MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY STATEMENT

LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STUDIES

BIBLIOGRAPHER AND LIBRARY LIAISON: Mary Jo Zeter

DATE DRAFTED: March 17, 2000

BACKGROUND: The Latin American Bibliographer selects resources from the various disciplines which treat their topics in the context of Latin America or the Caribbean region. Latin American and Caribbean studies programs and initiatives are interdisciplinary and have strong involvement from faculty in nearly all the social science and humanities disciplines. The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, a U.S. Department of Education designated National Resource Center, is a key point of liaison between the Libraries and its Latin America oriented clientele. There are well over 100 MSU faculty members affiliated with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, drawn from 10 MSU colleges and 23 different academic departments. The 1999 fall semester issue of the Center's newsletter, Ojeada, reported that in the current academic year MSU was offering 194 courses dealing "wholly or substantially with Latin America," and that the previous year had seen 7,488 students enrolled in these classes.

I. Purpose and Scope of Collection:

MSU Libraries' Latin American and Caribbean Studies collection supports the research and instructional needs of faculty with Latin American studies interests, and provides resources for their students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Current faculty and graduate student research interests and applied experience in Latin America and the Caribbean cross a broad spectrum of disciplines and include business and trade, history, literature and the arts, archaeology, anthropology, environmental studies, geography, political science and sociology. This is reflected in the broad range of materials selected for the collection, and the preponderance of social sciences and humanities resources. Materials on topics in Latin American agriculture, health, and natural history are acquired more selectively.

While the collection focuses generally on social science and humanities disciplines, historically greater strengths are seen in the social sciences. English language resources to support all levels of instruction in Latin American studies are a collecting priority. In terms of geographic emphases, Mexico has been the Latin American country of greatest interest to scholars at MSU. This is reflected in the strong holdings in materials from and about Mexico. Brazil and Argentina have followed in importance, as reflected in the numbers of volumes acquired from those countries. There are notable strengths in the holdings of Colombian, Venezuelan, Chilean and Uruguayan works as well.

II. Factors Influencing Collection Policy:

The most recent campus trends show an increasing local interest in the Amazon region and in the Caribbean. This is evidenced primarily through the research and teaching interests of new faculty hires and new courses. In the Amazon, changes in natural resource and land use, settlement patterns, and social change are of particular interest. Interest in the Caribbean area, especially in history, society and cultural studies, is also on the rise. An historically strong campus interest in Mexico has accelerated as well, particularly since the implementation of NAFTA. Issues related to trade, business and environment have come to the fore, as well as border area concerns. African descent populations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean also continue to be a focus of strong local interest. Scholarship related to issues of ethnicity, gender, and social change throughout the developing world is a major trend that demands an appropriate increase in library collections support.

While most of the Latin American and Caribbean studies collection is integrated into the Main Library's general collection, valuable resources are found in numerous other special format or discipline based collections. These include materials in the Business Library, Government Documents, Fine Arts, Special Collections, Maps, and the Main or Consulting Reference collections, which are generally purchased with funds controlled by the Latin American Bibliographer on the basis of geographic focus. In some instances purchase requests are made of the managers of these collections, in particular for important art or reference works.

The most significant group of materials for Latin American studies that are treated in another collection policy statement are the documents of international intergovernmental organizations that deal with Latin America or the Caribbean area. The Government Documents unit has collecting responsibilities for publications of the Organization of American States, the United Nations and its related agencies, and the regional development banks, to name but a few. The disciplinary selector with whom collecting responsibility boundaries most often blur is the Ethnic Studies Librarian. Purchase decisions are made in consultation with the Ethnic Studies Librarian and with other area or disciplinary selectors when questions of collecting responsibilities arise. Similarly, selection tools are shared or exchanged to enhance collection coverage.

III. Analysis of the Subject Field:

Chronological guidelines: No restrictions.

Languages of resources collected: English language resources to support all levels of instruction in Latin American studies are a collecting priority. When available, translations of vernacular works into English are acquired. Good coverage of current books published in English is ensured through trade and university approval plans with appropriate profiles. Additional monographic resources in English are identified and acquired through firm orders, particularly the publications of academic research centers and institutes, and European presses. Serial literature published in English is also prioritized.

Resources in Spanish and Portuguese are collected to support advanced study and research in all the disciplines of importance for Latin American studies, with the exception of Brazilian Portuguese language and literature, which is collected to support study through the advanced undergraduate level only. Resources in the vernacular languages afford students and researchers an area perspective that cannot be adequately ensured through solely English language publications. Also, much of the published primary sources for research on Latin American subjects is in Spanish, or when pertaining to Brazil, in Portuguese. Selection is guided by the same standards of quality and appropriateness for a research library collection that is applied to English language acquisitions. Significant scholarship in French pertaining to the French-speaking Caribbean and to Guyane, is also collected. Some indigenous and Creole resources are selected for language and linguistic studies. A very small number of resources are collected in German and other European languages.

Geographic guidelines: Resources are acquired about all of Latin America and the Caribbean area. Geographic emphases reflect local interests, as discussed in section I, above.

Format guidelines: Most Latin American studies resource purchases, both monographic and serial, are in print format. A small but increasing number of desirable resources are electronic publications. Caution is exercised however, as no digital format is considered archival, and electronic resources published in Latin America have been discovered to be incompatible with computer hardware considered to be the industry standard only a few years later. Web based subscription databases are very desirable for reasons of accessibility and currency, but current funding levels have permitted access to only one key subscription database for Latin American studies, HAPI Online. Non-MSU dissertations and theses are generally not collected. Music on compact disk is acquired rather selectively, as are videos. Researchers value primary resource collections in micro format, but current funding levels permit little in the way of such acquisitions. Faculty and student requests for specific works in special formats are encouraged.

Date of publication: Current materials emphasized, with limited retrospective selection. An exception is in the Spanish American literature collections, where there is a need for on-going retrospective acquisition of important primary works as well as some key secondary works. The need is strongest in prose literature of the last 10-15 years.

IV. Current Levels of Collecting Intensity:

Appendix A presents a list of major subject areas in the Latin American studies collection, with current collection depth indicators assigned. The indicators are those of the WLN Conspectus, found on the web at: http://www.wln.org/wlnprods/aca/indicators-cdid.htm

For the most part, the Latin American studies collection falls into the collection depth Level 3 range, "Study or Instructional Support Level." Levels 3a, 3b, and 3c are subdivisions indicating increasing collection depth. Level 3 collections support study from the undergraduate to the Masters degree "as well as other specialized inquiries." This may be interpreted to mean preliminary dissertation level research. Collections at WLN Conspectus Level 4, "Research Level," contain "the major published source materials required for doctoral study and independent research" and include "a very extensive collection of general and specialized periodicals," requirements currently met by relatively few libraries.

V. Collection Management Issues:

Missing monographs are generally replaced unless other copies or editions are held in the MSU Libraries. Attempts will be made to replace missing items judged to be of particular value or interest locally, even if no longer in print. Gifts of appropriate materials are accepted from individual donors, and duplicate journal issues or serial reports offered by other institutions are sometime available to fill gaps in serial holdings. Filling serial gaps, renewing, and canceling serial subscriptions is part of an ongoing serials review process carried out by the Latin American Bibliographer. Multiple copies and identical or very similar editions are also reviewed for weeding as part of an ongoing collection renewal project in the Main Library general stacks.

APPENDIX A

Agriculture (ag economics, agrarian reform, policy) 3a

Anthropology 3b

Caribbean region (incl. parts of Central Am. mainland) 3c

Mexico (esp. Western and Southern) 3c

Art 3a

Mexico and Caribbean (esp. painting and architecture) 3b

Business and trade 3b

Mexico 3c

Development 3b

Economics 3a

Ecology and environment 3c

Amazon region 4

Mexico 4

Education 3a

Geography 3b

Amazon region 4

Mexico 3c

History 3b

Brazil 3c

Mexico 4

Caribbean 4

Labor and industrial relations 3a

Language and literature

Latin American Spanish,

(incl. Spanish-speaking Caribbean) 3c

Brazilian Portuguese 3a

English-speaking Caribbean, lit. 3c

French-speaking Caribbean, lit. 3a

French Caribbean Creole, language study 2b

Politics 3b

Southern Cone, esp. Argentina, Chile, Uruguay 3c

Religion 3a

Sociology 3b

African descent communities 4

Mexico, esp. South, border areas & relating to NAFTA 3c

Urban and regional planning 3a

Mexico 3b

NOTE: Subdivisions levels a, b and c indicate increasing collecting intensity.