Collection Development Policy
East European Studies

PROGRAMS AND CLIENTELE SUPPORTED:

Eastern European studies take place on the undergraduate and graduate levels in several departments at the University of Notre Dame, principal among them the Departments of Government, Economics and History. However, while the bulk of structured learning and scholarship takes place within the scope of these departments, the actual topical aspects of Eastern European studies cast a much wider net, and include such diverse disciplines as sociology, literature, gender studies, immigration studies, international relations, economics, law and business.

An East and Central European Studies Institute is currently in the planning stages.

SUBJECT LIAISON:

David Jenkins
123D Hesburgh Library
(574) 631-9036
Jenkins.31@nd.edu

Manages a modest Eastern European fund. The bulk of acquisitions of Eastern European materials is made by subject librarians for history, political science and economics.

GENERAL COLLECTING GUIDELINES:

Languages:  Currently, the collection is weighted toward the English language, with some materials collected in Polish, Russian, German, French, Czech, Ukrainian and Hungarian. The need for languages other than English has been a recognized fact for a number of years, however, and foreign language materials are now routinely being selected into the collection. Enablers of this process are, of course, the various foreign approval plans. For Eastern European materials, the one to make the most impact in the near future will be the Polish language materials approval plan (1994 imprints onward).

Chronological:  All dates to the present are represented; nineteenth and twentieth centuries are emphasized, with further emphases within the twentieth century focusing on the World Wars and their aftermaths.

Geographical:  Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Austria, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and East Germany, with other adjacent areas included peripherally as necessary.

Treatment of subject:  Scholarly works, suitable to undergraduate and graduate scholarship, are represented.

Types of material:  Books, journals, newspapers, news weeklies, statistical publications, government documents and a full complement of reference tools are routinely collected, as are all formats.

 

COORDINATION INFORMATION:

The Eastern European studies collection is built through the efforts of the subject librarians and liaisons administering the above-cited funds. It is coordinated by the library faculty member charged with administering the Eastern European endowment.

COLLECTING LEVELS:

Eastern European studies are interdisciplinary and collections built in their support elude neatly ordered Library of Congress classifications. What follows is a listing of broad subject groups and their respective current collecting intensity:

Subject	Collecting Level
Germany:
History	3
Politics (including socialism, communism and anarchism;     political theory and constitutional history)	3
Economics	3
Industry and labor	3
Commerce	3
Finance	3
Internal relations	3
External relations	3
Sociology (including communities, classes, ethnic groups,   city and urban society and social pathology)	3
Philosophy and intellectual thought	3-4
Religion	3
Culture	2-3
Literature	2-3
Art	3+
Austria:
History	2
Politics (including socialism, communism and anarchism;     political theory and constitutional history)	3
Economics	3
Industry and labor	3
Commerce	3
Finance	3
Internal relations	3
External relations	3
Sociology (including communities, classes, ethnic groups,     city and urban society and social pathology)	3
Philosophy and intellectual thought	3-4
Religion	3
Culture	2-3
Literature	2-3
Art	2-3
Russia:
History	2
Politics (including socialism, communism and anarchism;     political theory and constitutional history)	3
Economics	3
Industry and labor	3
Commerce	3
Finance	3
Internal relations	3
External relations	3
Sociology (including communities, classes, ethnic groups,     city and urban society and social pathology)	2
Philosophy and intellectual thought	3
Religion	2-3
Culture	2-3
Literature	2-3
Art	2
Poland:
History	2
Politics (including socialism, communism and anarchism;     political theory and constitutional history)	2-3
Economics	2
Industry and labor	2
Commerce	2
Finance	2
Internal relations	2
External relations	2-3
Sociology (including communities, classes, ethnic groups,     city and urban society and social pathology)	2
Philosophy and intellectual thought	2-3
Religion	2-3
Culture	2-3
Literature	2
Art	2
Baltic countries, Ukraine, Byeloruss, the Balkan countries,   Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Slovak Republic:
History	1
Politics (including socialism, communism and anarchism;     political theory and constitutional history)	2-3
Economics	2
Industry and labor	2
Commerce	1-2
Finance	1-2
Internal relations	1-2
External relations	1-2
Sociology (including communities, classes, ethnic groups,     city and urban society and social pathology)	2
Philosophy and intellectual thought	2
Religion	2-3
Culture	1-2
Literature	1
Art	1

 

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS:

The collection is built in part through the Blackwell North America approval plan, which covers major scholarly publishers and university presses. It is, to some extent, assisted through the Russian language materials approval plan (which supplies some materials on communism and its historical, economic, sociological, cultural, etc., effects on Eastern Europe), and to a larger extent through the Polish language materials approval plan as well as through the exchange agreements we maintain with Polish, Hungarian, and, to a lesser extent, Czech academic institutions. It is supported with history, government, business, economics, and sociology funds, as well as with a modest East European endowment. Gifts contribute to the collection on a sporadic basis.

See also: Russian  and Polish  approval plan documents.

 

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