Off The Shelf

The library has two webinars coming up this week, so now is your chance to spend an hour picking up some skills that could help you with the rest of your program! “Searching Databases for Articles” Webinar:  Thursday, April 12, 2012, 7:00 PM CDT Get better results for the topics you search in the library [...]

Need validity and reliability information for a survey, test or instrument?  You can start with the Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY), which  provides reviews of published tests that discuss validity and reliability.  But what if the test you chose doesn’t appear in the MMY, or what if you are required to find additional articles that discuss [...]

If you are a frequent user of PsycINFO you may have noticed a recent change: your searches find fewer full-text articles. Instead there’s a Check Article Linker listed where the old full text link would be. So, what’s going on? The library recently changed our automatic settings in PsycINFO to help learners locate the breadth [...]

We’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about annotated outlines and annotated bibliographies.  Both are ways to make familiar tools much more robust. Basically, an annotation is a bit of extra information added on.  They are most often short paragraphs that provide context and explanation. While you may grumble at the extra work, annotated [...]

When using the library databases, most people try to create one search that will get all the articles they need. Sounds easy, right?  Just put together the magic formula of keywords and boolean operators (AND and OR), and suddenly get what you need. And sometimes it is that easy.  But you have to remember that [...]

There is a common myth out there that “Everything is available on the web.”  I run into this with learners sometimes, who think they can get scholarly journals for their assignments online, through Google or Yahoo.  In reality, scholarly journals are tightly copyrighted.  Only about 8% of journals are published open access, or free.  Others [...]

PsycBOOKS added the following titles to its coverage list in December 2009. Of the titles added, 5 were APA books and 20 were designated classic books. Classic books are landmark titles in psychology and are selected by APA experts. APA Books 1. Behavioral emergencies: An evidence-based resource for evaluating and managing risk of suicide, violence, [...]

In November Erin blogged about scholarly article rental.  Well apparently there is a company that allows you to rent your textbooks.  Chegg.com offers textbook rental with different options for the length of time: Semester (125 days), Quarter (85 days), and 60 day rental. While I haven’t used the service nor can I vouch that their [...]

As an undergraduate student I was the queen of procrastination. It was unbelievable how much schoolwork I could put off and then cram into the last two weeks of classes. Of course, as an adult graduate student I was busy juggling work, home and school all at the same time. I quickly learned that I [...]

PsycBOOKS added the following titles to its coverage list in November 2009. Of the titles added, 5 were APA books and 20 were designated classic books. (Classic books are landmark titles in psychology and are selected by APA experts.) APA Books 1.  Body image, eating disorders, and obesity in youth: Assessment, prevention, and treatment (2nd [...]