AmericanStudies

Collection Development Policy: American Studies

Subject Librarian: Scott Opasik

Purpose of Policy

The collection development policy for American Studies guides the development and management of the American Studies collection.

Program Description

American Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach to diverse aspects of American culture, history, and society. American Studies originated among literary scholars who wanted to investigate the distinct nature of U.S. culture, a topic that the traditional field of English literature did not fully explore. It is a field that foregrounds the special character of the American cultural and historical experience. It is a field that recognizes that issues such as class, race, gender and sexuality have contributed to the complex nature of our society.

Areas of Established Specialization

• Mentoring, social networks, gender and race stratification in work organizations
• Economic and organizational sociology, social movements, sociology of technology and qualitative methods
• Sociology of gender and sexualities, including transgender, men and masculinities, bisexuality, sociological theory, classical and contemporary (feminist theory and social construction of reality)
• Law and society, sociology of law, human rights, leadership and organizational transformation, postmodernism and mental health
• Classical and Contemporary social theory, sociology of science, sociology of the environment, qualitative methods, urban society
• Economy and Society, community sociology, race and ethnicity, family
• Social inequality, urban sociology
• Archaeology, prehistoric and historic Caribbean contact between cultures, marine research, scientific diving, historic north American class and race issues
• Political anthropology, gender, ethnicity, racism, and nationalism, violence and cultural conflict, feminist theory and border studies, Middle East, Israel

Changes in User Population for the Most Recent Five Years

• Many if not most of the students have a strong preference for and only know how to obtain internet based resources.
• Two new faculty with research focus on medical anthropology and applied sociology

New and Expanding Areas of Interest

• Applied Sociology
• Medical Anthropology: traditional medicine, tropical infectious disease (especially malaria), sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancy, and substance abuse
• Cultural anthropology in Africa

Degrees Offered

• American Studies Minor

Clientele

The primary clientele are the undergraduate students, faculty, and staff of the Anthropology, the Arts, Education, English, Gender Studies, History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology Departments taking these departments’ classes that count toward the completion of an American Studies Minor. Members of the Michiana community may also use the collection.

Collection Guidelines

The American Studies collection consists of works written for the basic through advanced undergraduate level and for basic faculty research. Graduate- and research-level publications are collected selectively.

Formats Collected

• Scholarly monographs
• Serials
• Collections of essays
• Conference proceedings
• Videos
• Electronic resources

Formats Excluded

• Pamphlets
• Newsletters
• Article reprints
• Required textbooks
• Popular and/or journalistic monographs about social issues are selectively collected.

Language
The collection is primarily in English.

Geographic Coverage

All geographic areas are covered. For titles with a geographic focus, preference is given to materials relating to the region (Michiana, northern Indiana, and Midwest) as well as those that support area studies programs offered on campus.

Chronological Periods Collected

Priority is given to current publications. Older imprints are collected selectively, usually as replacements for classic works, or upon request.

Subject Emphases

The American Studies collection focuses on the topics of American history, American politics, race and ethnicity, gender, sociological theory, anthropology.

Current Collecting Priorities

In addition to the topics listed above, mass media and popular culture, human rights, race, class, and gender stratification, migration and immigration.

Subjects Collected Selectively

Social history and urban sociology are collected selectively.

Reference

Reference material for American Studies are selected by the American Studies subject librarian following the general subject parameters of the collection policy.

Interdisciplinary Considerations

Due to the highly interdisciplinary nature of American Studies, materials are also occasionally selected in the areas of women's studies, gender studies, African American studies, history, Latin American studies, education, criminal justice, political science, and public affairs.

Location

American Studies materials are housed in the Schurz Library. Works specifically about the discipline of American Studies – because of its highly cross-disciplinary nature - are classified in the B, CB, CT, E, F, GF, GN, GR, GT, H, JJ, JK, LD schedule of Library of Congress system.