General policies and principles for the Library's collections are stated in the General Collection Development Policy. 

Purpose of the Collection

The purpose of this collection is to support the instruction and research in the UCSB Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and affiliated centers and programs, including the Brain Imaging Center, Center for Evolutionary Psychology, Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior, Sage Center for the Study of the Mind, Neuroscience Research Institute, Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, Cognitive Science, Vision Science, and Dynamical Neuroscience, among others.

Academic Department/Program Description

Founded in the 1940s, the department is now the third largest major program on campus with 28 faculty members, 70 graduate students and 2400 undergraduate students who conduct award-winning research in the areas of cognition, perception & cognitive neuroscience, developmental and evolutionary psychology, human development, cognitive science, neuroscience and behavior and social psychology.  The department collaborates with the Brain Imaging Center, Center for Evolutionary Psychology, Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior, Sage Center for the Study of the Mind, Neuroscience Research Institute, Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, Cognitive Science, Vision Science, and Dynamical Neuroscience and the departments of Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Communication, Education, and Geography.

Types of Materials Collected

Materials are collected for the express purpose of supporting the research and teaching needs of the department.  As such, research monographs, peer-reviewed journals, and reference sources are high in priority as determined by consultation with faculty.

The following materials are generally not acquired: textbooks; reprints; selected works when the Library owns the collected works; collections of reprinted articles; minor revisions; unpublished theses and dissertations.

Because the budget for serials is fully committed, new subscriptions are considered only if an equivalent dollar amount of existing local subscriptions can be cancelled.

Systemwide and Other Resources

The collection benefits heavily from the systemwide licensing of serials, indexing and abstracting databases, and digital archives by the California Digital Library with funding provided by the UC Libraries.  Interlibrary loan is another resource that is used heavily. 

Related Collection Development Policies

Subject librarian: Vacant
Policy Last Updated: December 2016