Collection Development Policy Statement for European Studies

Bibliographer: Terri Tickle Miller

Department: Area Studies

Created February 2006

I. Purpose and Scope of the Collection

A.  Curricular /Research/Programmatic Needs
The European Studies Collection serves the general curricular needs of the students and faculty of Michigan State University.  This includes the core faculty of the  European and Russian Center as well as faculty and student research needs in diverse departments such as History, Political Science, James Madison College, Economics, Sociology and any other department with international research interests in Europe. Overall, for curriculum support, the collection focuses on the needs of undergraduate students, although some areas would support Masters level research.

B. History of the Collection/ Existing Strengths and Emphases

European Studies is a fairly new defined area of collecting, reflecting geo-political changes in Europe with the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the European Union.  By the late 1990s, a surge of scholarly interest and research in this area made the creation of a fund covering all of Europe a necessity, since none of the funds covering individual countries or regions could adequately meet the demand for publications on Europe as a whole.

 

Collecting strength is in the current political and social situation in Europe as a whole.   MSU Libraries is a European Union depository library and thus has extensive holdings in this area going back to the 1970s.  The collection emphasizes works on the European Union and on the transition of countries into the European Union.  Foreign policy, economics, social issues (migration, public health) and security studies are all emphasized.

 

Literature and history of Europe as a whole is also collected, but most works published in these areas have a narrow research focus to one or two countries or regions.   Such works would be collected by the bibliographers for those respective countries: for example, a general history of Scandinavia would fall under the responsibility of the Northern European bibliographer; literature of the Balkans would come under the purview of the Slavic studies bibliographer.   Comparative studies of multiple areas would be purchased by the European Studies bibliographer.

II.  Factors Influencing Collection Policy

A.     Anticipated Future Trends

It is anticipated that as the European Union expands, so too will the research and scholarly interest in this area as a whole.  The fact that much of the research done in this area, and all of the official publications of the European Union, appear in English, make European studies a very accessible area for many scholars with international interests.

 

It is also evident that as countries enter into the European Union, more publications emerge on those countries within that context, and fewer focus on the individual countries.  Thus when previous studies were completed on a topic within one or two European countries, now studies compare topics between multiple countries within the European Union.  What once may have been purchased under an individual country fund is increasingly falling under the broader boundary of Europe as a whole.

 

III. Relationship to resources treated in other policy statements:

• Replacement: Lost or stolen materials replaced based on use or reference value. Other than lost or stolen materials, replacement of heavily used literature and history only.
• Weeding: Done when space limitations require.  Only duplicate copies of monographs are weeded, and consideration is made based on circulation.  Duplicate copies less than ten years old are not weeded.
• Out of Print acquisition: To fill in runs of serials, monographic sets, and replace lost materials.  Important, core works may be acquired as they become available.
• Preservation: Items will be sent as needed for rebinding, repair.   Brittle books will be recommended for preservations digitization/microfilming.