From the Deck of… ACRL 2019 Lunch & Learn

Posted on by Marta Soto 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 APA Publishing Training SlideShare account.

At the ACRL meeting this month, we presented a Lunch & Learn training session covering updates and search tips for APA’s databases.

The presentation covered the recent thesaurus update, upcoming changes to the PsycTESTS database, and features of the My PsycNET platform manager.

Live demos included the following example searches:

  • using thesaurus terms
  • updating a saved search with the new thesaurus terms
  • using PsycINFO’s tests & measures field to find a known test
  • searching for appended tests
  • PsycTESTS example search

You can review the slides from our ACRL 2019 Lunch & Learn on our SlideShare account.

Related Resources:

APA Training Events at MLA 2019

Posted on by Marta Soto in For Librarians

Will you be at the Medical Library Association Meeting in Chicago this May? We hope to see you at our Sunrise Seminar!

American Psychological Association Sunrise Seminar @ MLA
Monday, May 6, 7:30 am – 8:45 am
RSVP

Join APA Publishing for an update on our resources for health sciences research, patient education, and clinical practice. We’ll explore APA databases through a variety of sample searches, including newly added thesaurus terms, Tests & Measures, and using the individual account My PsycNET.
This session is open to all, and breakfast will be served. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. 

If you can’t attend the session, please stop by booth #723 for a demo and updates from Saturday May 4 – Monday May 6.

APA Training Events at ACRL 2019

Posted on by Marta Soto in For Librarians

Will you be at the ACRL conference in Cleveland this April? We hope to see you at our Lunch & Learn!

American Psychological Association Lunch & Learn @ ACRL
Friday, April 12, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
RSVP here

Join APA Publishing for an update on our resources for health sciences research, patient education, and clinical practice. We’ll explore APA databases through a variety of sample searches, including newly added thesaurus terms, Tests & Measures, and using the individual account My PsycNET.

Walk-ins are always welcome, but priority will be given to participants who register in advance.

If you can’t attend the session, please stop by Booth 404 for a demo and updates from Wednesday, April 10 – Friday, April 12.

Apply by 3/31 for the APA Librarian Conference Travel Award

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 in late spring or summer?

If the answer to all of those questions is yes, please consider applying for an APA Librarian Conference Travel Award. There’s still plenty of time to get your application package together!

This program has a rolling deadline, and the next one is March 31. Submit your application for a conference taking place from May to August 2019. This includes – but is not limited to – LOEX 2019, the Medical Library Association Conference 2019, ALA Annual 2019, 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. One cash award is 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.

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New Terms & Other Updates to the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms®

Posted on by Patti Avellanet in For Librarians

We recently released an update to the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. The Thesaurus provides precise and consistent terminology for searching all APA research databases. We added 305 new “preferred” Index Terms and approximately 70 new non-postable or “use” references*.

Each item in the APA databases – journal articles, books and book chapters, dissertations, and more – is represented by a record that is indexed, or tagged, with Index Terms from the Thesaurus. The use of a controlled vocabulary allows someone searching a database to quickly find all items about a specific concept — such as Animal Behavior, Marginalized Groups, or Prescription Drug Misuse — no matter what terminology or keywords the authors used. 

Reflecting emerging areas, technologies, and social issues as well as changing nomenclature, this updated vocabulary will provide users with more targeted and efficient search and discovery. Additionally, we added new terminology in the expanding areas of psychological assessment, psychometrics, and research methods. You can view more details on our web page, What’s New in the 2019 Update, including a link to the full list of new and updated Index Terms (PDF, 135KB).

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