Subject Specialist: Adam Taves

Programmes Supported and Description of Current Collection

The Libraries’ collections support teaching and research in Psychology up to and including the Ph.D. level. Psychology is one of the largest and oldest programmes at York University: a full 11% of the undergraduates are enrolled in Psychology. The undergraduate programme begins in the first year with broad introductory surveys and progresses to research methods and in more senior years to courses focusing on specific problems and sub-disciplines in psychology. The Psychology Honours programme may be linked with the following interdisciplinary programmes for an Honours (Double Major): Communication Studies; Health & Society; Law and Society; Labour Studies; Science & Society; and Urban Studies. The Psychology Department also offers three joint programmes with Seneca college: students may earn a Diploma in Early Childhood Education or a certificate in Rehabilitation Services from Seneca, along with the BA degree in Psychology. At the doctoral level, the six areas of specialization are: Clinical Psychology; Clinical-Developmental Psychology; Developmental & Cognitive Processes; General Experimental Psychology; Social and Personality Psychology, and History & Theory of Psychology.

As well as the Psychology programme, the collection must support other courses and research in: the Social Sciences Division; the Social Work B.S.W. and M.S.W. programmes; Women’s Studies to the Ph.D. level ; and parts of the programme of the Centre for Health Studies. There are also disciplines such as Education, Sociology, Kinesiology; Languages and Linguistics; Administrative Studies and various Sciences that have close ties to Psychology but have separate funding.

The following institutes and centres are most closely tied to the collection: The LaMarsh Research Program on Violence and Conflict Resolution; the Centre for Health Studies; the Centre for Feminist Research, the Centre for Vision Research, and the Institute for Social Research.

Description of the Collection

The Psychology collection is considered one of the York’s collections of significance; the collection is comprehensive (in English) and reflects the wide range and diversity of the field. Because research in psychology is often cumulative, the currency of the collection is always stressed. The journal collection is especially important since research in psychology depends primarily on journal literature rather than monographs. Multiple copies are a necessity in many areas because of heavy use. The collection is largely housed at the Scott Library; Steacie houses some relevant material in the neurosciences and related areas.

Related Collections at York

Psychology is a broad and often inter-disciplinary discipline. Consequently, the psychology collection overlaps with many other collections at York. Supporting collections include Steacie Science Library (for statistics, neuroscience, vision research, evolution, ethology and animal behaviour); Law Library (criminal psychology, legal psychology); Business & Government Library (government documents, consumer behavior, organizational psychology); Kinesiology (sports psychology, health psychology, psychophysiology, psychomotor disorders, ergono mics); Education (learning disabilities, development); Social work (psychiatric social work, counselling) and, Language & Linguistics (psycholinguistics). In addition, psychology resources are used to support other programmes like English and Philosophy ( psychoanalysis for example).

Languages

The collection is almost exclusively English language. Faculty requests for items in other languages may be ordered.

Geographical Coverage

Publications are primarily selected from Canada, the United States, Great Britain and major European countries. Cross-cultural research is relevant.

Chronological Coverage

The contemporary period is emphasized, but some works are acquired for other periods to support the History & Theory of Psychology programme at the graduate level.

Date of Publications

Current publications predominate. All classic works are acquired and some retrospective material on topics of primary concern. The latest editions of important and heavily used monographs are purchased.

Duplication

Multiple copies are ordered for books in areas of major interest to the students or in areas that receive particular emphasis in the curriculum. Further copies may be ordered later when circulation statistics indicates a need.

Gifts

Hardback titles are preferred. Paper back gifts may also be accepted depending on demand.

Relegation and Weeding

Because currency is a premium in this discipline, old editions, mutilated copies and obsolete monographs that have ceased circulating are occasionally weeded from the collection.

Material Formats

• Books: Paperback books are generally preferred over hardback editions. Classic works and heavily used titles may be purchased in hardback. Undergraduate textbooks are rarely purchased, except through Scott Reserves. Graduate textbooks may be purchased if they are focused and concern topics which are in demand. Latest editions are usually purchased if there have been substantial revisions. Monographs in series are selected on an individual basis. Clinical guidebooks are rarely selected. Handbooks which summarize the state of knowledge in a particular area are collected.  Most books are purchased in print format; however, e-books are considered when the content is conducive to the online environment or when demand for a book is particular high.
  
• Journals: Subscriptions are maintained for all significant periodicals, and backruns are acquired in paper or electronic form if available. Few newsletters or annual reports are selected. E-journals are acquired whenever possible.
• Electronic Resources: The libraries maintain a variety of electronic resources including periodical index databases and electronic journals. Most of these products are licensed rather than purchased although the libraries have been able to acquire several electronic journal backruns over the past few years through consortial puchasing. Electronic journals are becoming increasingly prevalent.
• Microforms: Microform backruns are selected as backup to heavily used or frequently mutilated journals, or if paper copies are unavailable. A few microform collections have been purchased such as the Women and Health / Mental Health Collection and the Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology.
• Theses and Dissertations: Dissertations are purchased very selectively in subjects that are of major interest. They are bought in paper format.
• Ephemera: Ephemera are seldom selected.
• Films, Videos, Recordings: These items are usually selected by librarians in the Sound and Moving Image Library.
• Exclusions: “Pop-psychology” books, non-scholarly popularizations often written by non-psychologists (such as “how to” books dealing with curious therapies, personal growth, or philosophy of life) are almost never purchased. Individual tests are not collected; the Psychology Resource Centre collects many of these. Items of less than thirty pages are usually excluded.

Resources Elsewhere in the Toronto Region

Within the University, the Psychology Resource Centre and the Nellie Langford Rowell Library (Women’s Studies) have good small collections. Within the Toronto region there are: the University of Toronto; the Addiction Research Foundation; the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and the Canadian Association for Community Living (located in the Kinsmen Building on the York campus).

Collecting Levels

Last updated 2008