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Nickel and Dimed Resources - LPC Library Research Guide

Please ask a reference librarian for assistance at any time. We will be glad to help!

Reference Sources

Use reference sources for background information, broad overviews and summaries. The reference collection includes general and subject dictionaries and encyclopedias, biographies, directories, almanacs, atlases, etc. Many also contain bibliographies for further research. Reference books cannot be checked out from the library but may be photocopied. The suggested articles are just a few of the articles that you can find by using the table of contents or index of each encyclopedia.

Selected General Encyclopedias with Suggested Articles:

Encyclopedia Americana      Ref AE5.E333 2005

  • History of Labor Movement
  • Homelessness
  • Labor unions
  • Minimum wage
  • Poverty
  • United Farm Workers
  • Wages

New Encyclopedia Britannica      Ref.AE.5.E363 2002

  • Analysis of Earnings
  • Labour and Wages
  • Labour Economics
  • Labour Law
  • Labour, Hours of
  • Migrant Labour
  • Right to Work Laws
  • The Price of Labour

The World Book Encyclopedia      Ref AE5.W55 2005

  • Labor Unions
  • Wages

Selected Subject Encyclopedias and References with Suggested Articles:

A Decade of Living Wages: What Have We Learned      Ref HD4919.C2.A31 2005     Online

A Hand Up for the Bottom Third: Toward a New Agenda for Low-Income Working Families     Ref HD 4925.3.S38 2001 

Alternative Income Estimates in the United States 2003      Ref HC110.15.A48 2005

Alternative Poverty Estimates in the United States:2003      Ref HC110.P6.A48 2005

Analysis of the Upcoming Release of 2003 Data on Income, Poverty, & Health Insurance      Ref HC110.I5.A53 2004

Areas with Concentrated Poverty: 1999      Ref HC110.P6.A74 2005

Encyclopedia Latina      Ref E184.S75.E587 2005

  • Ceasar Chevaz
  • Fair Labor Standards Act
  • Farmer Workers Movement
  • Labor
  • Sweatshops and Informal Workers

Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society      Ref HQ767.84.E53 2003

Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History      Ref HD8066.A78 2006

Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities & Differences & the Impact of Society on Gender      Ref HQ1115.E43 2001

  • Compensation Discrimination
  • Single-Parent Families
  • Wage Inequalities
  • Workplace

Health Insurance Coverage in the United States      Ref RA412.2.M6 2004

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003      Ref HC110.I5.D47 2003

Increasing the Minimum Wage: An Issue of Children's Well-Being      Ref HD4918.I53 2005     

Making Ends Meet      Ref HD.4919.C2.M35 2003

Minimum Wage: Who Gets It and What Difference Does It Make?      Ref HD4919.C2.B84 2002     Online

The Mexican American Experience: An Encyclopedia      Ref E184.M5.M4535 2003

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History      Ref HC15.O94 2003

  • Health & Accident Insurance
  • Labor
  • Labor Conditions and Job Safety
  • Labor Markets
  • Labor Productivity
  • Labor Time
  • Living Standards
  • Unemployment
  • Wage Legislation
  • Wages
  • Wage Systems

Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008     Ref HA202.U58.S7 2008     Online

  • Consumer
  • Earnings
  • Income
  • Labor Force, Employment, and Earnings
  • Poverty

Work In America: An Encyclopedia of History, Policy, and Society      Ref HD8066.W637 2003

  • Comparable worth
  • United Farm Workers

Working In America: An Eyewitness History      Ref HD8066.R44 2000

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Books & Audiovisuals

Use the library catalog to find materials in the library. This will show you all the books and audiovisual materials both LPC Library and Chabot library own. You can search for a book or video by the author, title, subject, or keyword. A subject search allows you to find books about a topic or a person. In power search you may also LIMIT your search in many ways, for instance by type, "DVD" or type, "video" to find only DVDs or videos.

Examples of subject headings:

  • Minimum wage -- United States
  • Poverty -- United States
  • Unskilled labor -- United States
  • Cost and standard of living -- United States

Selected Book Titles at LPC with Related Themes

These are just a few of the titles you can find with subject and keyword searches in the Library Catalog.

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic      HN60.D396 2002

Child Labor and Sweatshops: At Issue     HD6231.C455 2006

End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time      HC59.72.P6.S225 2005

Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America      E184.M5.G84 2005

Fighting For a Living Wage      HD4975.L83 2004

From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: A Short, Illustrated History of Labor in the United States      HD8066.M86 2001

Great American JobsScam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation      HV6769.L47 2005

Homeless: Opposing Viewpoints      HV4505.H654 2007

Is the Gap Between the Rich and Poor Growing: At Issue.      HC110.I5.I8 2006

Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker      HD4901.R67 2005

New Ruthless Economy: Work and Power in the Digital Age      HC106.83.H4 2003

Other People's Money: The Corporate Mugging of America      HG4930.5.P75 2004

Politics of Public Housing: Black Women's Struggles Against Urban Inequality.      HV1447.B25.M55 2004

Poverty and the Homeless: Current Controversies      HV4505.P68 2004

Poverty: Opposing Viewpoints      HC110.P6.P588 2008

Social Justice: Opposing Viewpoints      HN90.S6.S56 2005

Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity      RA418.5.S63.M37 2004

Welfare: Opposing Viewpoints      HV91.W467 2003

Which Side Are You On? Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back      HD8072.5.G46 2004

White-Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America   HD8039.M39.U563 2001

Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (with Kids) in America: My Story      CT275.K458525.A3 2005

Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class      HD6095.W63 2003

Working Poor: Invisible in America      HC110.P6.S48 2005

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Selected DVD and Video Titles at LPC

These are just a few of the titles you can find with subject and keyword searches in the Library Catalog.

Morgan Spurlock's Living on Minimum Wage    On Reserve for ESL

Affluenza    DVD HF5415.33.U6.A345 2005

American Dream    DVD HD5325 .P152 A54 2000

American Jobs. "...the impact of low-wage foreign competition on American's workers, families and communities.    DVD HD5724.A43 2004

Bettina Gray Speaks with Luis Valdez    DVD PN2270.M48.B47 2005

Born With a Wooden Spoon: Welcome to Poverty USA    DVD HV91.F54 2007

Destination America    DVD E184.A1.D47 2005

Harvest of Shame    DVD PN4874.M89.H37 2005

Is Wal-Mart Good for America?    DVD HF5429.215.U6.I7 2004

On the Edge; America's Working Poor.    DVD HC110.P6.O6 2004

The 51st State: America's Working Poor    DVD HC110.P6.F74 2007

The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need.    DVD HF5415.33.U6.S36 2003


Periodicals & Electronic Print Resources

Periodicals provide in-depth analyses of events and trends, research studies on particular subjects, and professional literature. Find articles by using an electronic print resource. These databases can be accessed in the LPC Library or from home at the LPC Library Homepage. Good choices for topics with related themes:

Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) - largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary database containing full text for more than 4,600 scholarly publications, including more than 3,500 peer-reviewed publications.

  • Suggestion: Do a keyword search for "invisible poor" or any topic from examples of topics list

CQ Researcher - full text, each issues covers a single topic, well researched articles, (also available in print), suggestions:

  • Affordable Housing
  • Big-Box Stores
  • Covering the Uninsured
  • Ending Homelessness
  • Future Job Market
  • Illegal Immigration
  • Living-Wage Movement
  • Migrant Farm Workers
  • Unemployment Benefits
  • Upward Mobility
  • Welfare Reform

Ethnic NewsWatch and GenderWatch (ProQuest) - contains full-text articles of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press and the impact of gender on culture and society

  • Suggestion: Do a keyword search for "living wage" or any topic from examples of topics list

History Reference Center (EBSCO) - contains thousands of citations and full-text articles on history. The database features cover-to-cover full text for more than 650 historical encyclopedias and other non-fiction books. The database also includes full text for more than 50 leading history periodicals.

  • Suggestion: Do a keyword search for "minimum wage" or any topic from examples of topics list

Opposing Viewpoints (Thomson Gale) - Current topics for information on social issues, including viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles on the facts and the pros and cons of each issue

  • Suggestion: Click on one of the topic overviews "employment, poverty, public assistance, welfare reform, working women" or any other pertinent topic or do a specific keyword search.

Potential Topics and Search Terms:

Try any of the following search terms or topics in the different databases or the indexes of the encyclopedias. Only the most general terms will work in the Library Catalog.

  • affordable housing
  • big boxes/big-box stores
  • blue-collar jobs
  • child care
  • cost of living
  • corporate cleaning services (for example - Merry Maids)
  • domestic servants
  • factory workers
  • Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
  • food banks
  • gender
  • hired housecleaners
  • homeless/homelessness
  • housekeeping
  • hunger
  • invisible poor
  • jobless
  • labor unions
  • living wage
  • low-wage workers
  • minimum wage
  • nannies
  • nursing homes
  • part-time workers
  • poverty-level wages
  • single working mothers
  • rental market
  • service work
  • social security
  • standard of living
  • unemployment
  • unemployment benefits
  • unemployment compensation
  • uninsured
  • United Farm Workers
  • unpaid overtime
  • unskilled workers
  • Wal-Mart or Sam Walton
  • welfare
  • welfare reform
  • working class
  • working class women
  • working mothers
  • working poor

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Internet Resources

You may want to explore some Internet resources to supplement or enhance your research. Always be cautious of information you find on the Web since the quality of sources varies tremendously on the Internet. It is always a good idea to check the information against another source. As with all information resources, whether in print or on the Internet, you evaluate its quality based on the following criteria:

  • Accuracy:      Is it free from mistakes and errors?
  • Authority:      What are the qualifications of the author?
  • Objectivity:      Is there any strong bias?
  • Currency:      Is the information up-to-date?
  • Coverage:      To what extent is the topic explored?

National Center for Children in Poverty

National Poverty Center

Pew Social and Demographic Trends

Statistical Abstract (Online)

U.S. Census Bureau

Citation of Sources

Keep printouts of your sources, or write out all pertinent information on author, title, publisher, date, or Internet address to identify where you got the information. Follow the format recommended by your instructor or ask a librarian to show you a "style manual." There are links to these instructions on the LPC Library web page: Citation Style Guides, as well as to the online resource, NoodbleBib, a bibliography composer. Please ask a reference librarian for help!

LPC Librarians

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Library Telephone: 925.424.1150
Library Fax: 925.606.7249

Page last modified: January 31, 2012