1. Purpose of the collection

The library collects in the fields of Speech pathology and Audiology to support the teachingand research needs of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.

2. Primary user group served

Speech pathology and Audiology encompasses psychology, linguistics and anatomy as well as a large clinical practice component in the broad streams of audiology and speech pathology. Hence it is very interdisciplinary and very few publishers deal specifically with SP&A.

The undergraduate program leads to a Bachelor of Speech Pathology with students undertaking only 2 speech and audiology subjects out of 7 in their first year of study. Psychology, linguistics and anatomy are other subject areas which comprise the first year component. Areas of special interest for undergraduates are: Cleft palate; Children and audiology; Clinical audiology; Neurological speech disorders; Voice disorders.

Postgraduate coursework programs lead to a Master of Clinical Audiology or a Master of Speech Pathology Studies. Postgraduate research programs available include: Master of Audiology(by thesis); Master of Speech pathology(by thesis); Master of Speech pathology (by Clinical Specialist Qualification); Doctor of Philosophy (in Speech Pathology and Audiology).

Research areas include: The Motor Speech Research Unit is involved in developing a physiologically based rehabilitation program for the treatment of speech impairment in a variety of adult and paediatric neurological disorders. In particular the disorders of traumatic brain injury, stroke, Parkinson's disease, intra-cerebral tumour, developmental verbal dyspraxia, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease and Huntingdon's chorea are of specific interest.

3. Description of existing collection

Speech pathology is closely associated with medicine, education and rehabilitation. Professionals in speech pathology require knowledge and understanding of the basic subjects which contribute to the understanding of human behaviour. Therefore subjects include anatomy, linguistics, physiology, psychology, some medical courses as well as speech pathology and therapeutics, and audiology. The Library subscribes to the major indexing services Medline, language and Linguistics Abstracts, ERIC and PsycInfo.

The collection is divided between the Social Sciences and Humanities, Biological Sciences and Herston Health Sciences Library (and other medical libraries).

4. Interdisciplinary relationships

Speech pathology and Audiology studies share common areas of interest with other subject areas such as psychology, education, sociology, physiology, linguistics, anatomy and some areas of medicine.

5. Scope of current collection

1. Languages collected

The bulk of the collection is in English, though no languages are excluded.

2. Geographical areas collected

No geographical area is specifically excluded.

3. Chronological periods collected

No chronological periods are specifically excluded.

4. Types (formats) of material collected

No types of material are excluded. The emphasis is on journal and monograph literature.

5. Publication dates

The emphasis is on collecting recent publications. Older publications may be purchased to support teaching and research.

6. Special considerations

None.

7. Conspectus

The collections that support the teaching and research activities cut across a number existing conspectus, i.e. Psychology, Anatomy. The collection strength of areas primarily of interest to Speech Pathology alone, is rated at 3a.