French Studies
Collection Development Policy

1. PURPOSE

   To support the programs of instruction and research offered by the Department of French & Italian at UCSB, including undergraduate curriculum,
   doctoral-level research and all faculty scholarship.
   

2. SCOPE OF THE COLLECTION
   • Subject Areas. Includes the full range of French literature, literary theory and literary criticism from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the present, in all genres. Current faculty scholarship in francophone literatures from the Maghreb and the Caribbean has influenced the development policy which now collects actively in those areas. Departmental interests also include gastronomy, cinema, theater history, sociology, anthropology, feminism, francophone Africa and Caribbean literature, fantastic literature, music, and aesthetic theory. The collection policy also covers French language, linguistics and civilization, francophone studies, women's studies, black studies and African studies. Disciplines such as history, comparative literature, philosophy, and art history make up a significant part of the French collections as they bear on the subjects of French language and literature and are included in the collection policy.

   • Chronology. Coverage of French literature is comprehensive from the medieval period to the present. Criticism and literary history and theory are collected widely in all time periods. Subjects other than literature that fall within the scope of the subject areas listed above are collected selectively on a title-by-title basis and cover all time periods.

   • Language. The collection consists primarily of literary texts and criticism in French. English translations of major francophone authors are collected selectively. Secondary works of history and criticism are collected primarily in English and French, although scholarly works in other languages are occasionally purchased. French as defined by this collection policy encompasses all francophone languages including Creole, Maghrebian, and Canadian French.

   • Publication Dates. Emphasis is on current publications. Whenever possible, retrospective acquisitions are made to upgrade specific areas of the collection or to replace lost or damaged books.

   • Geographic Areas. The collection focuses on publications from France but does not exclude francophone materials that originate elsewhere. Minor emphasis is placed on publications from or about the Caribbean (French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Haiti, and Martinique), Switzerland, Belgium, the Maghreb (Northern Africa including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), Sub-Saharan Africa (including but not limited to Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Canada.
   
   

3. FORMATS AND PUBLICATION TYPES
   • Monographs and Texts. Primary emphasis on monographs and monographic series in print rather than electronic format. Most reference works are collected, particularly bibliographies, literary encyclopedias, catalogs, and indexes. Includes selected materials for course reserve (including duplicate copies as necessary), reference material, and variant editions as content warrants.

   • Serials. Coverage includes major scholarly journals and newspapers in both French and English. Journal access may be print or electronic but seldom both; to maximize limited resources, preference is given to the electronic version of a journal if it provides reliable and perpetual access. Subject-specific serials are collected selectively, most often by faculty request. Festschriften and proceedings of major national and international conferences are purchased occasionally.

   • Microforms. Primary materials, including manuscripts and historic periodicals, are collected selectively.

   • Multimedia. Active collection in VHS and DVD formats, especially in the area of francophone African film. CD-ROM format is collected selectively.

   • Exclusions. Reprints are generally not acquired unless augmented, revised, or containing other new intellectual content. Textbooks are not included in this policy. Dissertations and theses, sound recordings and ephemera, whether in French or English, are collected very selectively or not at all.
     

4. OTHER RESOURCES

   Systemwide Resources: Materials not owned by the UCSB Libraries are most often readily available via Interlibrary Loan from other UC libraries. ILL is used heavily and is monitored to provide insight into collection areas requiring increased attention. Frequently-borrowed material is considered for acquisition.

   Constoria and Cooperative Agreements: When possible, consortia and cooperative agreements are used to augment collections, primarily through the California Digital Library. UCSB actively works with other University of California campuses to pool resources, negotiate purchases, and share materials.