Collection Development Policy Prepared by: Erica Bruchko Date: Spring 2018 Next Revision: Summer 2018 Department/Program Name: United States History Departmental/Program Profile Overview of Research and Teaching Focus The library s history collections support research and instruction in the History Department as well as a wide range of other academic disciplines that rely on historical documentation and scholarship. 1 Department of History The Department of History offers Ph.D., Masters, undergraduate honors, and undergraduate major and minor degrees. It supports eight general fields of history at the doctoral level: United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Ancient, and Jewish history. 2 In addition, it specializes in several thematic areas. Among the cross-cutting branches of study in which faculty have expertise are: 1) Nation and Empire 2) Colonial and Post-Colonial History 3) Race, Subalternity, and Difference (including differences of gender, ethnicity, and class) 4) Slavery, Migration, and Diaspora in Comparative Perspectives 5) Trans-National Histories (including Atlantic World) 6) Religious, Intellectual, and Cultural History 7) Environmental History In the field of American History, all periods (colonial, early national, antebellum, Reconstruction/ Progressive-era, and twentieth century) are represented by the faculty; however, the department is particularly strong in the intellectual and political history of the twentieth century South. For a complete list of Americanists research interests please see the History Department s faculty profile page. American Studies The United States history collection also supports faculty in American Studies, an interdisciplinary major that focuses on topics that are distinctive to the United States and broader Americas. The 1 For more information on European and World History please see the European and World History Collection Policy. 1
PhD Program in American Studies, located within the Institute for Liberal Arts, was sunset in 2012; however, the ILA continues to offer and undergraduate American Studies major. The History Department and American Studies program have close connection with the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, whose current director is History and American Studies Faculty. Southern Spaces, an interdisciplinary online journal published by ECDS is supported by Americanist graduate students, who frequently utilize the collection. In addition, Atlanta Studies, a journal and collective of Atlanta-area institutions and scholars is headquartered at Emory, and draws researchers to our physical and digital Atlanta-focused collections. Department/Program Demographics History Faculty Currently, History Department faculty consist of 31 core (30 full time tenure track and 1 visiting faculty), and 19 affiliated faculty, who are roughly divided between specialists in the United States, Europe, and other geographic areas. Graduate Students The graduate program has 47 permanent and 1 visiting graduate students (including Europeanists, Latin Americanists, Asianists, Classicists and Africanists) about 20% of whom are Americanists. Each year the department accepts 7-8 students, 1-3 of whom are American historians. Undergraduates Currently there are 119 undergraduate history majors and 11 minors. The department encourages undergraduate research by these students. In addition to an active Honors Program, history majors take 11 courses (35 or more credit hours); 7 of these must be above the 200 level, and 2, 400-level colloquium). They are required to write at least two major research papers. American Studies Faculty and Undergraduates Within the American Studies program there are 17 faculty located in History, English, Anthropology, Film Studies, Music, Sociology, Comparative Literature, Women s Gender and Sexuality Studies, Philosophy, and African American Studies. There are 39 majors and 14 minors, within the Institute of Liberal Arts broadly (statistics for AMST alone are not available). Research Requirements (Methods, Skills, Competencies, Use of Materials) Primary Source Research In addition to utilizing secondary materials, American History researchers rely heavily on physical and digital primary sources. Archival manuscript collections (local, national, and international), historical books, newspapers, periodicals, and government documents are the cornerstone of their research. Navigating these resources requires proficiency in traditional research methods (use of print indexes, finding aids, etc.) as well as digital/ advanced search skills. 2
Digital Humanities Text mining is currently not being utilized by Americanists within the History Department; however, requests for support in this area, especially text mining of historical newspapers, has proliferated in other fields. Historical GIS is an emerging field of interest among a select number of Americanist faculty and students. Related Departments and Programs and Collaborations at Emory Departmental/ Curricular Collaborations Many United States history courses are cross-listed with other departments/programs including American Studies, African American Studies, Classics, Anthropology, Jewish Studies, Religion and Economics. Likewise, faculty are affiliated with program, institutes and departments across campus including African American Studies, African Studies, Art History, The Candler School of Theology, the Graduate Division of Religion, the Law School, Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The department also offers four joint undergraduate majors (Art History and History; Classics and History; English and History; Religion and History). Among Americanists graduate students, there is also an increasing interest in interdisciplinary scholarship. Current students work with faculty both in history as well as in Theology, Law and Nursing. Collections Language, Chronology and Geographical Focus Emory maintains a research-level collection in American History. Geography: It focuses primarily on the United States and the American colonies /the Atlantic World, but funds are selectively used to acquire materials related to Canada. Chronology: All periods, post-european contact, are collected. Language: Emphasis is on English language materials. Occasionally materials on Francophone North America are collected. Spanish language materials are the purview of our Latin American Studies bibliographer. Latin/x materials in English, however, are acquired. Formats Collected (Note any preferences for print or online) Monographs and Texts/Format Current Monographs Monographs remain the central means through which faculty earn tenure in history and are essential research resources for students and scholars. Most major monographs published by University presses are received on approval through GOBI. Book slips, however, are essential for acquiring US History materials outside of the E and F call 3
number ranges. Books on the history of medicine and economic history, for example, frequently do not come in on approval and require firm orders. Indeed, American history titles appear throughout the LC call number ranges (see LC section below). In addition to monographs, edited collections and handbooks are also valued by both students and scholars. There is an general preference for core titles in print, especially among faculty and graduate students. For quick reference, some researchers prefer e-versions as well as print. Retrospective Monograph Collecting With regards to print materials, emphasis is on current and 20 th century monographs. Nineteenth-century and earlier materials are only acquired in consultation with special collections or in digital form via primary source databases. Among the library s long-time collection strengths, is southern history. Our print collection contains an excellent selection of southern monographs from the late 19 th and 20 th centuries. Journals Faculty heavily rely on e-journals, of which we have a strong collection in American History. In addition to major journals such as the Journal of American History and the American Historical Review, Emory has a strong collection of state history journals both in print and electronic form. At this juncture, American historians generally do not have interest in citation metrics. Databases & Electronic Resources Bibliographic indexes such as America History and Life remain important in the field, as do multi-disciplinary databases such as JSTOR and Project Muse. As mentioned above, primary source databases are essential for research in American history, and have transformed the discipline in recent years. The library collects several types of primary source databases: 1) Digital collections sourced from microfilm 2) Collections sourced from archives that have previously not been filmed 3) Historical serials collections 4) Digitized book collections Due to the high cost of these databases, the library does not collect them comprehensively. Endowment funds are frequently used to acquire these collections. Selection is primarily based on faculty and graduate research and curricular needs. The library s collections of historical newspapers and periodicals as well as African American history materials are heavily used by University and visiting researchers. Audiovisual Materials A/V materials are acquired via publisher list and faculty request. Videos are purchased as DVDs or streaming video when available and/or affordable. 4
Other Materials (Government Documents, Data, Specialized Software) Microfilm: Faculty continue to request essential microfilm collections from local archives and large commercial vendors. These requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Government Documents from the United States and the United Kingdom (see methodology section above) are frequently used by the department. Most retrospective government documents are now acquired digitally. Decisions regarding 20 th century document collections are often made political science librarian. Rare Books: Rare books are generally acquired as gifts or purchase in consultation with the Rose Library. Past acquisitions using US History funds include a series of Tennesseana imprints. Collaborative gift book purchases include the John Duncan gift of materials related to South Carolina. Archives: Donations and purchases of archival materials are generally handled by the archival curators across campus. Exclusions (Textbooks, Conference Proceedings) Textbooks are collected selectively for reference purposes. Works geared towards a popular, non-scholarly audience are collected on a very selective basis. Local history and genealogical materials are acquired for the Southeast. Local history materials from other regions are generally not acquired. Methods of Acquisition (Approval, Book Fairs, Exclusive Vendors) Approval plans, book slips, gift books, book lists, user requests and reviews of current literature account for most items in the collection. Of these, GOBI approval and book slips account for a majority of the print collection; however, faculty requests are frequently used to identify important gaps in the collection. A/V materials and databases are primarily acquired via publisher lists or faculty request. LC Classifications The most important classification for United States History is the E class. In it, call number ranges are generally arranged chronologically by period and include the Pre-colonial, Colonial/Revolutionary (1600-1789), National Period/Civil War (1789-1865), Reconstruction to the Progressive Era (1865-1920), and Recent America (1920-present). For a more granular list of the call number ranges, please see Library of Congress Classification Outline. Other important LC classifications for United States History include: F1-975 United States Local History. Latin America. Canada. Z1215-Z13 National Bibliography. United States. 5
There are also pertinent call number ranges across the collection, especially in the H, J, Q, R, S and Ts. Special attention is paid to the HCs Economic History. Related Collections and Library Resources On campus, researchers utilize the print and archival collections of the Hugh F. MacMilliam Law Library, The Pitts Theology Library, and the Woodruff Health Science Center Library. As mentioned above, The Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library including the Emory University Archives contains a central collections of material related to the history of Emory, Atlanta and the southeast. The Libraries' membership with the Center for Research Libraries makes the enormous collection of important primary source material available through Interlibrary loan. In addition to Atlanta Studies and Southern Spaces, Emory Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS) projects dealing with United States History are numerous and include: 1) Civil Rights Cold Cases (History/ English/ African American Studies) 2) Battle of Atlanta Project (American Studies/ History) 3) Sounding Spirit (American Studies) 4) Voyages (History/ African American Studies) 6