Written and presented by Mura Ghosh for the London Psychology Librarians Group and presented at the British Library 3/12/18

1. Psychology collections: the
London Landscape
Mura Ghosh, Research Librarian, Senate House Library

2. Senate House Library
• central library for the University of London and
the School for Advanced Study
• one of the UK's largest academic libraries for arts,
humanities & social sciences - over 2 million
books, 50 special collections and 1,800 archival
collections
• open access & loanable holdings
• extensive historic runs of print periodicals
• electronic resources onsite or offsite depending
on membership type

3. Psychology Library at SHL
SHL collections
• Key areas: animal behaviour, biological, child and adolescent
psychology and psychiatry, cognitive, developmental, forensic
psychology, health psychology, historical, hypnosis, mental health,
methodological, occupational, parapsychology, psychiatry,
psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, social and testing
• Historic Collections: early psychological texts dating back to the
nineteenth century and earlier
• Journals in print and electronic
BPS Library
• books and journals published by the Society
• a large collection of subscribed journal titles
• periodicals received in exchange for the Society’s publications
• extensive runs of historical journals
• various historical book donations
• miscellaneous Society publications

4. Main strengths
• Research monographs on open access cca.
20,000 titles / loanable 60%
• History of psychology – primary and
secondary resources
• Over 800 journal titles – print and
electronic
• E-books – PsycBOOKS & Ebook Central
• Psychological tests
• BPS History of Psychology Centre
• Study space

5. Electronic resources
• Academic Search Complete
• PsycINFO
• PsycBOOKS
• PsycARTICLES
• PsycEXTRA
• Medline/PubMed
• IngentaConnect
• ProjectMuse
• PILOTS
• Index to Theses
• Dissertations and theses

6. Using SHL
• All students and staff of University of London
• free borrowing 10 books and full remote access
• University of London alumni
• free borrowing 10 books and some remote access
• Students and staff at other UK universities
• PhD & MPhil Sconul A – free borrowing 4 books
• MSc/MA/Mres Sconul B – free reference
• Students and staff at overseas universities
• PhD & Mphil – free reference
• BPS members
• Chartered or graduate – free reference
• Registered for the Society’s qualifications – free borrowing 10
books and remote access to psychology e-resources

7. Using SHL
General membership schemes
• 3 months - £70 – 10 books borrowing
• 1 year - £210 – 10 books borrowing
• 1 day - £5 – reference
• Summer 30 Jun - 31 Aug - £30 – reference
All with onsite use of e-resources and services
Online pre-registration
Current institutional ID + photo ID + Proof of address

8. Services
Wifi
Copying / printing / scanning
Loanable laptops / iPads
Document supply
Inter-library loans / postal loans
Digitisation studio
Accessibility suite
Private study carrels
Room hire

9. Research support
• One-to-one consultation with librarian by appointment
• Suggest a book
• Workshops: Building a bibliography; Search strategies;
Going beyond Google
• Psychology Research Day
• Programme March 2018
• Short talks videos
• Stories of Psychology Symposium

10. London Psychology Libraries Group
• University of London college libraries: UCL, Birkbeck, LSE, Royal Holloway,
Queen Mary, Goldsmiths
• University of East London
• Middlesex University
• Roehampton University
• University of West London
• Tavistock and Portman Library
• Anna Freud Library
• Institute of Group Analysis Library
• Minster Centre

11. Other resources in London
• Wellcome Library
• BPS Archive
• Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience Library (King’s College)
• Swiss Cottage Library

12. mura.ghosh@london.ac.uk