Purpose
The Collection Development policy is used as a guide to shape relevant collections and to ensure consistency in collection development. The decision to purchase library materials is primarily the responsibility of the Collections Librarian in consultation with faculty in the Department.
This policy has been developed by Gina Matesic, the Collections Librarian, in cooperation with and endorsed by Dana Sawchuk, the Department Faculty Library Liaison and the Department Chair.
Focus
To support teaching, study and research up to the honors degree level, as well as to support faculty research
Scope
- Language: primarily English languages materials are collected; however important works by contemporary French-speaking sociologists which are unavailable in English are also encouraged. Material in other languages is not necessarily excluded.
- Place of Publication: no area is excluded; international relevant and comparative materials are encouraged but the emphasis is placed on Canadian and American publications
- Dates of Publication: emphasis is placed on recently published works
- Chronological Period: both contemporary and historical work is to be acquired
- Geographical Areas: no area is excluded; international relevant and comparative material is to be encouraged, whilst ensuing acquisition of sociologically relevant material on Canada
- Publishers: works from academic and scholarly publishers are emphasized
Types, formats, and readership of materials collected
- Materials with academic-level readership are selected
- Web-based formats for reference sources, journals and indexing sources are preferred. Print and microform are considered for reason of cost, availability, expected use or long term access.
- Single copies of books in print formats are generally selected. Web-based formats are selected on a title by title basis, especially if the title is of interest to users at multiple Laurier campuses. Duplication of print across Laurier campuses is generally avoided.
- Excluded types include textbooks, abridgements, study aids, limited editions, works by vanity presses, juvenile literature, pamphlets, reprints and partial contents (eg. single issues of journals, electronic versions of single chapters of books).
Subjects collected and collecting priorities
Collecting priorities are categorized into 3 levels:
- A - highest emphasis
- The collection includes major published materials required to support the core teaching and research at the highest degree level offered by the Department.
- B - secondary emphasis
- The collection includes a selection of materials to complement the discipline as a whole, although it may not be a primary focus for courses.
- C - selective emphasis
- Materials, including reference materials and basic journals and indexes are collected to introduce and define an area.
| Subjects collected | Classification | Collecting priority |
|---|---|---|
| Theory | ||
| History of Sociological Thought | HM19 | C |
| Philosophy of Social Science | H61 | A |
| Conflict Theory/Marxism | HM497; HM471; HM1121 | A |
| Phenomenology | HM26 | D |
| Ethnomethodology | HM481 | B |
| Symbolic Interactionsim | HM499 | C |
| Feminist Theory | HQ1190 | A |
| General Theory | HM24 | B |
| Postmodernism | HM449 | B |
| Critical Theory | HM24 | B |
| Methods | ||
| Quantitative Methods | HM529 | C |
| Qualitative Methods | HM48 | B |
| Substantive Areas | ||
| Aging | HQ1060-HQ1064 | B |
| Criminology | HV6018 | B |
| Culture/Cultural Studies/Semiotics | HM101; HM621; P99 | B |
| Deviance | HM811 | B |
| Demography and Population | HB885; HB848- | D |
| Disability | HV1568 | B |
| Education | LC191 | A |
| Environmental Society | HM206; GE170 | C |
| Family | HQ503-HQ743 | A |
| Gender | HQ1075-HQ1075.5 | A |
| Globalization | GE105; HM467 | A |
| Historical Sociology | HM104 | C |
| Human Rights | K258;JC571;JX1977;HM15 | A |
| Language/Sociolinguistics | P41 | D |
| Law/Legal Studies | K366-K380 | D |
| Mass Media/Communications | HM258;P87-P96; HF5439 | B |
| Medicine/Medical Sociology | RA 418-RA418.5;RC108 | A |
| Men and Masculinity | HQ1088-HQ1090.7 | B |
| Mental Illness | RC455; BF57 | B |
| Poverty | HC79; HV91 | A |
| Race and Ethnic Relations | HT1501 | A |
| Religion | BL60 | B |
| Sexuality | HQ60; HQ21 | A |
| Social Change | HM831 | B |
| Social Development of Canada | HN101-HN110 | C |
| Social Movements | HM881 | A |
| Social Problems | HN57-HN59.2 | B |
| Sociology of State Formation | JC336-JC337 | C |
| Stratification | HM821 | B |
| Urban Studies | HT101-HT395 | C |
| Women/Sex Roles | HQ1075; HQ1101-1111; HQ1206 | A |
| Work and Occupations | HD6955 | B |
| Youth | HQ793-HQ799 | B |