The SFCC Library offers a variety of sources useful for researching topics in psychology, and this guide is intended to help you identify them and use them effectively. This class is meant, in part, to introduce you to more in-depth resources and techniques than you may have encounted before. However, thanks to a variety of online databases as well as cooperative agreements with other regional libraries, it is certainly possible to do both extensive and high quality research, even at a community college.
It is strongly recommended that you start early, as research takes time. It is likely you will need to use interlibrary loan, and if so, please allow extra time to locate and receive books or copies of articles.
It also a good idea to keep a record of where you get information as you go along–nothing is more frustrating than trying to compile a bibliography when you can't remember where you got your information!
George Suttle (533-3807, georges 'at' spokanefalls.edu) is the library's liaison for Social Sciences classes, but never hesitate to ask any librarian for help.
Finding Books & Videos
The SFCC Library shares a joint online catalog with SCC at http://ccs.wash-id.net/ The catalog lists books, videos, magazines, journals, and other items held by one or both of the two libraries.
The Dewey Decimal System, which is used by the SFCC Library and many others, was created in the late 19th century, well before many modern subjects had been fully defined, much less explored. Thus, books about psychologists and their theories and techniques are cataloged in the 150-159 area, whereas books about psychiatry (which have a more medical orientation) are classified in the 615-616 area. For books you can check out, you may simply wish to browse the book stacks around these Dewey areas.
Since community college libraries do not generally acquire or maintain deep research collections, you may need to seek books at cooperating institutions in the Washington-Idaho Network (WIN) of libraries. Students and faculty can use our online catalog to search for and request items from the libraries at Gonzaga, Whitworth, North Idaho College, the University of Idaho, among others. Items will be delivered via courier, usually within 3-4 days, to the SFCC circulation desk, where they may be checked out.
In addition, consider searching catalogs for libraries physically nearby, such as Eastern Washington University and the Spokane city and county public libraries. Links to these are provided at http://library.spokanefalls.edu/LibraryandCatalogs.stm
Last but not least, Google has been scanning entire books into its vast databases, and it is thus possible to see at least part of several million titles via books.google.com. Depending on copyright status and the owner's wishes, Google may show nothing, snippets of text, multiple pages, or the entire book.
Reference sources
Reference items are usually distinguished by having an "R" or "REF" before the call number. Reference works are especially good for statistical data, information which must be up-to-date (e.g., addresses and phone numbers), and for quick overviews of a topic such as one finds in an encyclopedia.
Items in a reference collection usually cannot be checked out, but you can make photocopies if you like. You can also browse similar call numbers in the circulating stacks to find books which can be checked out.
The following print reference books are in the SFCC library; you might want to look around the same call numbers in other libraries for similar kinds of books.
While the library has and will continue to buy printed reference books, the trend these days is to purchase reference books as online editions. This allows students to access the contents of such books from home at times when the library isn't open.
The following online reference books can be accessed almost any time, wherever you have an internet connection; off-campus users will need to put in their usernames (without the @stu part) and passwords:
Perfect for research assignments in psychology, science and history, this one-stop source for in-depth coverage of major psychological theories and the people who developed them provides a unique approach to the study of psychological history as it pertains to analysis.
This encyclopedia provides readers with basic information about the history of social welfare in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The intent of the encyclopedia is to provide readers with information about how these three nations have dealt with social welfare issues, some similar across borders, others unique, as well as to describe important events, developments, and the lives and work of some key contributors to social welfare developments.
Adopts an international, cross-cultural approach to such diverse topics as adolescent parenthood, family planning, cohabitation, widowhood, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, codependency, and commuter marriages. Includes articles specific to countries and religious traditions, examining the history of family life within these cultures and discussing how families have been affected by political and social change.
Covers Diseases and Disorders; Development; Immunizations; Drugs; and Procedures, with a distinct emphasis on the health issues affecting children under the age of four.
This, the 3rd edition of a standard reference work, explores the social, medical, legal and political issues related to drugs and alcohol and associated behaviors. Includes emerging topics and developments in the many fields of addiction studies.
Current, unbiased information on alternative and complementary medical practices, including reflexology, acupressure, acupuncture, chelation therapy, kinesiology, yoga, chiropractic, Feldenkrais, polarity therapy, detoxification, naturopathy, Chinese medicine, biofeedback, Ayurveda, and osteopathy. Information on recommended therapies for specific disorders and diseases, medicinal uses for plants and herbs, are balanced by conclusions of studies on efficacy and analysis of current levels of acceptance by traditional scientists and doctors.
Provides a comprehensive survey of lesbian and gay history and culture in the United States. Includes approximately 545 articles ranging from short biographical entries to longer essays surveying topics such as the Stonewall riots, federal law and policy, same sex institutions, and AIDS.
Provides current information on more than 5,000 legal topics. Includes completely revised articles covering important issues, biographies, definitions of legal terms and more. Covers such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, and physician-assisted suicide.
Contains over 120,000 articles, an updated world atlas, thousands of images and videos, an online dictionary and thesaurus, over 300,000 articles from respected magazines and journals, news headlines, a guide to the Web's best sites, and much more.
Databases
The SFCC Library subscribes to a number of commercial databases, some of which offer access to complete newspaper, magazine, and journal articles. Others include online books, primary documents, images, statistical data, and a variety of other things.
Academic Search Complete is a full-text database of more than 5,990 periodicals, mostly peer-reviewed. This database has a more academic orientation than one such as ProQuest, which emphasizes popular magazines and newspapers.
JSTOR provides complete academic journal articles for a variety of subject areas; it is intended to offer archival access to older issues, and is not meant to locate the most current articles.
CINAHL includes full text articles from over 600 nursing & allied health journals back to 1981. Could be useful for researching mental health care and psychological issues affecting patient care.
Science Reference Center contains full text for nearly 640 science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, etc. While not focusing on psychology or psychiatry, this might be useful for researching the biological roots of behavior.
Although excellent for a broad range of topics, ProQuest is not our best database for scholarly articles. However, there are some psychology journals available here, so it's worth a look.
The following indexes will have relevant articles. However, as these databases are most useful for contemporary controversial issues, use them for topics such as mental health care, homelessness, domestic violence, adolescent gun violence, and so forth.
CQ Researcher is published about 45 times per year, and covers one topic very thoroughly in each issue. While the topic you're interested in might not have been covered recently, the online version goes back some fifteen years. The Library also has print editions in the reference section.
Opposing Viewpoints provides full-text pro- and con- coverage of numerous topics. It can be browsed or searched. Also provides some access to magazine and journal articles.
World Wide Web Resources
The World Wide Web has become indispensable for research, but the challenge is to identify stable, reputable academic sources. Search engines such as Google return too many hits, and most of them are not suitable. An excellent site listing various specialized search tools is
Look for sites that are kept up to date and which have an identifiable author or responsible party. You should be able to locate contact information easily (postal addresses, phone numbers, or at least an email address, ideally to someone more specific than "webmaster").
Once you find suitable sources of information, you will need to cite what you use. Please consult our list of citation resources.
Claims to offer "everything you'll ever want to know about sentence structure and using the parts of speech correctly." This is one of a set of related, interlinked pages, all addressing topics of clear writing, punctuation, and communication in general.
