues
• Routledge international handbook of contemporary racisms
• Routledge international handbook of globalization studies
• Sage handbook of neoliberalism
• Work and Labour in Canada: Critical Issues [print]

For more, check out "Background information" for LBST

For more, check out Labour Studies Guide's, Background Information tab.

Databases for journal articles

Databases let you easily to search for articles from within scholarly journals for a discipline.

• How to find journal articles tutorial. 
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?

If the full-text of the article is not available within the database then use the "Get@SFU" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.

• America: History and Life
  Indexes literature on all aspects of United States and Canadian history, culture, and current affairs from prehistoric times to the present.
• ProQuest Sociology Collection - for issues related to class, gender, racism, sexuality and sexism and theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science. For information of immigrants, racism, society, etc.
• Social Sciences Full Text  Covers social science journals
• Business Source Complete
  This database offers information in virtually every area of business including accounting & tax, banking, finance & insurance, economics, labour, human relations, and much more.
• CBCA Full Text Business - Canadian focus: Trade journals, general business publications, academic journals, topical journals, and professional publications. For Canadian news articles, try the database Canadian Newsstream
• Academic Search Premier -- (multidisciplinary) covers many GSWS journals in full text. provides access to articles in scholarly journals and magazines. You can "limit" your search results to "academic" or "scholarly" sources.
• Political Science Complete
  Indexes full-text articles from over 480 journals, and indexing and abstracts for nearly 2,100 additional titles. PSC has a worldwide focus, reflecting the globalization of contemporary political discourse. PSC offers literature on general topics in labour studies as well as geographically-specific literature.
• Canada Commons (formerly, Canadian Electronic Library from desLibris) - Canadian health and public policy documents, and Canadian e-books. 
  • The "Boolean operators" (AND, OR) must be in capital letters.
  • If you don't want variations of a term then put the term in quotation marks ("term")
  • Basic search engine
    • policy AND gender AND ("wage gap" OR "pay equity") - results limited by selected "subjects". You can apply additional limits.
  • Advanced search engine: policy AND gender AND ("wage gap" OR "pay equity") 

For more useful databases consult the databases guide for Labour Studies.

If you have a reference (citation) for a book or journal article from another source, you can also use From Citation to Article to locate a copy.

For more databases, try Labour Studies Databases

Databases for news stories

The library has a number of databases that provide access to stories from different newspapers in the world. The three databases in this section would cover English language newspapers from around the world. The additional guides listed at the end of this section provide additional links to news sources.

Selected news databases

While labour studies topics would be covered in many databases, the ones below are databases that index newspapers and other news sources.  For Canadian news, the main database is Canadian Newsstream.

• Canadian Newsstream  - full text of over 350 Canadian newspapers from Canada's leading publishers.  
• Nexis Uni - Indexes newspapers from around the world, in English and other languages. Includes transcripts from the major television and radio networks.
• Factiva
  Over 35,000 sources (newspapers, newswires, industry publications, websites, company reports, and more) from 200 countries, in 26 languages. Includes the Wall Street Journal.

For more, try: News, Alternative news, Newspapers

Find books

The Library Catalogue provides access to books, journal articles, videos, government documents and much more.  To limit the search results to "books", use the filter (left-hand column in search results) to "resource type" of "books."

Library Catalogue search guide

Search the SFU Library Catalogue, using either the Basic or the Advanced search

Search for books by a specific author or organization

Select "Author" from the pulldown menu in the Browse Search.

• Herod, Andrew
• ILO
• Labour Relations Board Of British Columbia

For known items it is best to check using "Browse by title" icon.  E.g. Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and dimed  [print], [electronic]

Search by topic, using Basic or Advanced Search. Limit the results by subject (left-hand column) and resource type, books

• capitalism AND (labor OR labour)
• "global political economy" AND (labor OR labour OR worker* OR unions)
• (labor OR labour) AND canad*
• (work OR jobs OR employ*) AND canad*
• (work OR jobs OR employ*) AND (edi OR equit* OR diversity OR inclus*) AND canad*
• (work OR jobs OR employ*) AND (race OR class* OR gender OR women OR ethni* OR "visible minor*" OR equity OR diversity) AND canad*
• (women OR female* OR gender*) AND (labor OR labour) AND (race OR class* OR ethni* OR "visible minor*") AND canad*
• ("labour union*" OR "labor union*" OR "trade union*") AND (women OR female*) AND Canad*
• (paid OR unpaid) AND (work OR employment OR jobs OR labor OR labour)
• settler colonial* AND canad*
• settler colonial* AND (work* OR jobs OR employ*) AND canad*
• (labor OR labour OR worker* OR jobs) AND "technological innovat*"
• precar* AND (work* OR jobs OR employ*) AND (future OR trend* OR outlook OR forecast OR projection)
• (migrant* OR foreign) AND (labor* OR labour* OR worker*) AND (challenge* OR hardship* OR problem* OR racis* OR inequal* OR exploit* OR unfair) AND canad*
• ("forced labour" OR "slave labour" OR "human trafficking") AND ("human rights" OR abuse OR exploit*)

Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words

Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

Look at the titles in the "results list" and for those books that look relevant, click on their subject headings to find more books on that topic.

Selected books

• An introduction to the sociology of work and occupations [print]
• Automation and the Future of Work [print]
• Canada at a Crossroads: Boundaries, Bridges, and Laissez-Faire Racism in Indigenous-Settler Relations
• Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century
• Contemporary inequalities and social justice in Canada 
• Decent Work: Concept, Theory and Measurement
• Decolonizing employment : Aboriginal inclusion in Canada's labour market  [print]
• Deconstructing Essentialism: Migrant Women in Stratified Labour Markets
• Employment Equity in Canada : The Legacy of the Abella Report 
• Equity, diversity, and Canadian labour [2007]
• Essential work, disposable workers : migration, capitalism, and class [print]
• Faces of Precarity : Critical Perspectives on Work, Subjectivities and Struggles
• Farm workers in Western Canada : injustices and activism
• Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy
• Future of Work / Government of Canada
• Future of work, technology, and basic income
• Game changers in labour law : shaping the future of work 
• Gender, Class and Power An Analysis of Pay Inequalities in the Workplace
• Globalization and precarious forms of production and employment : challenges for workers and unions
• Job : Work and its future in a time of radical change 
• Inequality studies from the global South
• Insecurity, Precarious Work and Labour Markets Challenging the Orthodoxy 
• Liberating temporariness? : migration, work, and citizenship in an age of insecurity
• Made in Canada : how the law constructs migrant workers' insecurity
• Making Care Count : A Century of Gender, Race, and Paid Care Work 
• Non-standard Employment under Globalization : Flexible Work and Social Security in the Newly
• Power & resistance : critical thinking about Canadian social issues [print]
• Precarious lives : Job insecurity and well-being in rich democracies 
• Race and racialization : essential readings [print]
• Race, gender and contemporary international labor migration regimes : 21st-century coolies?
• The realities and futures of work
• Rise of the robots : technology and the threat of a jobless future
• Selling diversity: immigration, multiculturalism, employment equity, and globalization
• Settler : identity and colonialism in 21st century Canada [print]
• Southern insurgency : the coming of the global working class
• Technology and the future of work : the impact on labour markets and welfare states
• Unfree labour? : struggles of migrant and immigrant workers in Canada
• Working in a global era : Canadian perspectives [print]
• Workplace of the future : the fourth industrial revolution, the precariat and the death of hierarchies
• World employment and social outlook : The changing nature of jobs [2015]

Find books by subject

Browse by Subject    (change the default "title" to "subject").  Browse by Subject will only result in books, not book chapters or journal articles.

• Capitalism
• Capitalism -- Developing countries
• Capitalism -- Social aspects
• Collective bargaining -- Canada
• Discrimination in employment
• Discrimination in employment -- Canada
• Employee Rights
• Equality -- Canada
• Forced Labor
• Foreign workers -- Canada
• Human trafficking
  • Human trafficking -- [names of countries]
• Human trafficking -- Canada
• Human Trafficking -- Government Policy
• Immigrants -- Employment -- British Columbia
• Labor
• Labor -- Canada
• Labor laws and legislation -- British Columbia
• Labor laws and legislation -- Canada
• Labor market -- British Columbia
• Labor Market -- Canada
• Labor movement -- Canada
• Labor policy -- British Columbia
• Labor policy -- Canada
• Labor Supply -- British Columbia
• Labor supply -- Canada
• Labor Unions -- Canada
• Labor unions -- United States
• Pay equity
• Pay equity -- Canada
• People with disabilities -- Employment -- British Columbia
• Precarious employment
• Race Discrimination -- Canada
• Sociology of work
• Trade unions See Labor unions
• Women -- Employment -- Canada
• Youth -- Employment -- Canada

Labour statistics

Often you can find summarized data (with analysis) as part of published reports, so consider publications by governmental and international organizations, independent researchers, special interest groups/associations, etc.  Remember to think about potential bias or influence when examining these materials.

British Columbia

• BC Statistics

Current BC socio-economic statistics, including quick facts and historical tables. 

Canada

• Statistics Canada

Subject: Labour
  Includes information such as how many people are employed or unemployed, unemployment rate, industries or occupations that people work in, hours of work, commuting patterns, wage and non-wage benefits, job training, labour mobility, work absences, unionization, unpaid work, etc. Also includes geographic and demographic characteristics.

• Labour Force Survey - (monthly) - measures the current state of the Canadian labour market and is used to calculate the national, provincial, territorial and regional employment.

For more, consult: BC Statistics, Canadian Census, Statistics Canada

Government regulations

British Columbia

• British Columbia. Labour Relations Board

Canada

• Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)

• Canada Industrial Relations Board
• Consolidated Statutes and Regulations
• Government of Canada, Labour Program

BC Labour Heritage Centre Oral History Collection

SFU Library's Digital Collection: BC Labour Heritage Centre Oral History Collection

The collection includes full-length interviews with notable activists in British Columbia’s labour movement on topics ranging from experiences at work, picket lines, strikes and rallies, to organizing unions & negotiating and bargaining collective agreements.

Labour organizations and research institutes

• BC Federation of Labour
• Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies
• Canadian Labour Congress
• LabourStart - for daily news on Canadian labour issues

Library guides

• Annotated bibliographies
• Evaluating sources
• How to find journal articles
• How to place an Inter-Library Loan request - SFU Library can obtain books and articles from another library (free).
• Library Catalogue search guide
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
• What is plagiarism?  Guide to common forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them.
• Citation or reference management tools (Zotero or Mendeley) - use these tools to manage your citations and to create  bibliographies for your papers.   For assistance with Zotero or Mendeley, email, citation-managers@sfu.ca.

Presentation skills

• Resources on developing your participation skills
• Resources to help you improve your presentation skills

Writing help

• Student Learning Commons
  • Academic writing resources
  • Book a consultation