COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY STATEMENT

BRITISH HISTORY/STUDIES

Department: Collections Management

Written by: Agnes Haigh Widder

Date drafted: Feb. 22, 2006

Date revised:

I. PURPOSE OR SCOPE OF COLLECTION

A. Curricular/Research/Programmatic Needs

British history, British studies, Great Britain, United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, Eire, Wales, Northern Ireland, British Isles, England, what’s in a name? The two largest islands in Europe plus a host of small ones compose the British Isles. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland compose the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Ireland, Eire, is an independent country. Scotland was an independent country until 1707. Today, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland once again have more authority over their internal affairs than in the previous centuries. The many smaller islands include the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man, the Isles of Scilly, Lindisfarne, Jersey, Guernsey, Anglesey, Arran, Jura, and Islay islands, the Isle of Skye, the Shetlands, the Orkneys, and the Inner and Outer Hebrides. This policy encompasses collection building and maintenance for all of these places. History vs. studies? While collecting primarily the discipline of history inclusion of “studies” in the policy title acknowledges and embraces the need to collect also material about the culture of the British Isles as well.

The M.S.U. History department offers the B.A., M.A., M.A. History-Secondary School Teaching, and Ph.D. degrees in history. There are 60 graduate students at present, all of whom are full-time. Department fields of strength include America, Atlantic World, Early Modern and Modern Europe, Migration Studies, Women and Gender, and Labor and Working Class; knowledge of British history is significant in studying the history of these places and topics. In addition, African, East Asian, and Latin American and Caribbean histories are fields of strength. As part of their work a great many graduate students “do Britain as a minor field.” This consists of both courses and individual, independent studies.

Specifically British history courses offered include the following: England and its Culture to 1688, Seminar in Modern European History (offered on various topics, including British ones), Historical Methods and Skills (offered on various topics, including British ones), Modern Britain since 1688, Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England, Constitutional and Legal History of England since 1400.

All of the general European history courses have content about the British Isles: World History to 1500, World History since 1500, European history to 1500, European History since 1500, Europe in the Middle Ages, 400-1000, Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1300, Later Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 1300-1500, Reformation Europe, 1500-1700, Europe in the Age of Revolution, 1700-1870, Contemporary Europe, 1870 to the Present, European Intellectual History: Natural Philosophy through Romanticism, European Intellectual History: Modernism and Post-Modernism, European Economic History, Families-Historic Perspective, History of Sexuality since the 18^th Century, Seminar in Methodology and Historical Research, Historiography of Europe since 1870, Seminar in Medieval History, Seminar in International Labor and Working Class History, History of International Relations, History of Western Urbanization, World War II, and Special Topics in European History. British history is really foundational to comprehension of the histories of Africa, Asia, India, Canada, some parts of the Caribbean, and the United States. The department offers courses on the history of these countries and areas as well. Indeed, history of Africa is one of the great strengths of this department.

In addition to teaching, the Department’s faculty publish books and articles, belong professional organizations, speak at national and international conferences, speak to the general public, create websites, and serve as consultants to schools and governmental units, all leading to dissemination of their research nationally and internationally. History faculty members either specializing in, or interested in, things British and Irish include the following:

• John Coogan, British and American foreign policy, ca. 1900-1950;
• William Schoenl, 20^th century/contemporary;
• Gordon Stewart, British Empire, Britain and India, World history, Canada, 18^th-20^th centuries;
• J. Morgan Sweeney, Modern Britain, Ireland, and the Enlightenment;
• Jane Vieth, Modern Britain, World War II, Joseph Kennedy’s ambassadorship, 19^th century;
• Peter Vinten-Johansen, European and American health care, social and intellectual history of medicine, recently retired
• Emily Tabuteau, medieval England, cartularies, Anglo-Norman law.
• Christine Daniels, Early Modern, Colonial America
• Susan Sleeper-Smith, 18^th and 19^th-c. North America, gender, Native America

And, in addition to the History and English departments, many other units on campus offer courses and people do research in which British or Irish history and culture might figure in the content. Examples: art history, philosophy, religious studies, theater, music, criminal justice, political science and pre-law, James Madison College, ethics in the life sciences, African studies, Asian studies, Canadian Studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, American studies, American Indian Studies, apparel and textile/design, comparative literature, critical studies in the teaching of English, film studies, interdisciplinary humanities, interdisciplinary studies in the social sciences, museum studies, horticulture, landscape architecture, postcolonial and Diaspora literature; global cultural and literary studies, Western European studies, women, gender, and social justice, and women’s studies.

The number of English department faculty with British and Irish culture interests are particularly numerous. In order to do our best to collect historical material supporting their teaching and research interests we take space here to list some of their interests related to history:

• For the earliest and medieval period: cultural history, medieval medicine, sex, aging and death in medieval medical compendiums, medieval devotional literature, medieval marriage and family, death and dissent, King Arthur, the Chronicles (early histories of England), Chaucer, Prose Brut, Langland, Henry of Lancaster.

• For the 16th and 17th centuries: cultural history, scientific and medical discourse, historiography, social formation, early modern travel and travel writings, economies of exchange (colonial gifts and formation of English nationalism), coronation of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Shakespeare performance and reviews of performances, including those in the Colonies, "nabob" texts, East India Company petitions, colonial narratives, colonialism, Hardt, Negri, Gibbons, Thomas More, Machiavelli, William Harvey, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Cavendish, John Locke, Robert Boyle, Sir William Jones.

• For the 18th century: cultural history 1660-1832, travel writing, manhood, physiognomics, Enlightenment racial science, incest and sexuality, gender issues, transatlantic modernism, Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Stanhope Smith, William Godwin, Lavater, Mary Shelley, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

• For the 19th century: cultural history, medicine, science and technology, liberalism, sentimentalism, print, mass markets, authorship, commerce, visual studies, travel writing, the Grand Tour, romanticism, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Coryate, Mary Louise Pratt.

• For the 20th century and forward: both British and Irish cultural history, film in the United Kingdom, modernism and the avant garde, sexuality, Gay and Lesbian studies and sexuality, images of reproduction, literature of Empire, cultural periodicals post-1945, colonial conquest, decolonization, third world imperialism, Irish Renaissance, violence and modernism, criticism and religion, World War I, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Marsden Hartley.

At present there are 70 names on the private e-mail list for faculty and graduate students on campus with interests in the British Isles.

B. History of the Collection/Existing Strengths and Emphases

Our British history collection is extensive and deep, one of the M.S.U. Libraries’ particular strengths in the humanities. It compares very favorably in both quantity and quality with the other major university library collections in the United States on this subject. Within the C.I.C. institutions (Big Ten schools plus University of Chicago), our local history collection for England, Scotland, and Wales is outstanding in both size and uniqueness, according to graphs using the OCLC WorldCat Collection Analysis program.

What about our collecting proclivities today? Despite our distinctive local history holdings compared to those of other nearby university libraries, at present little local history is being collected beyond the record society publications, and monographs on places written from the vantage point of modern socio/economic history and published by standard trade and university presses. This is because local history is not a focus of research on campus at this time. We continue to collect 15^th-18^th century printed books on microfilm in order to complete large set orders begun decades ago in which we have substantial investment. We own and offer both EEBO and ECCO, the full-text online products corresponding to the pertinent microform sets; however, these electronic resources contain only a small portion of the works available in the corresponding film sets. We continue to collect secondary monographs and texts of primary works from standard trade and university presses covering all the periods of British history, giving special attention to known areas of faculty interest.

In 2002, the monies in the British Studies fund, which were being used primarily to collect works on the 1970 to present period were combined back into the British history fund as part of a desire on the part of the higher management to reduce the number of collection funds. By including the word “studies” in the policy title here we acknowledge our need and desire to collect more interdisciplinary and cultural material.

We collect some antiquarian items from the 18^th Century to help develop the British Studies collection in Special Collections, utilizing the Library Memorial Endowment funds in memory of Professor Thomas Bushell and Kathleen D. Kennedy.

II. FACTORS INFLUENCING COLLECTION POLICY

A. Anticipated Future Trends

We anticipate that usage of the collection will remain steady. Though money is tight, we will continue to purchase quality monographs and maintain numerous periodical subscriptions to support our range of faculty teaching and research interests as well as we can, covering all periods from the medieval to the present. While methods by which scholars study history change somewhat over time, the older approaches do not disappear. Now that the History department has moved to the College of Social Science we must support social science methodological approaches as well as the more traditional narrative and textual ones. The emphases on Migration studies, Labor and Working Class History, and Gender dictate this. We also support the cultural and interdisciplinary approaches favored by some of our literature scholars.

We expect some impact upon this collection and its usage from the proposed New Residential College in the humanities. The appointment of a new Dean for the College of Arts and letters may affect directions too.

In terms of primary sources, we already have a significant investment in full-text electronic resources, with the subscription to the Oxford English Dictionary and purchases of LION, EEBO and ECCO. We look forward to adding Parliamentary Papers online, Early British Periodicals online, and the Empire Online. We want to attract scholars of “things British” and in order to do that we must offer suitable electronic products.

We will continue to support Special Collections’ 18^th-Century Studies Collection by funding purchases with the Bushell and Kennedy funds, mentioned above.

By preference of the users, we do not collect very many videos.

We own many microform sets and record society publications, which need item level cataloging and analyzation, respectively; in consultation with the bibliographer, Technical Services staff will be working on improving access to these materials via our online catalog.

“Texts and Links” electronic resources need to be added to our online catalog, as well; this is the responsibility of the British history/studies bibliographer.

B. Relationships with Other Resources

1. On campus branch or format collections, if any

Reference collects reference materials and travel materials.

Special Collections collects materials published prior to 1800, manuscripts, manuscript facsimiles, and other rare items.

Map Library collects maps and atlases that are over 50% maps.

Planning and Design Library collects works about gardens and landscaping.

Fine Arts-Art collects arts, architecture, and decorative arts.

Fine Arts-Music collects music scores, recordings, and works about music.

Microforms collects materials in micro formats.

Digital and Multimedia Center/Voice Library collects software and videos

2. Regional or network resources, if any

According to the National Shelflist Count and the OCLC WorldCat Collection Analysis system, the M.S.U. Libraries’ collection of British history is among the dozen or so largest in the country. Compared to other collections ours is particularly strong in local history for England, Scotland, and Wales. The other similarly sized collections include: Library of Congress, University of Wisconsin, Columbia University, University of California-Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses, University of Michigan, Indiana University, Ohio State University, University of Washington, University of Virginia, University of Texas-Austin, and University of North Carolina.

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is a significant resource for us to draw upon. They own many newspapers, dissertations, and primary materials on microform which we borrow for patrons on interlibrary loan.

We often purchase or subscribe to electronic resources cooperatively with other CIC institutions and the Michigan Library Consortium.

C. Relationships to Resources Treated in Other Policy Statements

*The art librarian collects arts, architecture, and decorative arts works.

*The music librarian collects music scores, recordings, and works about music.

*The Special Collections librarian collects imprints prior to 1800, manuscript facsimiles, and other rare, valuable items.

*Planning and Design Library collects gardening and landscape architecture works.

*The park and recreation resources librarian collects works about parks and recreation

*The map and geography bibliographer collects geography, maps and atlases over 50% maps.

*The bibliographer for history in general collects works about World Wars I and II.

*The military and naval science bibliographer collects military and naval history, primarily from the Napoleonic War onwards.

*The political science, law, and criminal justice bibliographers collect political science, law, and criminal justice works.

*The women’s studies bibliographer collects works about women.

*The sociology bibliographer collects works about marriage, children, family, sexual life, organizations, urban/rural areas, communities, classes, social welfare and social problems.

*The economics bibliographer collects works about economics.

*The education and psychology bibliographer collects works about education, schools, and psychology.

*The U.S. and U.K. Literature bibliographer collects British and Irish literature since the Middle Ages.

The classical studies bibliographer collects works on Roman Britain.

In the starred (*) areas, above, the British history/studies bibliographer may recommend, purchase, or jointly purchase titles. The British history/studies bibliographer tends to handle periods not covered, historical aspects of the topics, sometimes biography, and works originating in the British Isles.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE SUBJECT FIELD

A. Chronology of the Subject: Emphases/Restrictions

Our collecting is broadly based and covers all periods at the undergraduate level. Beyond this we pay particular attention to those periods in which there are active campus researchers.

B. Languages of Resources Collected: Exclusions/Emphases/Translations

English is the language of origin; the materials are almost exclusively in English

C. Geography of the Subject: Emphases/Restrictions

We collect more in-depth for England than for Ireland and Northern Ireland and more in-depth for these three than for Scotland, Wales, and the other smaller islands.

D. Format of the Resources Collected: Restrictions, if Any

We do not collect paper printed pamphlets or ephemera less than 50 pages in length, as it is vulnerable to destruction in the stacks. Significant pieces of grey literature may be collected online in pdf format.

Fine Arts-Art and the Planning and Design Libraries collect heavily illustrated material, but the Main Library does not.

We do not collect dissertations and masters’ theses from other universities or undergraduate textbooks.

We do collect electronic resources, full-texts of primary and secondary works, and online indexes. We prefer electronic resources accessible on the Internet, or networkable on the Citrix server, to software that must be housed in the Digital and Multi Media Center. We prefer to own, rather than subscribe to online resources, when possible.

We do collect primary resources in microformats, although full-texts online are preferable, when they are available and affordable online.

We do not collect very many videos. Our users have expressed a preference for reading as opposed to viewing owing to limited funds.

Special Collections houses British history manuscripts, manuscript facsimiles, and antiquarian works published 1800 or before, whether collected by Special Collections or the British history/studies bibliographer or jointly.

E. Date of Publications Collected: Emphases, if Any

We emphasize recently published books and periodicals in the Main Library stacks. Special Collections emphasizes valuable and pre-1800 materials.

IV. LEVELS OF COLLECTING INTENSITY

Conspectus Call # ranges	Subject	Level	Note
BL-BX	History of Religion	3
CD	Diplomatics. Seals, Archives	3a
CR	Heraldry	0
CS	Genealogy	0
DA 10-18	British Empire	3b
DA 20-134	England	3b
DA 135-162	England to 1066	3b
DA 170-260	England, Medieval 1066-1485	3b
DA 300-463	England, Tudor/Stuart	3b
DA 480-522	England, 18^th C.	3b
DA 529-565	England, 19^th C.	3b
DA 566-592	England, 20^th C.	3b
DA 593-670	England, descript/travel	3a
DA 670-690	England, local hist/descript.	3
DA 700-738	Wales	3
DA 740-745	Wales, local hist/descript	2
DA 750-878	Scotland	3a
DA 880-890	Scotland, local hist/descript	2
DA 900-988	Ireland	3b
DA 990-995	Ireland, local hist/descript	2
G	British geography and maps	3
HB	English population/demography	3a
	Welsh population/demography	3
	Scots population/demography	3
	Irish population/demography	3a
HC-HD	British/Irish economic hist.	3b
HN-HV	British/Irish social hist.	3b
HX	British/Irish socialism, communism, Leftist parties	3a
JN	British/Irish constitutional/pol. hist	3a
K	British legal history	3
LA	British/Irish hist, of education	3
PN,PR	British and Irish literature	3a-b
SB	British landscape, parks, gardens	3b
U-V	British military/naval history	3a
Z	British bibliography (mostly in A-V)	3b

V. COLLECTION MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Duplicate copies not checked out in ten years may be withdrawn. Materials needing binding, rebinding, repair, conservation, or relabeling may be identified during weeding projects, by the bibliographer, or when returned from circulation, by the circulation staff.

Policies in effect for preservation and management of the Main Library stacks apply to the British history/studies materials.