Women's Studies
Collection Development Policy

POLICY PURPOSE

The purpose of the women's studies collection development policy is to provide guidelines for the acquisition of library materials in the field of women's studies.

COLLECTION PURPOSE

The Davidson Library women's studies collection's primary intent is to support the undergraduate and graduate level curriculum offerings of the UCSB Women's Studies Program, and women's studies' faculty research needs. Primary users are women's studies students, faculty, affiliated faculty and other members of the campus community seeking information or doing research related to women, feminism and gender.

Women's studies consists of the academic study of women, feminism and gender across the disciplines; feminism as a multidimensional and multicultural international movement addressing a wide range of social economic and political issues; and analyzing systems of domination and subordination, as well as assumptions and biases about women.

The UCSB Women's Studies Program offers an undergraduate major and minor, Master's degree, and a doctoral emphasis for graduate students in other departments. The Women's Studies Program is affiliated with the Departments of Anthropology; English; German, Slavic and Semitic Studies; History; History of Art and Architecture; Religious Studies; and Sociology

SELECTION GUIDELINES

Subject Coverage

Given the interdisciplinary nature of women's studies, scholarship on women, feminism and gender from across the disciplines is collected. Areas of feminist scholarship include anthropology; architecture; business/economics/labor; communication, information and media studies; domestic sciences; education and pedagogy; feminist theory; geography and environmental studies; history and social movements; international/postcolonial studies and global feminism; law and criminology; language and literature; medicine and health; performing arts and performance studies; philosophy and religion/spirituality; politics and public policy (including military science); psychology; recreation/physical education/sports/travel; sciences and technology; sex and sexualities; sociology; and visual and material culture. Emphasis is on feminist scholarship and resources that describe and theorize the conditions, experiences and contributions of women's lives; perspectives of women of color; the history, politics and theory of feminism, global feminism, and feminist cultural studies.

Materials on feminist literary criticism, women authors, women artists, and feminism and science are primarily selected and purchased by English, art and science collection managers.

Types of Materials

Monographs and serials form the largest part of the collection. Subsciptions to new journals are acquired after careful review by the women's studies collection manager and when necessary, consultation with the women's studies faculty. Reference materials and indexes and abstracts are purchased extensively. Relevant electronic resources, including online databases and cd- roms are also acquired as appropriate. Unpublished theses and dissertations, from other institutions, are acquired on a highly selective basis. Government publications, both state and federal, are acquired by the Government Documents Librarian. Microform sets and audio-visual materials are also sought for the collection. Expensive microform sets may be purchased collectively through the University of California Women's Studies Consortia. Both scholarly and mainstream works from academic and trade publishers are acquired. Feminist and women's presses and alternative and small presses are also vital sources for new materials.

Language

Primarily English language publications are acquired. Some French, Spanish, German and Portuguese materials are acquired through the respective collection managers.

Chronological Limits

Titles purchased are primarily current publications. Older titles are purchased as necessary. Emphasis is placed on nineteenth to twenty-first century issues with some coverage of classical and medieval periods.

Geographical Limits

Geographical coverage is worldwide with emphasis on the U.S., Canada and Great Britain.

CONSORTIA & COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS

University of California U.S. and British History/Women's Studies Consortia

The UC Women's Studies Collection Development Consortia is composed of librarians from the UC campuses who are responsible for developing and managing collections in women's studies. Our purpose is to collaborate and to coordinate efforts in acquiring and providing access to women's studies materials throughout the consortium. Research and teaching in women's studies are expanding at a rapid rate on all campuses. Significant publishing growth combined with sharing is imperative in order to assure adequate coverage of the discipline and access to library resources and materials. Specific goals of the consortia can be viewed online at: http://gort.ucsd.edu/ek/ushist/consort/purpose-ws.html

California Feminist Presses Project

The California Feminist Presses Project is a project of the University of California Women's Studies Consortia. The project is designed to preserve the output as well as the history of the feminist presses in California. Archival and circulating copies of California Feminist Presses are acquired collectively via the Consortia. Each Consortia library has agreed to buy circulating copies of the titles of specified presses. The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz Special Collections, and UC Irvine Special Collections, and UC Santa Barbara Special Collections purchase and house the archival copies of the titles of specified presses. As part of this agreement UC Santa Barbara collects the circulating copies of Post Apollo Press titles and the archival copies of Odd Girls Press, Wild Cat Press, and Trilogy Books. For a complete list of presses and the holding libraries, consult the Consortia webpage at http://gort.ucsd.edu/ek/ushist/consort/consort.html. Under the California Feminist Presses heading, click "List of Presses".

Women's Studies Journals Project of the UC Women's Studies Consortia

The goal of the Women's Studies Journals project is to ensure that copies of needed serials in the field of women's/gender/feminist studies are available within the UC libraries. The Project was established in 1993, during a period of severe financial restraints in order to maintain the quality of library collections. Under the agreement each library made a commitment to retain its current subscription for five years to a number of journals that are currently held by four or fewer of the libraries. In the current agreement, effective March 1997, campuses have taken responsibility for maintaining the last subscription to the journals held by four or fewer campuses, should others choose to cancel. For a comprehensive list of the journals under agreement, and the holding libraries, consult the Consortia webpage at http://gort.ucsd.edu/ek/ushist/consort/consort.html. Under the "Women's Studies Journals" headings, click "Journals under agreement" or "master list (with holding libraries)".

Center for Research Libraries

The UCSB libraries are voting members of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL). The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is an international not-for-profit consortium of colleges, universities and libraries that makes available scholarly research resources to users everywhere. CRL is governed by the major research libraries of North America and is funded by fees, grants and contributions. Open to scholars and researchers, its outstanding collections include more than five million volumes of research materials rarely held in North American libraries.

It is established practice among UC bibliographers to base significant collection development decisions on the fact that as CRL members we could provide access to needed expensive specialized materials. Bibliographers weigh every decision to add major microform sets against CRL's holdings. The UC Libraries rely almost exclusively on CRL for access to foreign dissertations, foreign government publications, and newspaper collections. When budgets begin to decline, UC's dependence on the type of cooperative collection development CRL exemplifies increases.