Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Tests & Measures in PsycINFO

Find Tests, Measures and Inventories in PsycINFO

Another tip about finding Tests and Measures. When you get into PsycINFO, type in the domain of interest to you in the search box -- say, body image.
Then go to the Refine Search section below. Scroll down to the box "Classification Codes." Click on the selections

  • 2200 Psychometrics & Statistics & Methodology
  • 2220 Tests & Testing

(Use control from your keyboard and click with the mouse to click on both options.) This should bring up articles that have a strong focus on Tests and Measures in your field.

Here are the results from the Body Image search:
(Click on the picture to enlarge it.)
(I was thrilled to find out that this actually worked!)

Friday, November 10, 2006

ProQuest Black Studies Center!

The Schomburg Collection 74 Black Studies Journals The Chicago Defender in Full-Text (and even more)

We've had it for a few weeks. You might have checked it out already. If not, you're in for a great treat!

Faculty members, Graduate students, Undergraduates, Friends, Neighbors, Folks interested in fascinating stories. Do we have a database for you!

ProQuest's Black Studies Center includes one of the most comprehensive collections of the African Diaspora in the United States. Multidisciplinary essaies, an index of black studies journals, and over 1,000 full-text dissertations (yay!). It is lovely. It's just fun to play in, let alone do real work.

Before the digitalization, you would have to find a nice grant for a flight and hotel room, or a few dollars from your parents to hitch hike or ride in stinky bus stations and maybe sleep there so you could study. Then you'd have to find a blanket and sleep in the New York Public Library. But now you can stay in your own apartment, dorm, or friends' rooms in Gainesville and look up the material here in the library or on your computer at home.

The Schomburg Building at the NY Public Library is beautiful, but you probably don't want to sleep in the bus station too much. So use your computer, ours or your friends'.

You can perform a "quick search" by typing a few words in the upper left hand corner of the home page and then look at the the most interesting resources by format: essays, newspaper articles, journal articles, etc. The Black Studies center marks especially important, core articles that it considers "required reading" with a read star.

So have a good time looking through this amazing resource. You should find many different uses for it. Lots of material on language, socialization, psychology, mental health, life, love, where we are and where we've come from. Everything is here. It's a joy to have and I'm thrilled to pieces!

Friday, November 03, 2006

Reorganizing, Updating Subject Pages

What Resources do You Need? What would You Like to See?

When you glance at the subject guide pages for Psychology and Sociology, especially, can you guess where to go to start a search? To begin working on a paper? To get help? Doubt it. Your eyes glaze over. They're too crowded. It's like a dictionary where you have to know how to spell the word before you can get the spelling.

You have to know which database to use, before you can find the database to use.

So, I'm going to reorganize and update the subject pages.
The plan? I'm going to have separate pages for some of the specialities, like Aging and Counseling. A page for Tests and Measurements. One for Statistics. That way I can put lots of stuff on there for you to find on those topics. Also guides or suggestions on which databases to use for what.

But what would you like to see? I'd love to know -- from everyone -- faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and librarians. Thanks.