Psychology Subject Guide

Books/Monographs: Searching the Catalog

 

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restricted - Restricted to WMU users open access - Open Access

Using WestCat to Find Books on a Psychological Topic

When looking for books (NOT magazine or journal articles) on a psychological topic, the search should begin with the University Libraries' online catalog called WestCat. This is easily accessible from the Libraries' home page under the heading of Library Catalog or directly through the left hand Quick Search box. Once you have opened WestCat, there are several search options. If you know a title, use the Basic Search line. (Change the drop down menu to Journal Title if you have a journal or magazine to locate.) Use the other options on the drop down menu and special "limits" to search for authors, call numbers, or subjects in selected formats or locations.
Many researchers prefer to begin with an Advanced Search that is available. Multiple words or phrases that are "your language," not known to be from the official LC subject heading list, can be entered. However, the system only finds books that use the same word or words in their titles or are found somewhere in the library catalog entry. As a result, no book, as described in our catalog, may contain all of the words and phrases that you enter. If no titles appear, try synonyms or fewer headings--or select a heading(s) from the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
When a list of titles appears, review them and then select those that might contain relevant information. On the screens that appear after clicking on a title, there are official Library of Congress subject headings that are linked to other books on the same topic.

Dissertations and theses are now available online from ProQuest. Click on the heading below or use the A-Z listing on the Libraries' home page under D. Scroll to Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) and open the link to search by author, subject, institution, etc. Many of the more recent dissertations are available online or have a lengthy excerpt. Older dissertations may only have an abstract but can occasionally be ordered through Interlibrary Loan. WMU dissertations and theses can be located in print through WestCat.

WestCat/Library Catalog open access WestCat is one of the historic names for WMU's official online library catalog. This catalog is used to identify books (including online books), government documents, journals, videos, sound recordings, slides and other items that the University Libraries has in its collections. WestCat can be searched by title, author, subject heading, keyword, call number, and more.

Librarian's Comment: Find WestCat on the Libraries' home page by clicking on Library Catalog (top of screen) or using the search box on the upper right hand side of the screen.

Using WorldCat to Find Books on Psychology

If you wish to search an online catalog to identify books on your topic not found in our Libraries, WorldCat , found under "W" in the A-Z listing of Articles and Databases and also under Books, is a compilation of over 62 million records, from "before 1000 B.C. to present," located in over 39,000 national and international libraries. Books in WorldCat or cited in other bibliographies that are not found in our Libraries can usually be obtained through interlibrary loan by linking to ILL through the catalog or index. Online interlibrary loan order forms for both books and journal articles are also available under InterLibrary Loan, found under Services, and, in some instances, directly from the description page in the online database that you are searching. WorldCat contains many non-print resources including visual materials, sound recordings, maps, computer files, archival materials, music recordings and Internet resources. All Internet resources are directly linked to the Web site or full text .
Books in other libraries can also be searched by selecting the Books entry from the upper left-hand column of the Libraries' home page and then choosing a local, regional, or other library from the listing on the screen.

WorldCat restricted Comprehensive catalog of books and other materials in libraries around the world. Contains millions of records in hundreds of languages. Nonbook materials include (among other publication formats) the titles of journals and magazines, manuscripts, maps, electronic resources, websites, computer programs, musical scores, films, slides, sound recordings, conference proceedings, and videotapes. Items located through WorldCat must be requested through Interlibrary Loan unless they are also listed in the WMU libraries catalog, WestCat.

Bibliographies in Psychology
When you have used a major subject heading to search WestCat, e.g., Psychology, not only will this library have many titles but there may also be a subdivision for Bibliography, which will cite compilations of books, articles, and other resources. These bibliographies can then be checked against WestCat for call numbers of books found in the University Libraries.
The guides to the field cited above also have sections of titles that are specifically bibliographies of psychology or its related areas.

Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) restricted Indexes virtually all doctoral dissertations and many masters theses produced in the U.S. since 1860 and many from foreign schools as well. Abstracts available from 1980. Full text for most dissertations available from 1997. Some authors choose to not make their dissertations available. Print and microfilm copies are offered for a fee, but check out Interlibrary Loan before paying for a copy.

  • RefWorks Info: Disertatin and Theses (Proquest) will export marked citations directly into your RefWorks account. (You will be prompted to login.)


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