Author: Patti Avellanet

Tutorial Tuesday: How (and Why) to use the APA Thesaurus on APA PsycNET

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians, For Students

It’s Tutorial Tuesday! In this series, we explore APA’s library of video tutorials available on the PsycINFO® YouTube channel and the APA Style CENTRAL® YouTube channel. Please feel free to link to or embed our videos in your library websites or LibGuides, course management systems, or other locations where students, faculty, and researchers will find them.

We recently updated one of our tutorials: How (and Why) to Use the APA Thesaurus on APA PsycNET®.""

How can you be sure you are finding the best results for your search?

By using the best search terms! The APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (“APA Thesaurus”) contains the controlled vocabulary that APA uses to describe and categorize all content indexed in PsycINFO. This resource is regularly updated to include new and changing terminology for topics in the behavioral sciences, and you can put it to work for you!

Using the APA Thesaurus helps you eliminate “noise” from your search and retrieve the most relevant results by revealing the best search terms for your topic. The APA Thesaurus is a valuable tool for students new to research or any researcher who is new to a topic area and may not yet know the best terminology for searching.

This brief video (2:40 minutes) demonstrates the benefits of using the APA Thesaurus when searching databases on the APA PsycNET platform, and includes:

  • Examples of recent terminology updates to the APA Thesaurus;
  • How to access the APA Thesaurus when crafting a search;
  • Using the APA Thesaurus to find related terms for narrowing or expanding your search;
  • Discovering index terms for broader concepts that encompass your research topic and make searching more efficient; and
  • Uncovering additional search terms you may not have considered.

This tutorial is a great resource to link from a LibGuide or course module for any class working with APA Databases on APA PsycNET, and can be helpful in answering email or chat reference questions.

The previous version of this tutorial will remain available, but if you have embedded or linked to it anywhere, we encourage you to update your materials with the link to this new version.

Related Resources:

APA Librarian Conference Travel Award: Apply by 3/31 for Summer 2018 Conferences

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Librarians

Do you work in an academic or health sciences library in the United States? Are you an early- or mid-career librarian? Are you looking for sources of funding for a conference you’d like to attend this spring?

If the answer to all of those questions is yes, please consider applying for an APA Librarian Conference Travel Award! Through March 31, 2018, we are accepting applications for conferences taking place from May to August 2018. This includes – but is not limited to – LOEX 2018, the Medical Library Association Conference 2018, ALA Annual 2018, the ACRL Immersion Program and Teacher Tracks, and the APA Annual Convention.

The award is intended to help defray conference-related expenses for librarians with less than 15 years of experience after receiving their MLS/MLIS. Three cash awards are distributed three times each calendar year, and the application cycle opens and closes on a rolling basis. At this time, we are not limiting the conferences that are eligible for travel award funding. Applicants should identify the conference that best meets their professional needs, and explain how attendance will support their current duties and future goals.

Continue reading →

APA Librarian Conference Travel Award: Reflections on Charleston 2017

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Librarians

The most recent recipient of the APA Librarian Conference Travel Award, Kelsey Cheshire from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, used the award to defray the cost of attendance at the annual Charleston Conference in November. Patti Avellanet in APA’s Databases & Electronic Resources Customer Relations group recently talked with her to get her impressions of the conference. The following transcript of their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and context.

Photo of Kelsey CheshirePatti: So tell me about Charleston! Was the experience as valuable as you had hoped it would be?

Kelsey: The Charleston Conference was great!  I really enjoyed the thought-provoking presentations and discussions about our ever-changing library collections, roles, and products. I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend with APA’s support.

As an early-career librarian, I probably can’t overstate how valuable it was to do my first presentation at a national conference. My colleagues and I presented historical data about our monograph purchasing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, including discussing our various pilot programs and vendor plans that have helped shape our purchasing plan. It was fun to provide my perspective as a new bibliographer.

Patti: I think the novel perspective from the proverbial “new kid on the block” is always valuable. I’m sure that your conference colleagues who find themselves in similar situations gained valuable insights from your team’s experience of cobbling together seemingly independent pieces into a cohesive book-buying plan.

I recall one of your other objectives for attending Charleston was to learn how your peers are approaching collection development and acquisitions with innovative solutions. It sounds like it provided the perfect environment for picking up some actionable ideas that you can incorporate into your library’s development approach.   

Kelsey: It is such a unique gathering of library folks and vendors sharing their experiences and challenges, that I think everyone can get some valuable takeaways.

Patti: It certainly seems that this was an extremely rewarding conference experience for you, especially as a an early career librarian! Is it safe to assume that you would recommend attending the Charleston Conference to other librarians?

Kelsey: I’m tempted to say that everyone who works in a library should go at least once! There’s something for everyone, no matter your interests.

Patti: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with our readers?

Kelsey: I’m grateful to my colleagues who invited me to collaborate on our presentation — so a special thank you to Lynn  Wiley, Stephanie Baker, and George Gottschalk! I’d also like to say “thank you” again to APA staff for coordinating this award — and in joining me for dinner while I was in town!

Patti: It’s great to know that you made the most of your attendance at the Charleston Conference, and that APA played a part in helping you contribute to the field with your presentation. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today.

Would you or a librarian you know benefit from receiving an APA Librarian Conference Travel Award? From January 1 through March 31, 2018, the APA Librarian Conference Travel Award is accepting applications for conferences taking place from May – August 2018. Please visit the website for more details on eligibility, deadlines, and application materials.

APA Style CENTRAL – Customizing the Writing Center Display

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Faculty, For Librarians, For Students

Today we’d like to highlight one of our APA Style CENTRAL handouts, “Customizing the APA Style CENTRAL® Writing Center Display” (PDF, 565K). Please feel free to link to this handout where students, faculty, and researchers will find it!

APA Style CENTRAL’s Writing Center was designed to be flexible, offering a wealth of tools to help you manage the process of writing your paper or manuscript. Understanding that users often have different needs at different times, this resource shares how the display can be configured to accommodate your workflow preferences while you are writing your paper.

Details in the handout include:

  • Three (3) options for temporarily hiding the left navigation menu to maximize the amount of horizontal viewing space while you are working on your paper;
  • How to collapse the References pane and/or expand the Writing/Editing pane to increase the vertical display of paper text;
  • Activating full-screen mode; and
  • The “Find and Cite Reference” tool for creating an in-text citation when your References pane is hidden — or even when you just want to quickly cite your work without having to scroll down past the Writing/Editing pane to access the “References” tab.

These options can be activated while you are working on a paper. Default settings are restored whenever you exit the paper, log out, or otherwise begin a new browser session.

Want to learn more? You’ll find this handout on our APA Style CENTRAL® Handouts and Guides page, where we continue to add handouts and documentation for users and administrators as they become available.

Do you have a “how-to” question about APA Style CENTRAL or some aspect of it you’d like to know more about? Please let us know!

New Handbook: The APA Handbook of the Psychology of Women

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Faculty, For Individual Subscribers, For Librarians

The APA Handbooks in Psychology series was launched in 2011 to provide comprehensive overviews and in-depth study of specific subfields within psychology. All of the Handbooks are included in the PsycBOOKS® database, and titles are also available individually.

The series currently contains 26 authoritative titles, including the 2014 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, APA Handbook of Sexuality and Psychology.

""The most recent addition to this series is the APA Handbook of the Psychology of Women, edited by Cheryl B. Travis and Jacquelyn W. White and published in October 2017.

As a formal field of study, the psychology of women has pushed the boundaries of traditional theory, produced breakthroughs in methodology, and built links to some of the most challenging problems of our time. It remains an intellectually vibrant and socially relevant area, including initiatives that not only have changed the epistemology of knowledge, but also have expanded our understanding of ourselves and of the world.

Across this two-volume set, chapter authors provide scholarly reviews and in-depth analyses of subjects within their areas of expertise. Themes of status and power inform many chapters.

Volume 1: History, Theory, and Battlegrounds introduces:

  • An outline of the emergence of the psychology of women and its connections with the women’s movement;
  • Feminist critiques of theory, descriptions of innovative methodologies, and discussions of difference and similarity, both between women and men and between gender and sexuality;
  • A review of the social and economic contexts surrounding these issues, as well as the dichotomies sustained by sexism, stereotypes, and prejudice; and
  • Chapters that address the uniquely intersecting components of individual experience.

Volume 2: Perspectives on Women’s Private and Public Lives continues with:

  • A focus on applied topics, beginning with a section on psychological well-being that incorporates therapeutic models of gender, feminist goals of empowerment, multicultural feminism, and the borderlands of gender identity;
  • A discussion of close relationships, including issues of intimacy, equity, and changing models of family;
  • A description of victimization and narratives of victimhood;
  • An exploration of leadership, community, politics, and women in the workplace; and
  • A discussion of women’s roles and agency throughout the world, with special attention given to human rights and reproductive justice.

Visit the APA Handbook of the Psychology of Women web page for more information, including the full table of contents and editor biographies.

PsycBOOKS users on APA PsycNET® (including subscribers to APA PsycNET Gold, Gold Plus, and Platinum), EBSCOhost, Ovid and ProQuest can access the entire series by browsing PsycBOOKS or by performing a title search for a particular handbook.

Institutions also have the option of purchasing handbooks individually. Print only, Electronic only, or Electronic + Print options are available through APA, with electronic access provided via the APA PsycNET® platform. For more information on pricing and availability, please see the APA Handbooks in Psychology institutional purchase page or contact us at quotes@apa.org.