Receive an e-mail when a new issue of the Library of Congress Cataloging Newsline is available.

More about this feature

Psychology

Collection Policy Statement Index

(Class BF and Z7201-Z7204)

I. Scope
II. Research strengths
III. Comparison with other major research collections
IV. General policy
V. Collection levels for psychology

I. Scope

Materials in psychology, the study of the science of behavior, are classed primarily in BF. Materials covering Psychiatry and the medical aspects related to Psychology are usually classed in one of the classes in R. For more information, consult the Collections Policy Statement for Medicine. Topics concerned with specific aspects of psychology are often classed outside these primary classes e.g.: Psychohistory in D; Psycholinguistics in P; and Industrial Psychology in HF. Works pertaining to the psychology of individual persons, ethnic groups, classes or persons, religions and religious topics are classed with the subject and given the subheading Psychology. Another subdivision, Psychological Aspects, describes works involving the influence of psychology on certain conditions, activities, and objects and materials; these materials are classed under the primary subject and not the BF or R classes.

II. Research strengths

The size of LC's collections ensures the development of great strengths in all areas of psychology, with respect to both general and theoretical works in this field and its specific subfields; to both academic and popular psychology; and to historical and current materials. The Library's comprehensive collection of U.S. doctoral dissertations includes thousands of psychology dissertations. In addition, LC has very broadly acquired serials in English pertaining to all aspects of psychological studies as well as conference proceedings in this area. Abundant materials in the field of psychology are to be found in the extensive holdings of the Microform Reading Room. One of the richest sources of information about early psychology and psychoanalysis is the Sigmund Freud Collection in the Manuscript Division. Additional manuscript resources include the papers of the African-American psychologist, Kenneth Bancroft Clark.

III. Comparison with other major research collections

In general, the Library's holdings of foreign titles in the field of psychology are not as extensive as its holdings in English, especially in the area of foreign-language serials. The Library ranks first among the libraries in the U.S. in overall size of its psychology collections, but there are also strong collections of psychology at other major research and academic libraries in this country. Libraries or universities with strong psychology departments and active research faculty have collections of laboratory notes and working papers produced in connection with their research programs; these are not collected by the Library. Columbia University has strong collections in experimental psychology, the University of California, Los Angeles in educational psychology, and Duke University in parapsychology.

IV. General Policy

The Library acquires all important current reference works, monographs and serials in the field of psychology and its related disciplines, maintaining a strong research collection in all languages. The Library places primary emphasis on research in the history and theory of psychology and on the scholarly and theoretical aspects of the field. Materials on psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory are acquired comprehensively to support and enhance the Library's Freud Collection.

The National Library of Medicine comprehensively acquires materials on the clinical and psychiatric treatment of mental and emotional disorders; the Library of Congress limits its acquisition in this area to the basic reference works, monographs, and serials. The Library maintains a reference-level collection in the area of psychological tests and testing and in the ancillary fields of physiognomy, phrenology, graphology, and palmistry. The Library acquires American college-level textbooks on psychology and its branches at the research level, foreign-language textbooks are normally not acquired.

V. Collection levels for psychology

Class	Subject	Collecting Level
BF1-BF20	Periodicals, serials, societies, congresses	4
BF31	Dictionaries and encyclopedias	4
BF38-BF64	Philosophy, relation to other topics	4
BF38.5	Methodology	4
BF39	Statistical methods	4
BF39.5	Computer applications	4
BF76.5	Research	4
BF77-BF80.7	Study and teaching	3
BF81-BF109	History and biography	4
BF110-BF149.8	General works	4
BF150-BF172	Mind and Body	4
BF173-BF175	Psychoanalysis	5
BF176	Psychological tests and and testing (No tests acquired singly)	3
BF180-BF205	Experimental psychology (includes behaviorism, gestalt, humanistic and phenomenological psychology)	4
BF207-BF209	Psychotropic drugs	3
BF231-BF299	Sensation, anesthesiology	4
BF309-BF499	Consciousness, cognition, perception, intuition	4

BF318-BF319.5	Learning	4
BF341-BF346	Nature and nurture	4
BF370-BF385	Memory	4
BF408-BF426	Creative processes, imagination	4
BF431-BF441	Intelligence, mental ability, Intelligence testing	4

BF455-BF463	Thought and thinking	4
BF501-BF504.3	Motivation	4
BF511-BF593	Affection, feeling, emotion	4
BF608-BF635	Will, volition, choice	4
BF636-BF637	Applied psychology	4
BF638-BF648	New thought	4
BF660-BF685	Comparative psychology	4
BF692	Sexual behavior	4
BF692.2-BF692.5	Sex role, sex differences	4
BF697	Differential psychology, individuality	4
BF698-BF698.9	Personality	4
BF698.4	Personality assessment	4
BF698.5 - 698.9	Personality testing	4
BF699-BF711	Genetic psychology	4
BF712-BF724.85	Developmental psychology	4
BF725-BF727	Class psychology	4
BF789.D4	Death and dying	4
BF795-BF811	Temperament	4
BF818-BF839.5	Character (ethology)	4
BF839.8-BF861	Physiognomy	3
BF889-BF905	Graphology (study of handwriting)	3
BF908-BF940	Palmistry	3
BF1001-BF1389	Parapsychology	4/Popular works 3
BF1404-BF1999	Occult Sciences	4/Popular works 3
Z7201-Z7204	Subject bibliography	4/General and specific topics

May, 2000

Subscribe