Woman Gender Studies

Collection Development Policy: Women and Gender Studies

Subject Librarian: Julie Feighery

Purpose of Policy The collection development policy for Women’s and Gender Studies guides the development and management of the Women’s and Gender Studies collection.

Program Description from their website

“The field of Women's & Gender Studies expands a student’s intellectual vision and capacity to identify and resolve problems. We challenge the traditional disciplines while developing and integrating new bodies of knowledge.

Recognizing that a neglect of women, gender, and sexuality in most of the established disciplines has led to an inadequate and incomplete understanding of human experience, Women's & Gender Studies is committed to an intensive exploration of the impact and strength of difference and diversity in women's and men’s lives.

Our program is committed to a multi-cultural and global understanding of people. All courses are interdisciplinary and each considers the complex dynamics among race, ethnicity, locality, class, gender, and sexuality.

Critical thinking, analysis, and the development of expertise in writing, research and presentations provide Women's & Gender Studies graduates with the professional skills needed to pursue their future careers or further graduate study.”

Degrees Offered

• Bachelor of Arts in Women’s and Gender Studies

Areas of Established Specialization

• Feminist theory and methods
• US women’s history
• European women’s history
• Global issues and gender and inequality
• Global women’s health
• Gender and psychology
• Women’s mental health
• Sexual violence and intimate partner violence
• Politics and race and gender
• Immigration and gender
• Reproductive rights
• Gender and social movements
• Feminism and popular culture
• LGBTQ+ topics
• Gender and communication
• Criminal justice and gender topics

Changes in User Population for the Most Recent Five Years:

• More focus on global and LGBTQ+ topics
• Perhaps more traditional-age students

New and Expanding Areas of Interest

• LGBTQ+ topics
• Immigration
• Global women’s health topics

Clientele

The primary clientele are the undergraduate students, faculty, and staff of the Women’s and Gender Studies department. Members of the Michiana community may also use the collection.

Scope and Collection Guidelines

The Women’s and Gender 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, films (DVD and streaming), and electronic resources are collected.

Formats Excluded

Pamphlets, newsletters, article reprints.

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

Now--growing interest in LGBTQ+ topics and global women’s health; see also areas of established specialization.

Current Collecting Priorities

See above, plus immigration and gender.

Subjects Collected Selectively

None.

Reference

Reference materials for Women’s and Gender Studies are selected by the Women’s and Gender Studies subject librarian following the general subject parameters of the collection policy.

Interdisciplinary Considerations

Feminist psychology, feminist health topics, and feminism and immigration.

Location

Women’s and Gender Studies materials are housed in the Schurz Library.

In particular, holdings are concentrated in: