Library Guide - Career Development

The library has a comprehensive collection of books related to career development for you to find and read. You can use LibrarySearch to search for the books you need. To search for a specific book just type a few words from the title plus the surname of the author(s) into the search box. You can also search for a topic then filter to Books (or Ebooks) under Format in the left-hand menu. If you get stuck – please ask!

We use the Dewey Decimal System to classify the books so it’s easier to find them. Each classmark number refers to a different subject, and can be found in a different location:

• In the Drill Hall Library (Medway), all books are in one continuous order on the ground floor, with 7-day and 4-week loans shelved together. The lowest numbers are immediately next to the library entrance.
• In Augustine House (Cantebrury), the lowest numbers are on the first floor and the highest numbers are on the third floor. Remember to check the different areas housing the 7-day loan (open shelves) and 4-week loans (moving shelves).

You will find the majority of the Career Development books around the 331 and 650 classmarks. However, books on specific careers can often be found alongside books which relate to those subjects (for example, music careers at 780.23). Some useful classmarks include:

• 331.702 - Career counseling and career development
• 370.7 - Educational research
• 373 - Secondary education
• 374 - Post compulsory education/Lifelong learning
• 378 - Higher education
• 650.14 - Interviewing and applying for jobs
• 658.3124 - Job-related coaching and development
• 658.4 - Management 

The majority of books about career development will be found in the Drill Hall Library at Medway. However, there are relevant books at all campus libraries. You can request for books to be sent between the campus libraries for collection as inter-site loans. To do this, click the Place Reservation button next to a book on LibrarySearch and specify where you would like to collect it.

Ebooks

Wherever possible we also obtain all our books as ebooks, which can be accessed on or off campus, 24 hours. Just click on Link to CCCU ebook in the record on LibrarySearch and you will usually have the option to read online or download a copy.

You can also find a collection of ebooks and audiobooks in Overdrive (find via LibrarySearch/Find databases A-Z). 

Journals are an important source of scholarly information – think of them as academic magazines that contain articles written by researchers. CCCU library subscribes to journals covering all the subjects taught here.

Print journals
Most journals are online, but you can browse printed copies of some journals on Floor 2 of Augustine House (Canterbury) in the Silent Zone (west wing) and on a shelving unit between the quiet and silent zones in the Drill Hall Library (Medway). These are shelved in alphabetical order of the journal title. These are for use in the library only.

Online journals
Use LibrarySearch.to see which journals are available to read online. Make sure you Log In first with your CCCU username and password. You can search for journal articles across all the journals simultaneously using the main search bar to search for a topic, then clicking through to the Digital Resources tab and limiting your search results to "Academic journals" under Source Type.

To find a specific journal try entering the title of a journal into the search box, or use the “Find e-journals by title” link on the LibrarySearch home page. You can also browse e-journals by subject, using Browzine. This software allows you to read a journal like an e-book, so you can look through the whole journal rather than just individual articles. There is an app so you can use it easily on your phone or other mobile device.

There are hundreds of journals relevant for career development. A few suggested journal titles are:

British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Career Development International, Career Development Quarterly, International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Journal of Career Development, Journal of Education and Work, Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, Journal of Vocational Education and Training.

You may also like to look at Emerald Management e-journals (accessed via the Find Databases A-Z link on the LibrarySearch home page). This resource contains journals and reports related to management, HR, and areas of career development.

Open Access Journals
The Directory of Open Access Journals includes journals such as the European Journal of Counselling Psychology. Open access journals are usually scholarly, but the difference is, the publishers of these journals believe in making their research freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This means that you (or your institution) do not have to have a subscription to the journal to be able to read the articles they publish.

CCCU library provides research databases which contain articles about education and childhood studies. These are all available via LibrarySearch – just click on the “Find databases” link in the left-hand menu and you will see an alphabetical list. Browse the list until you find the one you want. Many of the key databases have guides available, which often include a video demo.

Some databases which are particularly useful for Career Development include:

• British Education Index: Key database indexing over 200,000 records covering all areas of education from preschool to higher education from UK published journals from 1975 onwards. See also Australian Education Index, Child Development and Adolescent Studies and Education Abstracts.
• ERIC: an international database (funded by the US government) covering education and learning at every level from early years to adult education.
• PsycInfo: a large psychology database. PsycInfo includes good coverage of journals relating to counselling, coaching, reflective practice and educational psychology.

Additional databases you may wish to explore:

• ASSIA: A valuable resource for counselling research. This database covers health-related topics from a social science perspective.
• Business Source Premier: Although primarily seen as a resource for the Business School, this database covers areas including works, careers, professional development and leadership, so can be extremely useful for Career Development research.
• Emerald Management e-journals: key business research database which contains journals and reports related to management, HR, and areas of career development. [Note: this only includes material from one key publisher, so should not be the only source used].
• Web of Science: Large multi-disciplinary database includes over 160 education journals – with some full-text.

If you are researching careers within a specific field, it is often worth searching databases which focus on that area (e.g. British Nursing Index for nursing careers or SportDiscus for sport-related careers). You may find it useful to consult the subject guides for the relevant discipline to get ideas of relevant databases.

These organisations and independent bodies conduct and share research, which informs educational policy and practice.

• The British Educational Research Association (BERA) focuses on the advancing of knowledge in education and sustains an educational research community. The BERA Blog and the Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research may be of particular interest to students.
• Campbell collaboration contains systematic reviews of research evidence on the effectiveness of social interventions – look under Research evidence/education.
• CDI (Career Development Institute) is the UK's professional body for career development. Their website includes a wide range of useful resources.
• Department for Education Research DfE current and archived research publications.
• Digital Education Resource Archive from the Institute of Education aims to preserve documents from the government and other important bodies in education and related fields. Often, digital documents get lost if links are removed from websites - DERA exists to try to preserve these for researchers and practitioners. It contains guidance documents, reports, statistics and all sorts of other material. Well worth a look!
• EPPI-Centre maintains an online evidence library of reliable research findings through systematic reviews on social science and public policy. Technical reports and summaries are available.
• The House of Commons Library produces research and provides an impartial information services to MPs and their staff.
• NatCen is Britain's leading independent social research institute. Research covers all aspects of social policy and includes areas of Equality & Diversity, Children, Schools & Families, Social Inclusion.
• National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is the UK’s largest independent educational and children’s services research organisation. See the Publications and Research section.
• NICE (Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe) connects people and organisations who train career development professionals.
• NICEC (National Institution for Career Education and Counselling) is an organisation devoted to thinking deeply about career development.
• OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development works on global issues and education is one part of its work. The organisation collects data, monitors trends, and forecasts developments to advise countries in developing policy.
• UK Government web archive includes videos, tweets and images dating back to 1996.

Find out about legislation and how to find statistical data.

• Acts of Parliament and other legislation
• A chronological list of all Acts of Parliament related to children, schools and education since 1721 is available on the Education in England website.
• Publications and records of parliamentary business, classified by staff of the House of Commons Library.

• Department for Education statistics : DfE publishes official statistics on children and young people. You can also explore national and regional level data using the education statistics service from the Government.
• Research and statistics search relevant to Department of Education
• Office for National Statistics: UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics.

Keep up to date with current developments and debates in education and careers through subscribed databases and free news sites, blogs and alert services.

LexisLibrary Newspapers (UK) is available via LibrarySearch/Find Databases. This is a forty-year archive of full text news articles from a range of UK national and regional newspapers. It is updated with news items daily. It includes access to Times Educational Supplement (TES) and Times Higher Education Supplement (THES).

Childlink is available via LibrarySearch/Find Databases. It provides a wide range of information relating to children, young people and families in the UK and Ireland. This includes legislation, research and statistics, as well as news and case studies. You can sign up to get weekly updates sent to you directly.

Education news sites

• BBC - Education
• Guardian Education
• The Independent - Education News
• The Times - Education

Blogs

• BERA Blog shares research-informed comment and opinion on educational issues in an accessible manner and is edited by a small team.
• NFER Blog offers up-to-date comment and analysis based on what research evidence shows on key educational issues.

Alerts
Rather than searching for news and information, there are services that you register with that send news on your chosen topic directly to you:

• Google Alerts set up alerts for Google to email you with new content from the web on your chosen topic.
• Education Endowment Foundation’s regular news alerts which you can register to receive by email.
• JournalTOCs is a large, free collection of Tables of Contents from academic journals. Sign up to receive alerts when new articles are published from a particular journal or on a topic.

In addition to reading texts, you can find a wide range of visual and audio sources and media to learn more about education.

• Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is an on-demand TV and radio service and includes most major UK channels, including BBC, Channel 4 and Sky channels. Record programmes to watch back and create your own playlist. Find via LibrarySearch/Find Databases. Sign In with your CCCU log in details to register.
• Kanopy is a large, curated catalogue of over 30,000 educational documentaries and classic films. You will find some documentaries about careers here. Find via LibrarySearch/Find Databases.
• Teachers TV from Education in Video provides access to 3530 instructional videos from DfE in 2008 for education professionals, including many that are relevant to Career Development. Find via LibrarySearch/Find Databases.
• University of Oxford podcasts from its Department of Education.
• TED Talks (Education) shares videos and discussions “exploring the latest thinking on how to build a better school”.