The Psychology Library closed December 18, 2009, and by January 13, 2010, all materials were moved.  The collection was divided among the Biological Sciences Library, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, and the Library Annex.  Except as noted below, the Psychology Library materials have been moved to the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, where they are located on the first floor.

Is there a librarian for Psychology and Education students and faculty? Yes.  Dottie Persson will have offices in Seashore Hall (E201 SSH, 335-3080) and the Lindquist Center (N426 LC, 335-5232) to serve the Psychology Department and the College of Education.  As a result of closing some branch libraries, the library system is joining other academic institutions in moving to the concept of an embedded librarian, a librarian who performs research consultations, reference, user instruction and collection management in an electronic environment and who responds to faculty, student and staff who report library related technical or service problems.

What materials formerly housed in the Psychology Library will be housed in the Biological Sciences Library? Selected reference materials from the current reference collection, multimedia and some journals with call numbers, from the Psychology Library, along with the reserve collection for the Psychology Department.  (Older reference materials were sent to the Library Annex.)  The Biological Sciences Library will also receive new multimedia and reference books purchased from the Psychology collection fund.

What materials went to the Library Annex?  Little used books, published before 1995, older reference materials, microforms, and journals that are available electronically, pre-1980, or little used were sent to the Library Annex.  It will take several months for location changes to be made in the online catalog.  During this time, Interlibrary Loan staff will obtain needed items for library users.  Once all location codes have been updated, library users will be able to request items from the Annex for check-out.  

What about reserve materials? Starting second semester, the College of Education and Sociology Department instructors will submit their reserve requests to Main Library Circulation, Reserve and Media Department.  The Psychology Department instructors will submit their reserve requests to Dottie Persson; their reserve will be housed at the Biological Sciences Library.

Where are the Psychology Department Honors Theses?  These honors theses have been transferred to the Library Annex.  The Psychology Department will be responsible for psychology honors theses that are completed this academic year forward.

Where is the Psychology Library Test Collection?  The Psychology Department started the test collection with a donation to the Psychology Library years ago and has continued to donate to it.  At the department’s request, this collection was returned to the department for departmental use.  The American Psychological Association is currently developing an electronic test file and a licensing agreement.  Dottie Persson hopes to be able to fund access to this new database when it becomes available in the next 1-2 years.

Where will newly purchased materials be located?  Except for multimedia and reference books, paper materials purchased from the Education or Psychology collection funds or education and psychology gifts will be cataloged for the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.  For multimedia, items purchased from the Education collection fund will go to the Main Library Circulation, Reserve and Media Department.  Multimedia items purchased from the Psychology collection fund will go to the Biological Sciences Library. For reference books, items purchased from the Education collection fund will go to the Reference and Library Instruction Department.  Reference items purchased from the Psychology collection fund will go to the Biological Sciences Library.

If you have tried unsuccessfully to find a book or journal volume in the library stacks, it is possible that it may have been sent to the Library Annex in late summer of 2009.  InfoHawk records are being updated to indicate which books are in that facility and a retrieval service will enable you to have them brought back to campus for your use.  While we are in the process of updating InfoHawk, it may be necessary to use our Interlibrary Loan services to get access to some needed titles until this work has been completed. 

This situation came about through a series of events resulting from 2008 flood and the recent economic downturn.   The flood of 2008 required us to move the Music and Art Libraries temporarily into the already overcrowded Main Library.  To make matters worse, the recent economic downturn deferred indefinitely the construction of a planned collection storage facility.  To help alleviated the added overcrowding in the meantime, the University decided to lease a warehouse in the Iowa City area to house the lesser used collection overflow.  FEMA agreed to cover some of the leasing costs and the cost of moving and shelving, but all the work had to be completed by August 20, just weeks after a warehouse was found and leased.  As a result, several hundred thousand volumes were moved in about two weeks, leaving no time for a truly organized relocation.  While criteria were used to identify volumes for transfer based on low usage, availability of electronic versions, and age, the planned review of individual titles by library liaisons and faculty could not be completed in time for the FEMA deadline.

Library staff have been working continuously this fall to organize the materials at the leased facility and to change the location records in InfoHawk.  This is an enormous task that will require many weeks to complete.  We are also aware that a few books may have been sent to the Annex which should have remained in the stacks. If you think a volume may have been sent in error, send a note with as much bibliographic information as possible and the reason for your request to Edward Shreeves, Associate University Librarian and Director of Collections & Scholarly Communication.