Adult Education

Resources of interest for research in postsecondary, adult and continuing education

See also related guides Education

Encyclopedias

Provide excellent background/overview information. An excellent place to begin research. Contain articles written by experts for a general audience. Provide indexes indicating scope of coverage of a topic and pinpointing articles in which a concept will be discussed. Provide bibliographies for further reading.

	International higher education : an encyclopedia
	International encyclopedia of adult education and training
	The Encyclopedia of higher education
	International encyclopedia of higher education

Go to top of page

Reference Books

Handbooks, dictionaries, statistical sources, tables; detailed or procedural information specific to the subject areas addressed.

	Mental Measurements Yearbook
	Tests in Print
	Test Critiques
	The law of higher education : a comprehensive guide to legal implications of administrative decision making
	The handbook of student affairs administration
	Handbook of distance education
	Peterson's directory of college & university administrators
	Higher education directory

Go to top of page

Databases and Indexes

Magazine, periodical and journal articles provide information on current developments, research trends, experiments and hot topics in a discipline. For every discipline, there are specific databases or indexes that provide article level information. Once articles are identified through the database or index search, look up the source journal in Vikat, PSU Library's online catalog, to locate them in the library. For a complete list of online databases and indexes, see the Library's Online Databases pages.

	Education Full Text Citations and some full text for articles drawn from ~450 core education research and professional journals and magazines.
	Professional Development Collection ~500 journals and magazines for educators
	ERIC (Ebscohost) Ask ERIC interface Online ERIC Thesaurus Primary database for education research literature; journal articles as well as unpublished research reports, conference papers, lesson plans, instruments, and other documents.
	Higher education abstracts Citations to journal articles in the core higher education research journals.
	PsycINFO Citations and abstracts for articles, books, book chapters and disserations in psychology and its related subdisciplines.

Go to top of page

Online Full Text Journals

Many, but by no means ALL, of the journals of interest in adult education are available online. Below is a selected list of full text journals to which PSU has access. Most of the journals require authentication for off campus use.

	Academe
	Change
	Chronicle of Higher Education
	Journal of College Student Development
	NASPA Journal
	New directions for adult and continuing education
	New directions for community colleges
	New directions for higher education
	New directions for institutional research
	New directions for student services
	Review of Higher Education

Important Resources

These sources don't fit into any particular category, but are important for the discipline.

	National Center for Education Statistics
	Association for the Study of Higher Education
	Student Affairs.com
	Archives of the ERIC clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education
	Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education: State Policy Inventory Database Online

Subject Headings

Subject headings allow you to search Vikat for materials on a particular topic. Often subject heading searching can be more productive than searching by simple keywords. Listed here are some major subject headings of interest for research in adult education. Copies of the complete set of the Library of Congress Subject Headings are available at the reference desks throughout the library. 

Go to top of page

Call Numbers

Browsing the library shelves by call number ranges is another strategy for locating information on a topic; call numbers can help you get to the "right neighborhood" in the library stacks.

Go to top of page

Return to Subject Resource Guides 

Last updated: