Psychology

Prepared by Jillene Bydder, Reference Department

You are welcome to copy this guide for your own use, but please do not remove the author's name, and note our copyright statement.

DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS

The Quick Reference Collection will help with basic information and summaries of topics e.g. from the Encyclopedia of Psychology (BF31.E53 1994 QR).

BOOKS

If you are in the Library, start with the Online Catalogue. If you don't know any authors or titles, decide what your question is really about and try a Keywords search or searches to get started.

AND,OR,NOT are BOOLEAN operators, which you use to link your key words. This lets you do brilliant searches like

psychology and statistical methods
psychology and zealand and (women or girls or females)
psychology and experiment? and methodology and (1997 or 1998 or 1999)

Note the brackets around (- or -) searches, and the use of the wildcard or truncation symbol ?. When you've done a search like this you can then use the Library of Congress subject headings you see on the screen to do exact searching and make sure you find everything in the library on your subject.

If you have access to the World Wide Web you can use the Web version of the Library Catalogue from home. Go to the Library home page and choose Library Catalogue. KEYWORD searching allows the use of Boolean operators.

JOURNALS

The Online Catalogue can't tell you about articles in journals but it can tell you if we have a journal if you know its title. The Library holds a number of the best journals for Psychology. Do a Title search if you have a reference to an article. Type in the title of the journal (just the title, not volume etc.) and get the call number so that you can go to the shelves in the Serials collection on Level 1 and find the journal and then the volume, issue and pages you need.

The Catalogue can also tell you if we have journals in particular subject areas. Using a Keywords search and key words such as psychology and zealand and periodicals would give you a very general overview of the journals on this topic.

FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES

Journal articles are important, but how do you find one that's going to be useful for your next essay?

You can browse, which is fun, and you will find articles, especially if you are using journals which have subject indexes in each volume. But it is much more efficient to use an indexing service which will help you to find articles across a range of journals. Indexes list articles under many access points, but using subject headings to make sure you've found everything will give the best results.

Most indexes are now available online, but they can also be in print or on CD-ROM. Try to find the best index for your topic, and ask at the Information Desk on Level 2 of the Central Library. The online indexes are available in the EDA on Level 2, just by the Information Desk, and most are on LibraryLink (the machines with green labels). Look under Social Sciences to see the full range of online indexes.

Staff and students of the University of Waikato are able to access the external version of LibraryLink from on and off campus.

Some of the best indexes for Psychology are
PsycINFO, available through LibraryLink
Social Sciences Citation Index 1974 onwards in print (Abstracts and Indexes, Level 2, H1.S678)
1988 onwards is available online via LibraryLink.
Women Studies Abstracts (Abstracts and Indexes, Level 2, HQ1101.W872, BIDS IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences), Current Contents, Medline, Social Sciences Index, Sociological Abstracts are all on LibraryLink. INNZ (Index New Zealand) (use for any general New Zealand topic) is available online through LibraryLink. It goes back to 1941 in print.

Each index will give you the same information: the author and title of an article, the title of the journal the article is in, the volume, issue, pages and date you need. Use the Catalogue or the journal lists by each workstation, looking for the title of the journal, to find its call number in this Library.

SEARCH STRATEGIES

Our handout Search Strategies will help you get the best from your computer search.

INTER-LIBRARY LOAN

Articles and books not held in this Library may be requested on Inter-Library loan. Note that this service is free but may take at least three weeks . Ask at the Information Desk.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS

Use Tests In Print (Test Library) to find tests currently available and Mental Measurements Yearbook (BF431.M549 QR and Test Library) for reviews of those tests. Doing a Subject (LC Hdg) or Keywords or Expert Keywords search on the subject heading psychological tests and its subdivisions will help you find books like the Dictionary of Behavioral Assessment Techniques (BF176.D53 1988).

GRADUATE STUDENTS      please ask for a graduate information pack.

University of Waikato Library
Te Whare Pukapuka o Te Whare Wananga o Waikato
March 2001