Psychology and Counseling Library Research Guide: Strategy

How do I get started with my research in the library?

1. Encyclopedias

2. Books

3. Journal Articles

• Academic Search Complete
  Wide coverage of social sciences Use if your topic overlaps into other subject areas Approximately 50% of journals available in full text

• PsycARTICLES
  More than 45,000 articles from 57 journals; 46 published by the American Psychological Association (APA) and 11 from allied organizations

• PsycINFO
  Premier research database for psychology/counseling Recent years index books as well as journal articles

• For more databases in psychology and counseling, use the Psychology and Counseling Databases page.

   

• Get an overview of information on the subject.
• Use indexes to find your topic.
• Note if there is a bibliography at the end of the article.
• Note the author of the article itself and authors in the bibliography.
• Finding encyclopedias:
  * Ebsco Ebooks
  * Gale Virtual Reference Library
  * Library Catalog

• St. Mary's Blume Library Catalog
  indexes the books inside our library plus our online books.

• Ebsco Ebooks
  gives you access to more than 50,000 fulltext books online.

• Google Book Search
  search inside books, some available online in fulltext.

• Accessing Electronic Books
  more places to locate online books.

• Other Libraries
  search other libraries individually.

• WorldCat
  gives you the ability to search for books from thousands of libraries and to find out whether a particular library holds a particular book.

• TexShare 
  is a consortium of most of the academic and public libraries in Texas. The TexShare website contains a list of members and information on whether they cooperate in the TexShare card program that enables St. Mary's students to check out books directly from those libraries using a TexShare card. Get your TexShare card at our circulation desk.