Psychology Subject Guide

Books/Monographs: Searching the Catalogs

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Using Library Catalogs & Databases to Find Books on a Psychological Topic

When looking for books (NOT magazine or journal articles) on a psychological topic, the search should begin with the University Libraries' online catalogs. The two main catalogs (the New Catalog and the Classic) are easily accessible from the search box on the Libraries' home page. Use the options on the drop down menus and special "limits" to search for titles, authors, call numbers, subjects, and more in selected formats or locations.
Many researchers prefer to begin with an Advanced Search that is available in either the New or Classic Catalog.

Please note that a new single, Search Library box called Power Search is available with a setting for "Books only."

Dissertations and theses are now available online from ProQuest. Click on the heading below or use the A-Z listing on the Libraries' home page under D. Scroll to Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) and open the link to search by author, subject, institution, etc. Many of the more recent dissertations are available online or have a lengthy excerpt. Older dissertations may only have an abstract but can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan. WMU dissertations and theses can be located in print through the catalogs, Power Search, or searched online.

New Library Catalog

In 2009 we added a new interface to our catalog. It still identifies books (including online books), journal titles, government documents, music, videos, maps, and other items in the University Libraries. It can still be searched by title, author, subject, but now you can choose the format and location in your first search. There are easy ways of narrowing your search in the left column, it offers "did you mean" spelling, favorite lists, and lets you tag items with your own labels.

Classic Library Catalog 

WMU's Classic online catalog (also known as WestCat), is used to identify books (including electronic books), government documents, journals, audio and video, slides, music scores, and other items in the University Libraries' collections. The catalog can be searched by title, author, subject heading, keyword, call number, and more.

Using WorldCat to Find Books on Psychology

If you wish to search a comprehensive, multilibrary online catalog to identify books on your topic not found in our Libraries, WorldCat , found under "W" in the A-Z Database listing, is a compilation of over 62 million records, from "before 1000 B.C. to present," located in over 39,000 national and international libraries. Books in WorldCat or cited in other bibliographies that are not found in our Libraries can usually be obtained through interlibrary loan by linking to ILL through the catalog or index. Online interlibrary loan order forms for both books and journal articles are also available under InterLibrary Loan, found under Services. WorldCat contains many non-print resources including visual materials, sound recordings, maps, computer files, archival materials, music recordings and Internet resources. All Internet resources are directly linked to the Web site or full text .
Books in other libraries can also be searched by selecting the Books entry from the upper left-hand Research column of the Libraries' home page and then choosing a local, regional, or other library from the listing on the screen.

WorldCat 

Comprehensive catalog of books and other materials in libraries around the world. Contains millions of records in hundreds of languages. Non-book materials include (among other publication formats) the titles of journals and magazines, manuscripts, maps, electronic resources, websites, computer programs, music scores, films, slides, sound recordings, conference proceedings, and videotapes. Items located through WorldCat must be requested through Interlibrary Loan unless they are also listed in the WMU Libraries catalog.

Bibliographies in Psychology

When you have used a major subject heading to search the Classic catalog, e.g., Psychology, not only will this library have many titles that include a bibliography of related works, but there may also be a Library of Congress subject subdivision for Bibliography, which will retrieve compilations of books, articles, and other resources on various aspects of psychology. These bibliographies can then be checked against WestCat for call numbers of books found in the University Libraries.
The guides to the field cited above also have sections of titles that are specifically bibliographies of psychology or its related areas.

Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) 

Indexes virtually all doctoral dissertations and many masters theses produced in the U.S. since 1860 and many from foreign schools as well. Abstracts available from 1980. Full text for most dissertations available from 1997. Some authors choose to not make their dissertations available. Print and microfilm copies are offered for a fee, but check out Interlibrary Loan before paying for a copy.

• RefWorks Info: Dissertations and Theses (Proquest) will export marked citations directly into your RefWorks account. (You will be prompted to login.)

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