As you narrow the focus of your topic, it can be helpful to explore aspects of interest in the scholarly community. Subject-specific encyclopedias are written by experts to familiarize novice researchers with different aspects of the topic or problem, including affected populations and practice implications.
This is not a comprehensive list. These are starting points for your research - don't rule out other non-social sciences databases! Social Work is multidisciplinary and so your search needs to encompass a variety of subject areas.
Videos:
Introduction to QuickSearch
Brief Look at QuickSearch Results
Effective Search Strategies: Database Limiters
Effective Search Strategies: Use Subject Terms
Saving Sources in QuickSearch
Citing Your Sources with QuickSearch
Use Boolean Operators as a way to narrow or broaden your search:
AND: use to combine different concepts or keywords; each result will contain all search terms
Example: race AND libraries
OR: use to connect similar concepts or keywords; each result will contain at least one of the search terms
Example: medicine OR health
NOT: use to exclude words or concepts; tells the database to ignore concepts implied by your search
Example: technology NOT database
Parentheses ( ): place around related terms to search for more than one group of keywords
Example: (teaching OR education) AND race
Asterisk *: use at the end of a keyword to search words that start with the same letters
Example: education AND librar*
Google Site Search allows you to limit the results to a specific site or domain extension. Put "site:" in front of a site or domain extension to narrow the results. Don't forget to include your keywords or search terms before the "site:"!
site:.gov searches government websites
site:.edu searches educational websites
site:.org searches non-profit organizations
site:.com searches commercial websites
Example search: chronic illness site:.gov
Google Scholar works even better when you have it connected to your library. Set up your library link and get results that are available through the University Libraries.