Learn how to find psychology books in the library's collections, including the DSM-5 and APA citation manual. See our suggestions of psychology books to use.
If you want to browse through our psychology book collection in the libraries, you'll want to go to the section labeled BF. Other places to look are RA and RC, where the mental health and illness books are shelved in the health and medical area. Make sure to look in both the general Stacks collections and reference collections. To locate specific psychology books, it's best to search SpartaCat, the library's catalog.
Locations: Bethlehem Reference, Monroe Reference
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), is the most comprehensive, current, and critical resource for clinical practice available to today's mental health clinicians and researchers.
Be sure to check the DSM-5-TR Update Supplement (September 2022) & DSM-5-TR Neurocognitive Disorders Supplement (October 2022) for updates since the DSM-5-TR was published.
Location: Bethlehem
Fully updated for the DSM-5 Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), this trusted guide presents the breadth of DSM diagnoses in an accessible, engaging, and clinically useful format. Master diagnostician James Morrison demystifies the dense DSM-5-TR criteria with more than 130 detailed case vignettes that illustrate typical patient presentations. Succinct descriptions of each disorder, along with many tips, sidebars, tables, and caveats, capture the intricacies of psychiatric symptoms and impairments to make accurate diagnosis cleaner and simpler.
Locations: Bethlehem Reference, Bethlehem Stacks, Monroe Reference, Monroe Circulating
Published by the American Psychological Association, the 'Publication Manual' is specifically designed to help writers, editors, students, and educators in the behavioral sciences and social sciences working with APA style.
For more help with APA citations and formatting, see the Citing Sources page of this guide.
DSM-5-TR Clinical Cases presents patient cases that exemplify the mental disorders categorized in DSM-5-TR. This book guides the reader through the complexities of clinical assessment and the many types of contextual information needed to obtain a full diagnostic picture of a patient. Areas explored in case discussions may include patient history (e.g., present illness, family psychiatric history, medical conditions), mental status exam and laboratory test results, and sex-, gender-, and culture-related issues. Each case closes with one or more diagnoses and a list of suggested readings. The discussions often explore how the case may not entirely fit diagnostic criteria, and what other information might be helpful.
The NCC Library Reference Collection contains specialized books that can only be used in our library. These books include dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and more. They provide basic facts, background information, overviews, and summaries, which are useful for starting your research. You can make photocopies, or use our free BookScan machine to make digital copies of any pages you need.
SpartaCat, the NCC Library Catalog, is an online tool that allows you to search for items owned by the Library. This includes books, e-books, encyclopedias, streaming videos, audiobooks, print periodicals, and more.
You have the option of performing many different searches within the library catalog:
Keyword: If you are looking for a general topic (like "global warming"), it is best to start here. It will search the title, summary, table of contents, and publication information of each of our books and items for the word or phrase you enter.
Author: If you are looking for books by a specific person, search using this. For example, if you want to find books by Edgar Allan Poe, enter his name like this: Poe, Edgar Allan.
Title: If you know the specific title of a work, choose this option.
Subject: Search the Subject Headings list. These are like #hashtags. They are the main word or phrase used to catalog the book and reflect what it is about, but they may not appear in the title, summary, table of contents, or publication information the way a keyword would.
While these are the most popular, basic types of searches, you could use one of the other options listed (ISBN, Genre, Series Title, Call Number, or Periodical Title) if it fits your needs.
To find books on our shelves, you will need to know the call number and shelf location of the book. It is also helpful to know its status. You can find this information by clicking on an item in your results list to view its details, and then scrolling to the availability section.
Stacks: The main collection of borrowable books in the libraries. Note the campus location indicated here.
Reference: An area for multi-volume encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks. These books can only be used in the library, they cannot be checked out or borrowed. Note the campus location indicated here.
Reserves: Items set aside at the Circulation or Information Desk for specific courses. They may be in-library use only, have a shorter loan period, or have other restrictions. Note the campus and desk location indicated here.
Media Tower: The item is a DVD, VHS, or CD (although children's and young adult materials are in this location too) in the Bethlehem campus library.
Online: A digitial e-Book or streaming video viewed by clicking the provided access link.
New Books: A special section of the libraries for recent additions to our collection. Note the campus and desk location indicated here.
Browsing: An area for popular fiction and nonfiction titles and bestsellers. Note the campus and desk location indicated here.
Periodicals: A section of the libraries with print magazines and journals. Note the campus and desk location indicated here.
On Shelf: the item is available or on the shelf.
Due xx/xx/xxxx: the item is currently checked out and loaned to someone else. It is expected back to the library on the indicated date.
Look for the Item Type search result limiter.
Select Electronic Books and click Include to add this limiter or filter to your search.
This removes any and all items that are not eBooks from your search results.
In the results, eBooks will be tagged with the words Electronic Resource and their location will be Online. To view an eBook from the search results page, use the link labeled Click Here to Read Online. This Click Here to Read Online link also appears on the eBook's Item Details (or summary) page.
Clicking this link will open the eBook in a new screen. You may be prompted to login with your Northampton username and password before you can begin reading the book.
Watch our SpartaCat video tutorial for a search demonstration.
You can search individual eBook collections directly as well. A few of our most popular ones are highlighted below. You can also look for them, and others using the eBook database type filter on our Databases A-Z list.
Use this source to access eBooks (online books that can be read on a computer screen). Sorry, no downloads available at this time (these cannot be saved to an e-reader device).
There are many free, open access, publicly available eBooks collections on the Internet. Here are some of the most popular ones used for academic research:
Our Library to Go service for students, faculty, and staff lets you request items from our physical collections for free UPS delivery or library pickup. Portions of library materials may be scanned for email delivery or access through our Digital Reserves in Blackboard.
Search SpartaCat or work with a librarian to find items. Once you know which items you need, submit your request.
You may discover a book that would be useful for your topic and research, only to find that the library does not have it in our collection. If that happens, you can submit an interlibrary loan request, and we will see if another library that has the book would be willing to lend it to us to lend to you. Plan ahead, as interlibrary loan books might take up to two weeks to arrive. Work with a librarian if you need help identifying books to interlibrary loan or assistance with the request.