5.
Resources
Social research methods
A basic textbook in social research methods:
Rick
H. Hoyle, Monica J. Harris, Charles M. Judd
Research Methods in Social Relations.
Wadsworth Publishing; 7th edition (2001)
Qualitative research
Norman K Denzin and Yvonna S Lincoln (ed). Handbook of Qualitative Research Second Edition. Sage Publications 2000. (1065+ pages)
Patton, Michael Quinn. Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods, 3rd Edition Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, London, 2002 (598+)
Statistics
A useful statistics text book is available in the internet:
Statsoft's Electronic Statistics Textbook
A useful practical guide to multivariate statistics is:
Barbara G. Tabachnick and Linda S. Fidell. Using Multivariate Statistics. Third Edition. Marper Collings. 1996.(880+ pages)
Statistical software
Appropriate software is essential for data analysis.
For quantitative analysis
Hearne Scientific Software has a wide variety of Statistics Software Demonstration versions are available for download.
Stafsoft's Statistica is a very comprehensive and usable statistics package.
For qualitative analysis
For analysis of text documents and other qualitative data NVivo and N6(NUD*IST) are very useful packages from QSR.
Practical pointers
People working in small community organisations often need practical pointers. Here are some Australian books people in community organisations have found useful.
Hawe, P, Degeling, D & Hall J. Evaluating Health Promotion, Maclennan+Petty, Sydney, 1993
Although this book is written for people working in health promotion it is also a very useful reference for basic concepts and tools of research evaluation.
Wadsworth, Yoland. Do It Yourself Social Research, 2nd Edition, Allen & Unwin, 1997 (114pp)
This book is a useful companion to Everyday evaluation on the run. Highly recommended