Bibliographic instruction in psychology: A review of the literature

Abstract

Academic librarians are frequently called upon to provide instruction in relatively unfamiliar disciplines. This article presents introductory information for librarians providing bibliographic instruction (BI) in the field of psychology. Its primary purpose is to identify key readings from the library science and psychology literature that provide a basis for informed delivery of psychology BI. These works are fully identified in the list of references at the end of this article. Because the primary purpose of discipline‐specific bibliographic instruction is to teach the skills necessary for retrieval of the products of scholarship in that discipline, we begin with a discussion of scholarly communication and documentation, which describes how scholars and researchers within psychology communicate research findings and theoretical developments in the discipline. The major emphasis of this article is on formal, group instruction rather than individualized instruction, although much of the information will be applicable to both types.

Citation

Sutton, E.D., Feinberg, R., Levine, C.R., Sandberg, J.S. and Wilson, J.M. (1995), "Bibliographic instruction in psychology: A review of the literature", Reference Services Review, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 13-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049251