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Sociology

Collection Development Policy


Name, Librarian

  1. Applicable LC Classes:
  2. Call No. Subject Heading
    H Social Sciences (General)
    HA Statistics (as applied to the Social Sciences)
    HM 1-250 Sociology: General Works, Theory
    HM 251-291 Social Psychology
    HM 401-1281 Sociology
    HN Social History and Conditions
    HQ Family, Marriage, Women
    HS Societies: Secret, Benevolent, etc.
    HT 1-485 Human Settlements, Urban and Rural Sociology
    HT 601-1445 Classes
    HT 1501-1595 Races
    HV 1-5840 Social Pathology. Social and Public Welfare
    HV 6001-7220.5 Criminology. Criminal Justice Administration
    BJ 1801-2195 Social Usages. Etiquette

  3. Academic Departments, Programs, etc.:
  4. Sociology, Anthropology, Communications, Economics, Education, Political Science, Psychology, American Cultural Studies and Women Studies.


  5. Collection Levels:
  6. Call No. Subject Heading Present Desired
    H Social Sciences (General) 2b 3b
    HA Statistics (as applied to the Social Sciences) 3a 3b
    HM 1-250 Sociology: General Works, Theory 3b 3b
    HM 251-291 Social Psychology 3b 3b
    HM 401-1281 Sociology 3b 3b
    HN Social History and Conditions 2b 3b
    HQ Family, Marriage, Women 3a 3b
    HS Societies: Secret, Benevolent, etc. 3b 3b
    HT 1-485 Human Settlements, Urban and Rural Sociology 3a 3b
    HT 601-1445 Classes 3a 3b
    HT 1501-1595 Races 3b 3b
    HV 1-5840 Social Pathology. Social and Public Welfare 2a 3b
    HV 6001-7220.5 Criminology. Criminal Justice Administration 3b 3b


  7. Scope:
  8. Geographic: Materials collected are primarily published in the United Statess, Great Britain or Europe.

    Language: English is the primary language of the collection. Works written in other languages will be purchased in translation.

    Chronological Limitations: Primary emphasis is on materials published since 2000. However significant historical materials may be acquired.

  9. Formats collected/Non-Subject Parameters:
  10. Most materials are books, periodicals and increasingly films.


  11. System Coordination and Resource Sharing:
  12. Government documents, including census data, are collected.


  13. Electronic Databases:
  14. Sociological Abstracts


  15. Notable Features:
  16. Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research has datafiles that can be downloaded and is made available through the Sociology department.


  17. Narrative Statement:
  18. COLLECTION ASSESSMENT PROCESS:

    Two lists were used to evaluate the sociology collection, Books for College Libraries: a Core collection of 50,000 titles published in 1988 for an historical overview and Choice’s Outstanding Academic Titles 1992-1997 and 1998-2002 to cover current titles.

    H Social Sciences general:
    Each decade since the 1960s shows a decrease of collecting in this area. During the 1980s, 268 items were purchased compared to 206 during the 1990s and an estimated 140 items from 2000-2010.

    HA Statistics:
    Collecting was still strong in this area during the 1990s but collecting during 2000-2010 is estimated at half that during previous decades

    HM1-250 Sociology general works:
    This call number range was replaced by HM401-1281 after January 1999. During the 1990s collecting was still good but each decade shows a reduction from a high of 829 items during the 1970s to 371 items in the 1990s.

    HM 251-291 Social Psychology:
    This call number range was replaced by HM401-1281 after January 1999. During the 1980s and 1990s collecting remained the same in this area but about half the amount of items purchased during the 1970s.

    HM401-1281 Sociology:
    (HM1-299 was used until January 1999 and was replaced by HM 401-1281 after that date) This is a new range to replace the earlier range for general works and social psychology. Collecting is estimated at about 200 items for 2000-2005.

    HN Social History and Conditions:
    Collecting in this area is reduced from 458 items during the 1990s to estimated 130 items from 2000-2005. Again the largest number of items in the collection, 2089, was purchased during the 1970s.

    HQ Family, marriage, women:
    Collecting in this area has remained strong since it is one of the specializations in the department. During the 1990s, we collected 1991 items compared to an estimated 574 during 2000-2005.

    HS Societies:
    This area of the collection has the most items being purchased during 2000-2005, an estimated 80 compared to an average of 25 during earlier decades.

    HT 1-485 Human settlement, urban and rural sociology:
    196 items during the 1990s and 59 items estimated from 2000-2005.

    HT 601-1445 Classes:
    Half as many items were added in this area during 2000-2005 as compared to the 1990s.

    HT 1501-1595 Races:
    Collecting in this area has remained the same for the past two decades.

    HV 1-5840 Social Pathology, Social and Public Welfare:
    Collecting in this area has shown a gradual decrease from 1144 during the 1970s to 823 during the 1980s, 580 during the 1990s and approximately 300 during 2000-2010.

    HV 6001-7220.5 Criminology, Criminal Justice Administration:
    Collecting in this area has remained essentially the same for the last few decades showing a slight estimate increase during 2000-2005.

    BUDGET:

    The budget for non-subscription items in sociology was $3,866 in 1990. This increased to $6,208 in 1993, and then gradually increased to a low of $932 in 2001. Due to journal cuts, the budget for non-subscription items increase to $2,701 in 2003 but is again declining to the current budget for non-subscription items of $2,039 for 2005. The decrease in money available for non-subscription items is primarily due to the increase in journal subscriptions. Thus the emphasis has been to use the reduced amount to especially support areas most relevant to the curriculum such as HQ classification, marriage, family women and criminology and HV 6001-7220 for criminology.

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