PSYCHOLOGY1. INTRODUCTIONPsychology was originally taught at the University of Auckland within the Department of Philosophy. In 1957 Dr T.H. Scott was appointed to Philosophy and also to head an independent Department of Psychology. In 1961 Dr H. Sampson was appointed to the first Chair of Psychology, and enrolment of the first Master’s degree students took place. During the 1960s and 1970s the Department specialised in the areas of perception, learning and memory. While these areas continue to be taught, the curriculum has widened to include, for example, courses in social psychology, organisational psychology, clinical neuropsychology, health psychology, and developmental psychology. Speech science courses were taught for the first time during 2003. Psychology is now taught at the Tamaki Campus and the Medical and Health Sciences Campus, in addition to the City Campus. The psychology collection in the Library system contains material to support the current diverse teaching and research undertaken in the Department of Psychology. 2. DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTIONPsychology is the study of the mind and behaviour. As a discipline it encompasses a wide range of specialities, including social, educational, experimental, clinical and organisational psychology, and the current psychology collection reflects this diversity. The collection comprises serials, monographs and audiovisual material within all the major specialties of psychology. While many monographs and serials are located at Dewey sequences within the 130s and 150s, because psychology is an interdisciplinary subject material can also be found outside these numbers, e.g. social psychology within the 300s and clinical psychology in the 600s. While the main psychology collection is located on Level 1 of the General Library, material is also found on Level M (e.g. reference collection, clinical psychology) and Level G (New Zealand material). The Tamaki Campus Library houses speech science and applied behaviour analysis material. The Philson Library also houses psychology material, mainly at the NLM call number BF. Serials at the Philson and Tamaki libraries are arranged alphabetically. Course material and videos are held in the Short Loan collection in the Kate Edger Information Commons. Little used material is kept in storage. Electronic material is provided through Library website. The major databases are listed at /subject-guides/psych/psy.htm and include PsycINFO and the Mental Measurements Yearbook. 3. USERSPrimarily undergraduate and graduate students of psychology and staff from the Department of Psychology. Students and staff from other Departments, Associate members and the public also make use of the collection. 4. COLLECTION PRIORITIES· Textbooks and recommended reading for students. Copies of these items are purchased for the Short Loan Collection. · Monographs, serials and audiovisual material for both teaching and research requested by academic staff via the Departmental Library Liaison Officer and by the Psychology Subject Librarian. The Library will purchase electronic serials where available. · Reference works (e.g. dictionaries, encyclopaedias.) · Books recommended by other users of the collection. Foreign language material is seldom ordered. Psychological Tests are not ordered by the Library, but are acquired by the Department of Psychology for the Departmental Test Library. The Psychology Subject Librarian weeds outdated material on a regular basis. Liz Hardley |