COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY STATEMENT
FRENCH STUDIES
Written by: Agnes Haigh Widder
Date drafted: Feb. 1, 2006
Date revised:
I.
PURPOSE OF SCOPE OF COLLECTION
A.
Curricular/Research/Programmatic Needs
Resources in French studies serve the instructional needs of the students of French in the Department of French, Classics, and Italian (FCI hereafter), and students, faculty, and other M.S.U. community members interested in the literature, language, history, and culture of France.
The FCI department fosters the study of the human experience as expressed in the languages, literatures, and cultures of France, Italy, and ancient Greece and Rome. Some courses cross disciplinary boundaries to examine topics in philosophy, comparative literature, religion, political theory, and cultural, gender, and diaspora studies. The students become proficient in reading, writing, and speaking French. The courses integrate current research in the fields of language acquisition and cultural and literary studies; the students learn to think critically about their world. B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. programs are offered in French, with courses on literary periods from the Middle Ages to the present. At the 400 level FCI has theme, genre, and history-based seminars. FCI also offers a French minor and a teaching certification French minor for students majoring in education.
Faculty and students from art, music, philosophy, history, and theater need and use the materials, as well as those participating in on-campus programs in religious studies, Jewish studies, diaspora studies, migration studies, women’s studies, Caribbean studies, African studies, and integrative studies in the arts and humanities.
France is a popular destination for study abroad students; there has been an M.S.U. study abroad program in Tours, France, annually for the last 31 years, led by FCI faculty. Recently, they also offered a program in Nimes, France, which combined classics and French studies.
Among the history faculty, at the present time we have scholars interested in the following: 12th-century Anglo-Norman law, cartularies, higher learning in the Middle Ages, early medieval monastic life, the Benoist d’Azy family in 19th century France and the Caribbean, women in modern Europe, historical demography, French history since 1750, migration in 19th-century France, especially from rural areas to Paris, family and social history since the 16th century, and 20th century Europe in film.
Among the French faculty in the FCI department we have scholars interested in the following authors, topics, and periods: Christine de Pizan, late antique and medieval French literature, especially the relationship between epistemology and ethics in the later Middle Ages, ideas of memory and consolation, allegory, and historiography; Clement Marot, Marguerite de Navarre, lyric poetry and songs of the Renaissance, 17th-century literature; Moliere’s plays, 17th-century French drama and theater, La Bruyere; Voltaire’s correspondence as fiction, epistolary writing, the Scottish Enlightenment and its reception in France, 18th-century French literature and the other arts, especially visual art; Gustave Flaubert, Marie de France, Madame de Stael, Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, French symbolism, French romantic poetry, women authors, feminist studies, critical theory, 19th-century French literature; French literature related to Vichy France, the German Occupation in the 1940s, and the Holocaust; writings and autobiographies of 19th and 20th century French women prisoners, French cinema, Jewish studies, and 20th-century French literature. There is also a faculty member specializing in French linguistics and applied linguistics.
Our collection favors French literature by and criticism about the canonical authors of France and history of France from the medieval period to the present. Contemporary literary authors are collected sparingly and to support the curriculum. Our Africana, Asian, and Latin American studies bibliographers collect works by and about French African, Near Eastern, Asian, and Caribbean literary authors and history of these places. French Canadian literature is not collected in French.
Special Collections contains the French Monarchy Collection. It includes over 6,000 volumes and 3,000 pamphlets about the French royal families and the French monarchical institution from the 10th c. to the 19th century, including the art and architecture of the period. Unfortunately, it is not used very much owning to the research proclivities of the present faculty, outlined above.
The materials in Main and Africana about French Africa and Francophone literature are a great strength; Africana librarians do the collecting here. The collection receives much use as the African history program has noted faculty. The history of the Francophone Caribbean is an up and coming field at this time on campus. The Latin American studies bibliographer takes the lead in collecting.
A.
Anticipated Future Trends
Study abroad will continue to be emphasized at M.S.U. Because the University requires two years of foreign language study for entrance, or completion of this requirement once students enroll, there will continue to be a need for the French 100 and 200 level courses which are taught each semester, typically by French graduate students and visiting faculty. The M.S.U. Evening College consistently offers conversational French for people in the community intending to visit France, also taught by the graduate students and visiting faculty. With teaching opportunities for graduate students available, the M.A. and PhD programs will continue to have students. The New Residential College being developed by the College of Arts and Letters may have an impact on the needs for materials in French and about France, as we hear foreign language and “other culture” study is to be part of it. Time will tell.
1. On campus branch or format collections, if any.
Fine Arts collects art and music material.
Special Collections collects works published prior to 1800.
Africana and area studies bibliographers collect relative to French language and culture in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
Reference collects reference materials, including electronic resources. French studies bibliographer recommends titles.
Maps collects maps and atlases
AV/Voice/DMC has videos, DVDs, and electronic resources not appropriate for Reference and not available on the internet. French studies bibliographer may recommend titles.
FCI with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese has an extensive electronic language-learning laboratory in Old Horticulture Building for which the department selects the resources.
2. Regional or network resources, if any
We subscribe to ARTFL, the American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language, a full-text database of over 2000 French texts of a literary, philosophical, historical, artistic, or scientific nature through the 20th century, co-produced by the University of Chicago and the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Langue Francaise. Our subscription is through a cooperative arrangement with the other CIC schools.
We may consider cooperating with other CIC institutions in the purchase of expensive electronic resources.
As members of the Center for Research Libraries, we borrow items from their collections via interlibrary loan.
Scholars travel to use the French studies collection at the University of Michigan libraries and we borrow items from U.M. via interlibrary loan. Their budget and their collection development expertise in French studies are much greater than ours.
C. Relationships to Resources Treated in Other Policy Statements
Africana, Asian, and Latin American bibliographers collect all
Francophone literature, history, and other Francophone titles.
The art and music librarians collect French art and French music titles.
*The philosophy bibliographer collects French philosophy titles.
The classics bibliographer collects works on the period of Roman
occupation of what is today France, prior to the Middle Ages.
The Slavic, East European, and Central Asian bibliographer collects works
treating contemporary Europe in general and *European history in general since
the Renaissance
The military studies bibliographer collects works on French military
history, especially for the 19th and 20th centuries.
The linguistics bibliographer collects works on French linguistics
The criminal justice and political science bibliographer collects works
on French criminal justice and *political science
*The gender studies bibliographer collects works on French women.
The maps librarian collects maps and atlases on France
The French studies bibliographer may collect, or recommend, any French or
English language resource in the starred (*) disciplines above.
A. Chronology of the Subject:
Emphases/Restrictions
Classical
studies acquires works on pre-medieval France.
B. Language of Resources Collected:
Exclusions/Emphases/Translations
We collect
both French and English language editions of the works of prominent French
literary authors. We do not collect
French language translations of works originally published in English. Critical literary material is collected in
both English and French using this same guideline.
We collect history works published in French and in English and
translations of French texts into English, but not French translations of works
published in English, originally. Ditto
for other disciplines.
French
studies is about the history, literature, and culture of France, not about the
French, outré mer, in other countries or in formerly French
colonies. An exception is made
occasionally for items about the history of French Canada in history, in either
English or French.
Nothing is prohibited. However, we collect videos and DVDs very sparingly; and, we are not collecting expensive, primary resources in microform or electronic form, aside from French Books Before 1601, a microfilm set we began collecting a very long time ago, and special faculty requests.
We emphasize collection of recent imprints, purchasing older materials only to fill specific, reasonable faculty requests.
|
Conspectus Call # ranges |
Subject |
Level |
Note |
|
BR |
History of Christianity
in France |
2 |
|
|
BX |
History of
Catholicism/Protestantism in France |
2 |
|
|
CD |
French archives |
2 |
|
|
DC |
History of France |
3a |
|
|
HD/HF/HG |
Economic History of
France |
3a |
|
|
HQ |
History of Women and
family in France |
3a |
|
|
HT |
History of Cities, Regions, Social Classes, Races in France |
3a |
|
|
HV |
History of criminality
in France |
2 |
|
|
HX |
History of socialism in
France |
3a |
|
|
JN |
French politics |
2 |
|
|
PC |
French language |
2 |
|
|
PN |
French literary
history, performing arts |
3a |
|
|
PQ |
French Literature |
3a |
|
|
Z |
Bibliography of France |
3a |
|
Policies for management, renewal, conservation, and preservation of the French studies collection are those in effect for the Main Library as a whole.
Duplicate copies not checked out in ten years may be withdrawn. Materials needing binding, rebinding, repair, conservation, preservation, or relabeling may be identified during weeding projects, by the bibliographer, or when returned from circulation, by the circulation staff.