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1. Purpose of the collection
The Library's collection in occupational therapy is intended to support the teaching and research activities of the School of Health and Rehabilitiation Sciences.
2. Primary user groups served
The School of Health and Rehabilitiation Sciences offers the following courses: Bachelor of Occupational Therapy; Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours); Master of Occupational Therapy; Master of Occupational Therapy (Qual); Graduate Certificate in Occupational Therapy (Contemporary Practice); Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Therapy (Contemporary Practice); Master of Occupational Therapy Studies (Contemporary Practice); Master of Clinical Occupational Therapy.
Students and teaching and research staff of the School form the primary user group.
Occupational therapy involves the care and treatment of people with long and short-term disabilities as a result of injury or illness. The major research areas are, wide ranging and include: Psychosocial aspects of physical disability; Pain management and oncology; Head Injuries; Neurology and intellectual disability; Paediatrics; Aging and geriatrics; Developmental disabilities; Fine motor skills and motor learning; Mental health; Health promotion.
3. Description of existing collection
Occupational therapy education has been offered at the University of Queensland since 1945, and the University of Queensland Library has been collecting in this area since then. The Library has complete holdings of the major occupational therapy journals.
In recent years there has been a heavy demand for places in the undergraduate course and the Library has supported this demand with the purchase of multiple copies of relevant material. The School has also been increasing the number of postgraduate courses in recent years and the Library has been building up its collection in a wide range of research areas to support these courses.
Occupational therapy undergraduate courses and postgraduate study and research rely heavily on related disciplines such as anatomy, physiology, psychology, sociology and the treatment of disabilities. The Biological Sciences Library, Social Sciences and Humanities Library and the Hospital libraries have particularly strong collections in these areas.
The library has many electronic databases that are accessible in all branch libraries and from home or office. These include: Embase: Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine; CINAHL; Medline; Occupational Therapy Index.
The library also has electronic access to collections of full text journals including: Academic Press online library (IDEAL); Cambridge University Press journals; SwetsNet (includes Blackwell journals); InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP; LINK (Springer publications); ScienceDirect (Elsevier).
4. Interdisciplinary relationships
The Biological Sciences Library houses the majority of occupational therapy material held at the University of Queensland. However, some relevant material is held in the Social Sciences and Humanities Library and in the hospital libraries. Resources held in the hospital libraries support clinical occupational therapists and undergraduate students when they undertake clinical practice at the hospitals.
There are a number of common areas of study in occupational therapy, physiotherapy and social work. For example, staff in the School are working jointly on pain management and the Library has built up a strong collection to support this area.
As part of the undergraduate program, occupational therapy students are required to complete a number of subjects in other related disciplines. These include psychology, sociology, anatomy, physiology and medicine. Postgraduate students also study research methodology. There is some overlap in material used by staff and students in the School of Health and Rehabilitiation Sciences.
5. Scope of current collecting
1. Languages collected
No language is excluded but material in the collection is almost exclusively in English.
2. Geographical areas collected
No geographical area is specifically excluded, however material comes primarily from Britain, United States and Australia.
3. Types of material collected
Material is collected in all forms, both physical and electronic.
4. Publication dates
The Library collects current material to support the research and teaching needs of the School of Health and Rehabilitiation Sciences. Monographs and serials are purchased retrospectively if requested by academic or research staff.
5. Conspectus
The collection was rated at 4E (research level) at the most recent Conspectus.
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