National Library of Australia


University of Melbourne Conspectus Report
Psychology

Liz Wakefield

December 1998

  1. Aims
  2. Methodologies
  3. Nature of the discipline
  4. Psychology in the University of Melbourne
  5. Libraries
  6. Special Collections
  7. List Checking
  8. Shelf scanning
  9. Evaluation by Experts
  10. Assessment of the Collections
  11. Areas of Research Strength
  12. Areas Needing to be Enriched

1. Aims

1.1 To evaluate the psychology collections within the DDC range 130-159 throughout The University of Melbourne Library.

1.2 To identify areas of the collection which need improvement in currency and scope.

1.3 To lay the foundation for a collection management policy for the psychology area

2. Methodologies

The collections were assessed using criteria laid down in the Australian Conspectus Manual:

3. Nature of the Discipline

The study of psychology today places a much greater emphasis on the scientific nature of the subject than it did in the nineteenth century when the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme was first drawn up. With the DDC structure reflecting an earlier approach to psychology, much of the current interest in psychology and the broader area of behavioural science lies outside the scope of this Conspectus division. Much of the interests of the Department of Psychology in neuroscience and social psychology fall into other Conspectus divisions of Medicine (DDC 610s) and Sociology (DDC 300s).An example of this is in the area of child development, where there is interest not only in the strict area of child psychology, but also in the physiological and neurological development as well as social aspects of development . Similarly the Faculty of Education’s interest in educational psychology overlaps with areas of the Education Conspectus division. It is important to remember the limited scope of this Conspectus Division and the need to look at several Conspectus assessments to get a full picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the Library’s holdings of materials relevant to the teaching and research in psychology at the University of Melbourne.

Like all other science subjects, journal literature is of prime importance in keeping up with current research, especially in the clinical areas. Monographic literature, however, is still very important, particularly in undergraduate studies, and this importance is reflected in the fact that the serial/monograph ratio is lower than in many other science disciplines. Journal holdings are quite strong in the Library, but coverage could be improved in some areas. Few new journal subscriptions have been placed in recent years, and in 1998 many existing subscriptions had to be cancelled because of budget constraints. Despite the current relatively low serial/monograph ratio, spiralling serial subscriptions would make it difficult to simply add new journal titles to the current list. Electronic access to databases of journals and preprints may also offer an alternative to current print subscriptions.

The language of the Library’s holdings in psychology is almost totally English, except for some other European language material in the B research collection. Increasingly, scientific journal literature is either being published in English, or is being made rapidly available in English translation, so this failure to collect titles in languages other than English does not seriously weaken the collection. It is also true that in Internet publishing, at least at present, English is the international language.

4. Faculties of the University Teaching Psychology

The Department of Psychology is the sole department in the School of Behavioural Science, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and is the principal department offering teaching and research in the area of psychology. Until January 1992 Psychology was a department within the Faculty of Arts and its move reflects the trend towards a more scientific approach to the subject.

Over 1500 undergraduates are enrolled in the School of Behavioural Science, which offers a pass major in psychology in either Arts, Science or Commerce and a fourth year honours course in Arts and Science and a postgraduate diploma in psychology through the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. The Department has an active research training program with students enrolled in PhD and Master of Arts and Science research degrees. In addition, there is an extensive professional training program with Doctor of Psychology and Master of Psychology degrees in a variety of professional areas of psychology. It is also possible for students to enrol in a combined research and professional program (Master of Psychology/PhD.). Approximately two thirds of the enrolled students have a science background and about one third have an arts or humanities background. Major areas of interest include developmental and life span, clinical, health, industrial and social psychology. Neuroscience is an important and growing area with interest in measurement, modeling and cognitive science.

Psychology is also an important component of courses undertaken in the Faculty of Education, with emphasis naturally on educational psychology and child development. The Department of Learning, Assessment and Special Education offers studies at graduate and postgraduate level to prepare those working in the area of special education, including Educational and School Psychology.

5. Libraries

Holdings of material in psychology are concentrated in two main libraries, the Baillieu Library and the Education Resource Centre. From the time when the Psychology Department formed part of the Faculty of Arts the main collection was housed in the Baillieu Library, and even though the Department is in now in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences the pattern has continued. Some psychology texts, with an emphasis on clinical aspects are housed in the Brownless Biomedical Library, as are many of the journals of interest to psychologists, particularly those in the neurosciences. The Brownless audiovisual collection also contains videos of interest to psychology students.

The Education Resource Centre contains a significant amount of material relating to psychology, particularly in the areas of educational psychology and child development.

Research level monographs and older titles for all subjects are housed in the B and AB collections also in the Education Resource Centre, and there is a significant amount of material in psychology held here. Foreign language material is much more evident here than in the collection of monographs in the Baillieu Library.

6. Special Collections

There are no major special collections of material in psychology held in the University of Melbourne Libraries.

6.1 Theses

University of Melbourne postgraduate theses in psychology are held in the Thesis Collection of the Baillieu Library.

6.2 BX Collection

This closed collection which houses valuable, older and vulnerable material contains some titles of relevance to psychology

7. List Checking

7.1 Lists used

7.2 Results of list checking

7.2.1 Monographs
Baxter’s bibliography was a very useful checking tool. Most of the subdivisions she uses fall into the traditional coverage of psychology reflected in the DDC range covered in this Conspectus division. Its currency is reasonable and its concentration on “best books” makes it a valuable yardstick for monograph publications. It is interesting to note that the results fairly well reflect the interests of the Departments teaching Psychology, with strong holdings, for example, in cognition and psychological measurement.

Title

No. checked

No. held

Baxter

304

231

Handbooks & yearbooks

7

6

Dictionaries & encyclopedias

16

12

Biographical sources

9

4

Journals

55

49

History & theory

15

9

Research methods

8

6

Test construction & psychological measurement

37

30

Perception

7

6

Cognition, learning and memory

10

10

Intelligence

4

4

Motivation

2

2

Attention and conscious states

6

5

Physiological psychology & physiological intervention

10

6

Psychology of verbal and nonverbal behavior

15

9

Developmental psychology

38

26

Psychology of marriage and the family

25

20

Psychosexual behavior and sex roles

36

25

Social, interpersonal and environmental interaction

4

2

7.2.2 Serials
The four lists used naturally overlap each other, but each provides a slightly different focus and was useful to compare. The overall impression is that our journal holdings are reasonable for a research strength library. However, it must be remembered that current interest in psychology extends beyond the scope of this Conspectus division into areas of neuroscience, as well as other areas in the social sciences, and our journal holdings may need to be adapted to reflect these developments.

Loke’s bibliography, with its concentration on psychology and education provided an assessment guide to an important part of our collection. The Faculty of Education has a strong interest in educational psychology and although many of the journals listed would not fall into the DDC range of this Conspectus division, it was valuable to check our strength.

PsycINFO & PsycLIT cover a large number of journals with a very wide coverage both in content and in place and language of publication. It was not surprising that the percentage of titles held was markedly lower when measured against such a large list number of very parochial titles. The percentage climbed to 59% if only English language journals were checked.

The Science Citation list of journals covered is small but significant as it covers the journals with the highest impact factor. The titles we do not hold are:

Title

No. checked

No. held

%

Journals in psychology

335

229

65

SCI

31

22

71

PsycINFO & PsycLIT

1322

567

43

Loke

356

192

54

8. Shelf Scanning

A shelf scan was done of all the holdings in the DDC range 130-159 throughout the Library system. This was done as the first stage of the evaluation process. The scan was done by the Collection Management Librarian (Sciences) and the results discussed with the Psychology Department’s Library liaison person.

9. Evaluation by Experts

Staff in the Department of Psychology were consulted and provided valuable input, particularly in describing the current subject interests of the Department.

10. Assessment of the Collections

The overall impression of the collection from the shelf scan, and reinforced by the list checking and discussions with staff was good. The monographs were reasonably up to date and several areas were very strong. There is quite a lot of material both in Baillieu and the ERC which is old and could be relegated either to the B research collection if appropriate or to store if of lesser importance.

The Library holds most of the major reference tools, including abstracting and indexing tools such as PsycLit

11. Areas of Research Strength

DDC:
153 Conscious mental processes & intelligence
153.1 Memory & learning
153.4 Cognition
153.9 Intelligence & aptitude
155 Differential & genetic psychology.
155.2 Individual psychology
155.4 Child psychology
155.13 Psychology of young adults
158.14 Counseling & interviewing
158.7 Industrial psychology

12. Areas Needing to be Enriched

150.16 Hist & desc. With respect to kinds of persons. eg Feminist psychology
153.17 Perceptual processes
155.18 Ethnopsychology & National psychology
155.19 Environmental psychology

As mentioned earlier, other areas of the collection of interest to the research and teaching of psychology in the University of Melbourne fall outside the DDC range of this Conspectus division. They will be considered when developing the collection policy dealing with the behavioural sciences.


Last modified: August 18 2004.