GENERAL STATEMENT

DEPARTMENT & SERVICES

The department of Modern Languages and Literatures is among the first of the College's departments to revamp its curriculum. It is the library's goal to support undergraduate and graduate teaching and research and the general information needs of students, faculty, and administration, so far as budgetary constraints allow. Degrees offered in the department are: B.A. in French, Italian, Russian and Spanish; M.A. in French and Spanish; and M.A. French teacher (7-12) and Spanish teacher (7-12). Other language offerings include: Arabic, Chinese, German, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Portuguese, and Greek (modern). Optional minors are available in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. The Department participates in the college's core curriculum through its foreign language requirement and shares responsibility for Core 6 and 9 with other departments.

FUNDING

Regular funding for library materials in obtained through state-levied monies that are part of the library's annual budget. State grants sometimes provide supplemental funds. Gifts of book collections by retiring faculty members and the estates of deceased foreign language professors have strengthened the collection in recent years, particularly the French and Russian collections.

GENERAL APPROACH TO MATERIALS SELECTION

A. Acquisitions Strategy:

The primary selection tools used include Choice, Library Journal, Booklist, the New York Times Book Review, publishers catalogs and announcements, and various scholarly journals in the field. Faculty suggestions are particularly important, since no bibliographer will be likely to know all of the languages taught in the department. The bibliographer also relies on library colleagues with expertise in particular languages. Since the library does not have current foreign "books in print," Acquisitions usually checks on availability of foreign titles through their jobbers. Reviewers copies of biographical and critical books in English on foreign authors are regularly purchased at a 50 per cent discount through a program with the Strand book store. A large desiderata file covering materials published in the last three years is kept to identify possible purchases. Materials that cost over $150 are flagged so that they can be quickly reviewed for times when the library receives large sums of money that have to be spent quickly. Expensive web based subscription services are recommended and evaluated with the Associate Librarian for Collection Development for possible purchase by Brooklyn College and/or CUNY. Web resources that are free are evaluated and added to the subject guide for Modern Languages and Literature whenever appropriate.

B. Level of Difficulty

The library collection is developed at the study level: to support undergraduate and graduate course work through the master's level.

C. Languages

Those taught in the department, as well as some critical and biographical studies of foreign authors in English.

D. Geographic Area

The Modern Languages & Literatures Collection draws on materials from all world areas.

E. Current and Retrospective Purchases

Current publications are of primary importance and account for most ordering activity. Gifts are frequently the source of needed out-of-print titles. Used book services are used whenever necessary.

F. Subjects Collected

French Language & Literature 4
Spanish Language & Literature 4
Italian Language & Literature 3
Russian Language & Literature 3
Chinese Language & Literature 2
German Language & Literature 2
Haitian Creole Language & Literature 1
Japanese Language & Literature 1
Arabic Language & Literature 1
Portuguese Language & Literature 1
Greek Language & Literature (Modern) 1

G. Format of Materials Collected/Excluded

1. Print and non-print materials are ordered in so far as budgetary constraints allow. VHS video and CD-ROM sound recordings are the preferred formats collected. For audio-visual materials, priority will be given for items required for classroom use. Electronic resources, including subscription based products, will be ordered as needed and as budgetary considerations allow. An effort will be made not to duplicate resources in more than one format, unless the additional costs are justified by heavy use, increased access, or arrival considerations. Resources available through CUNY and other consortia will be taken into account as well, before committing library funds to expensive items, particularly subscription services.

2. Serials are extremely important to modern languages and literatures. They include creative work as well as the latest research in the field. Important research tools include The MLA International Bibliography, Language & Language Behavior Abstracts, and the Hispanic American Periodicals Index, and The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies. With humanities data bases and electronic journal collections like Project Muse and JStore becoming ever more prevalent and -- ever more expensive -- additional funds will have to be allocated to support these resources. Purchase of serials and electronic resources will be periodically evaluated against the holdings of CUNY libraries and other local libraries and consortia.

3. Doctoral dissertations, talking books, language-training tapes, and grammar workbooks are not purchased.

H. Reference Policy

Bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, yearbooks, concordances, and anthologies will be purchased. All formats will be considered including paper, microform, CD-ROM and online.

I. Duplication

As a result of insufficient book budgets over the past twenty years, the library has adopted a general policy that only one copy of any new title is ordered. Exceptions are made, however, for titles that will be in heavy demand. With books going opt-of-print more quickly now, it is important to attempt to evaluate the need for duplicate copies of a title at the time of publication. The library's plan with the Strand Bookstore allows for duplicates to be purchased at a considerable discount (usually 50 per cent). Replacement copies for stolen and mutilated books are also being ordered more frequently. It is important that the bibliographer receive timely notification of lost or stolen items from the Circulation department, so that students continue to have access to materials that are in heavy demand.

J. Weeding Policy

Due to constraints on the bibliographer's time, weeding usually gets a low priority. Most weeding is a result of damaged books brought to the bibliogrpaher's attention by the shelvers. The ideal would be to set aside two or three hours a week for weeding but this would take time away from more pressing activities such as the reference desk, library instruction, and book ordering. A recent inventory and the reclassification of older Dewey books have resulted in massive weeding, mostly of books in too poor a condition to be saved.

K. Selection Activity Problems

The lack of sufficient resources is always a problem. Bibliographical resources for foreign materials are expensive and more funds are needed to build a graduate level collection. Additional resources would also provide an opportunity to explore foreign language approval plans.

L. Comments

The greatest part of the budget for Modern Languages & Literatures is spent on French and Spanish materials. Graduate students in these programs regularly come to the library for research instruction.

Bibliographer: Prof. William Gargan