Return to Subject Resources: Psychology

The psychology collection attempts to cover all aspects of the field of psychology including abnormal, developmental, educational, experimental, psychometric, counseling, clinical, learning, personality, industrial, and school psychology. Strengths of the Milner Library psychology collection include monographic works collected since 1950, the periodical collection (both print and electronic) in psychology and the applied disciplines, abstracting and indexing services, and the availability of electronic searching for these services.

Call number ranges covered by the Psychology Collection Development Policy are as follows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kinds of Programs or User Needs Supported

Degree Programs Supported

The primary purpose of the psychology collection is to support degree programs offered by the Department of Psychology.

Undergraduate psychology degrees supported:
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Science
Minor in Psychology
Minor in Psychology (Teacher Education)

Related undergraduate degrees supported:
Minor in Cognitive Science
Minor in Disability Studies

Graduate psychology degrees supported:
Master of Arts in Psychology
Master of Science in Psychology
Master of Arts in Clinical/Counseling Psychology
Master of Science in Clinical/Counseling Psychology
Specialist in School Psychology (S.S.P.)
Doctor of Philosophy in School Psychology (Ph.D.)

Related graduate degrees supported:
Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies
Graduate Certificate in Social Aspects of Aging

Other Programs Supported

In addition to direct support to the Department of Psychology, the collection provides information on the entire field of psychology for students and faculty in related disciplines such as education, sociology, social work, and health sciences. The collection aids faculty and student research in all of these areas.

Users Supported

Students and faculty of Illinois State University are the primary users of the collection. Residents of the Bloomington-Normal area as well as students and faculty of Illinois Wesleyan University, Heartland Community College, and Lincoln College also use the collection.

Types of materials purchased

The majority of the monographs and serials in the collection are scholarly in nature, dealing with both the theoretical and applied aspects of the field. However, selected materials on popular psychology are included so that professional psychologists have ready access to information (or misinformation) being read by the public at large. Some popular, "self-help" psychology materials are also purchased to support clients of Student Counseling Services.

Most materials acquired are monographs and periodicals. Annual reviews and proceedings of conferences and symposia are acquired on a selective basis depending on subject matter, quality, and their relevance to departmental programs. Reference works are added based on their quality, their contribution to the collection, and their potential use by non-psychology majors.

The library subscribes to more than 100 periodical indexes through electronic databases and print sources. Four indexes/databases are purchased through the psychology collection development fund: PsycINFO (including the full-text component called PsycARTICLES), Health and Psychosocial Instruments, Mental Measurements Yearbook, and Annual Review of Psychology.

Introductory texts are avoided, but occasionally advanced texts on specific topics relevant to a departmental program are acquired. Because of security concerns, individual intelligence tests and adult personality tests used in clinical settings generally are not purchased. See below for more specific information regarding tests.

The primary emphasis is on material from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. English is the primary language collected. Materials in other languages are added only if specifically requested. The field of scientific psychology, as studied in a university setting, is a product of the last 100 years. While historical works are added as needed, the primary emphasis is on current materials.


Other Illinois Psychology Resources Available to Milner Library Patrons

Milner Library participates in the CARLI library consortium (formerly Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization) whose mission is to foster the sharing of Illinois library resources. ILLINET Online, a union catalog, provides access to holdings of the 65 CARLI member libraries. Illinois State University patrons may borrow materials from other CARLI libraries at no direct cost to the patrons. Requests to borrow such materials may be made electronically through ILLINET Online.

Other local CARLI members include Illinois Wesleyan University, Heartland Community College, Bradley University, Millikin University, and Illinois Central College. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has over 100,000 volumes in the field of psychology and is comprehensive for all branches of the discipline. Its periodicals, society publications files, and test collection are extensive. The University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago has a particularly extensive collection in the area of clinical/counseling psychology and psychiatry.

Milner Library belongs to the Cooperative Collection Management Coordinating Committee (CCMCC), a consortium of Illinois academic libraries that purchases and shares materials on a statewide basis.


Resources Used to Select Materials for the Collection

The primary selection tool for monographs is the Baker and Taylor approval program and the selection profile designed by the subject librarian for use with that program in this discipline. Secondary selection tools for monographs and primary selection tools for periodicals, indexes, and other items include core books lists, reviews in professional publications, bibliographies, recommendations and requests by faculty members, and publishers' announcements.

 

Appendix:  Education/Psychology Test Collection

The primary purpose of the Education/Psychology Test Collection (hereinafter “Test Collection”) is to provide both undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Education and the Department of Psychology examples of commercially published educational and psychological tests. The collection primarily supports students in Special Education and School Psychology, secondarily supports students in Curriculum and Instruction, and also supports students in other disciplines such as business and music.  The collection currently includes 600 titles.

Collection Guidelines

Languages
English is the primary language of the collection.  An example of a non-English test will occasionally be included.

Chronological Guidelines
This is a current awareness collection.  Tests generally are retained only as long as they are in print and not superseded by new editions.  Exceptions include core tests in the disciplines.  Tests removed from the collection are shipped to the Education and Social Sciences Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where they remain accessible to Illinois State University patrons.

Geographical Guidelines
Tests acquired are primarily those published in the United States, with a small number from Canada and Great Britain.

Treatment of Subject
Most tests included in the collection are those used with children from preschool to high school, but some tests appropriate for adults are also included.  Tests are added on the basis of requests from faculty and reviews in professional journals, Mental Measurements Yearbook, and Test Critiques.  Duplicates are not purchased unless heavy and repeated use is projected and special funds are available, due the relatively high cost of these materials.

Types of Materials
Most tests in the collection are tests of aptitude and achievement.  The following types of tests are generally excluded from the collection, because they require more security than the library can provide: individual intelligence tests such the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler, projective tests, adult personality tests, and adult vocational tests.  Intelligence and personality tests are available to Psychology Department students at the Psychological Services Center in Fairchild Hall.

Other Test Resources

In addition to the Education/Psychology Test Collection, Milner Library houses a set of tests purchased by the Special Education department.  Use of this collection is restricted to students and faculty within that department.  Titles in the collection currently are not included in the Milner Library Online Catalog. 

Milner Library has Tests in Microfiche, a collection of approximately 1,000 tests selected from the professional literature. These tests differ from those in the Education/Psychology Test Collection and the Special Education test collection in that they are not commercially published. An annotated index to Tests in Microfiche is located at the Floor 1 information desk.

Numerous tests are reproduced in journal articles.  These can be located using directories of unpublished tests or article database such as PsycINFO, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, and ERIC.   
 
The Education and Social Sciences Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign maintains a collection of approximately 8,000 tests in education and psychology.  Tests removed from the Milner Library Test Collection or the Special Education test collection are offered to the University of Illinois, which typically adds the titles to its collection unless copies of the titles are already included in the collection.  Illinois State University students, faculty, and staff may access the University of Illinois collection during regular library hours or by special appointment.  

Return to Subject Resources: Psychology