GENERAL PURPOSE

For the Psychology Department, the purposes of the library collection materials are to support the academic, pedagogical and research goals of the Department and the College. Specifically, the Department's collection should:

1. Serve the educational needs of the students in psychology courses as a resource for assignments, papers, the Senior Exercise (for majors), and discussions (with faculty and other students) of the psychology literature; and as the foundation for independent student research in psychology.
2. Serve the pedagogical needs of the psychology faculty for researching materials and methods to be used in classrooms and laboratories, and as the base for discussions of the literature.
3. Serve the research and scholarship needs of the psychology faculty in the context of an undergraduate institution. Specifically, collect appropriate materials for keeping up-to-date with the current work in their fields; materials to help write grants to support academic work; and materials that will assist in the research and publication process. These research needs are addressed as resources allow.
4. Serve the needs of the College community as a resource for people with general interest in psychology topics.

GENERAL SUBJECT BOUNDARIES

The Department's faculty have broad-based research and teaching interests including abnormal psychology, cultural psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, gender psychology, health psychology, learning and memory, neuroscience, psychology of human sexuality, sensation and perception, and social psychology. The library must maintain and improve the circulating and reference collections across a wide range of psychology topics, including subject fields that may not now exist.

TYPES OF MATERIALS COLLECTED

The Kenyon libraries shall collect books, serials and videos on topics related to psychology. Of these, serials (including on-line journals) and books will be used most frequently.

FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED

The Department's current holdings are predominantly journals and books. Serial holdings in the future should be mostly on-line, for ease of access. The department desires to increase the collection of videos for instruction purposes. A number of these videos may be costly and require reallocation of monograph funds. CD-ROMs, photographs, and plates may also be appropriate for the collection.

LANGUAGES

Predominantly English-language materials shall be collected.

GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS

Predominantly materials published in North America and Europe shall be collected.

CHRONOLOGICAL GUIDELINES

Psychology is a rapidly changing field. Recent publications will frequently be preferred to older ones. If the College has several editions of certain books, it may be necessary to retain only the most recent editions.

REFERENCE COLLECTION

Materials in the reference collection shall be recent (no more than four years old). These items shall include subject-specific dictionaries and encyclopedias. Multiple copies of the most recent Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association shall be kept at the Reference Desk.

Access to databases of article citations and psychological measurements shall be provided for the largest number of users in the most cost-effective manner (for example, multiple-user access to online formats are preferred to single-user CD-ROM access).

CIRCULATING COLLECTION

Materials in the local, circulating collection shall include a variety of older, recent and new publications. For example, reference materials from the last five years may be available in the stacks. Classic works will be collected and stored locally. Faculty members in the Department will collaborate with the library liaison to regularly review holdings in the circulating collection.

OFFSITE STORAGE

Offsite storage is an appropriate location for Kenyon-owned materials that have not circulated in the last ten years. Offsite storage may also be an appropriate location for bound journals that are also available online. Faculty members in the Department will recommend journal titles for offsite storage.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND MANUSCRIPTS

There are no special collections or manuscript materials in psychology at this time. The Greenslade Special Collections and Archives does collect all faculty monograph publications, as part of the Kenyon Authors collection, and all Honors Theses written by seniors at Kenyon.

OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE

Participation by the Kenyon libraries in CONSORT and OhioLINK allows access to materials not directly in Kenyon's local holdings. The psychology faculty members encourage these and further efforts at increasing the availability of information resources for our students, faculty, staff, and community members.

CREATION DATE AND REVISION HISTORY

Drafted November 2000 by Jasmine Vaughan, Librarian and Technology Consultant. Revised by Joseph Murphy, April 2003.

LC CLASS

Materials in the Library of Congress Classification Schedule include, but are not limited to the following ranges: BF, H, HM, HV, QP, RC, and RJ.