General policies and principles for the Library's collections are stated in the General Collection Development Policy.  

Purpose of the Collection

The purpose of the collection activity in materials is to support the instructional curriculum and research activity in the Materials department up through the doctoral level, and related collaborative and interdisciplinary centers (see below.) Many interests of the Materials department overlap with those of the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments, and so some collection activity may occur in those collections.

Academic Department/Program Description

The UCSB Materials Department carries out research in the areas of Electronic and Photonic Materials; Inorganic Materials; Macromolecular and Biomolecular Materials; and Structural Materials. Many faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students are also involved in interdisciplinary programs, including the Materials Research Laboratory, the California Nanosystems Institute, the Center for Multi-Functional Materials and Structures, the Center for Energy Efficient Materials, the International Center for Materials Research , the Solid State Lighting and Energy Center and the Mitsubishi Chemical Center for Advanced Materials.

The Department offers the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials, with specializations in the four main research areas listed above. It also offers a five year B.S Engineering/M.S. Materials program.

Scope

Materials purchased in materials engineering support the research and curriculum needs of the department and are generally current English language resources. Preference is given to electronic formats due to space considerations in the library as well as convenience of access.

Because the budget for serials is fully committed, new subscriptions are considered only if an equivalent dollar amount of existing local subscriptions can be cancelled

Systemwide and Other Resources

In order to maximize our purchasing power, the vast majority of materials selected for materials engineering are purchased consortially with other UC campuses.  These include:

  • Databases, including Compendex, SciFinder and Web of Science.
  • Monographs, including titles from the American Chemical Society, Elsevier, Materials Research Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, SPIE Digital Library, Springer, and Wiley.
  • Serials, including titles from the American Chemical Society, Elsevier, Materials Research Society, Royal Society of Chemistry Springer, and Wiley.

Subject librarian: Charles F. Huber
Policy Last Updated: April 2015