Author: Patti Avellanet

APA Sunrise Seminar at MLA 2017

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Librarians

Medical Library Association 2017 Conference LogoDo you dream of putting even more power at your researchers’ fingertips when they’re searching PsycINFO®? Or for your students to focus less on paper formatting and more on their writing? Then dare to join APA for our Sunrise Seminar. You’ll be able to do it all!

American Psychological Association Sunrise Seminar
Monday, May 29, 2017
7:00 – 8:45 a.m.
Washington State Convention Center Room 604
Breakfast will be provided – please RSVP so there’s enough to go around.

We’ll begin with a thorough review of several new fields that were recently added to PsycINFO. Of particular interest to health sciences researchers are the inclusion of MeSH terms, Data Sets, NLM Journal Title Abbreviations, new limiters, and more.

Next, we’ll explore APA Style CENTRAL®, our new resource for teaching, learning, and writing in APA Style®. After a quick overview, we’ll look at the tools and services in APA Style CENTRAL from faculty, student, and academic support perspectives, suggesting possible opportunities for partnership and collaboration across campus.

We hope to see you there! Please RSVP and let us know you’re attending. Can’t attend? Drop by Booth #622 for information and updates.

Webinar Alert: PsycINFO Sessions for Students & Faculty – April 26-28, 2017

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

Our next series of PsycINFO® webinars for students and faculty will run on April 5, April 6, and April 7 from 11 – 11:30 a.m. EDT (UTC−04:00). The sessions may be attended separately, but we encourage those who are interested to take all three, so we offer them on consecutive days:

We will provide information relevant to all search platforms including APA PsycNET, EBSCOhost, Ovid, and ProQuest. The platform demonstrated will be based on the needs of the attendees of each session. For more information on this series, including full descriptions, please visit our database webinar training web page.

These webinars are an ideal way for students to get a refresher on PsycINFO if they have had a previous training session. Please help us spread the word to interested students and faculty!

New in PsycBOOKS: March 2017

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Librarians

In March 2017, APA added 3 new APA books to PsycBOOKS®:

Bibliographic records are available through your PsycBOOKS vendor. You may also download RDA records directly from APA by following the instructions in the APA PsycNET® Administrator Help Menu.

View the past monthly PsycBOOKS update lists, a list of sample PsycBOOKS titles, and the full coverage list for PsycBOOKS.

Spotlight: PsycINFO® Quick Reference Guides

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

Need a brief overview on how to search PsycINFO®?  We have a Quick Reference Guide for that!

Screenshot of PsycINFO Quick Reference Guide for APA PsycNET showing description of PsycINFO

PsycINFO Quick Reference Guide for APA PsycNET®

 

Learn the basics of searching PsycINFO on your platform to make your search more effective. Each PsycINFO Quick Reference Guide covers:

  • System navigation
  • Command searching
  • Correct search syntax for specific fields
  • Advanced search syntax (e.g., Boolean operators, truncation)
  • Limiting your search
  • Managing your search results
  • Platform-specific tips
PsycINFO Search Basics on APA PsycNET: Screenshot of Quick Reference Guide showing descriptions of Boolean Operators (AND, OR, and NOT), Phrases, and Truncation

PsycINFO Search Basics on APA PsycNET

 

Download or link to the PsycINFO Quick Reference Guide for your platform:

This is a perfect course handout for students who are new to searching PsycINFO, or anyone else who may want a refresher. Librarians and faculty can request pocket-size print versions to distribute: Email psycinfo@apa.org with your name, institution, mailing address, quantity needed, and specified platform.

Related Resources:

APA provides search help and training for all end-users, from novices through expert searchers. Find search guides, webinar schedules, tutorials, and more at our APA Search Help and Training Center for databases and electronic resources.

Be sure to check out our PsycINFO YouTube channel for short training tutorials and webinar recordings demonstrating how to put APA databases to work for you. View the playlist for your platform: APA Databases on APA PsycNET, APA Databases on EBSCOhost, APA Databases on Ovid, or APA Databases on ProQuest.

From the Deck of . . . The ACRL 2017 Databases Lunch & Learn

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Librarians

Welcome to “From the Deck of . . .” an irregular series in which we highlight search demos and other information from the slide decks we create for our live training sessions. You can view and download these materials from the PsycINFO SlideShare account.
At the recent Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) conference, we presented two training sessions. During our APA Databases Lunch & Learn, we looked at some of the fields and features added to PsycINFO® in August 2016. Among the search examples for this section of the presentation was an explanation of how and why you might use the Medical Subject Headings, or MeSH terms, that have been added to PsycINFO.

In PubMed, a health sciences database from the National Library of Medicine, articles are indexed with MeSH terms, which work similarly to the Index Terms in PsycINFO. (For a more in-depth explanation, see our post PsycINFO Expert Tip: Searching by Keyword, Index Term, and More.) About 30% of the articles indexed in PsycINFO are also included in PubMed. When you find one of those articles in PsycINFO, you’ll now see the MeSH terms assigned by PubMed, as well as the article’s PubMed Identifier (PMID). How can this information be of use to your health sciences researchers and students?

Researchers are increasingly aware that research relevant to their interests may be available outside their specialty. For example, perhaps you’re working with someone who’s looking at brain inflammation and its impact on mood. They’ve found some information in PubMed, but would like to recreate their search in PsycINFO to find additional resources from psychology.

One easy way to find the relevant terms from the PsycINFO Thesaurus is to start by looking at some of the useful articles the researcher has already found in PubMed. By using the PMIDs to find some of those articles in PsycINFO, you can review the MeSH terms and the PsycINFO Subject Headings assigned to the article. From there, you can rebuild the search using terms from the PsycINFO Thesaurus.

A slide from the ACRL 2017 Databases Lunch & Learn.

To review the full search example, take a look at the slides from our APA Databases Lunch & Learn. You’ll also find some sample search scenarios for PsycTESTS®, and a brief review of APA Style CENTRAL®.