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The population of the United States is aging. Throughout most of the twentieth century, the older population of this country has grown far more rapidly than any other age group. During the past two decades alone, the population over sixty‐five years of age has grown fifty‐four percent, while the under sixty‐five age group has increased only twenty‐four percent.

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.

The children's room in my hometown library in Marion, Ohio, was a bright, comforting site, with low shelves of colorful books on every imaginable topic and a desk where kids could, under the librarian's careful guidance, use a red date‐due stamp to check out their own books.