Michigan State University

Collection Development Policy Statement: Radicalism

Factors Influencing Collection Policy

A. Anticipated Future Trends

Collecting must be sensitive to issues that, however unforeseen today, will influence American society's future and require the need for information to make reasoned assessments and choices.

Since the overwhelming number of users of the Radicalism Collection are MSU undergraduates, future collecting efforts will focus primarily on building a strong and useful undergraduate collection.

B. Relationship with other resources

1. On campus branch or format collections, if any

In many cases much additional material exists in the Main Circulating Collection that supports subjects within the Radicalism Collection. No effort will be made to duplicate or transfer these holdings to Special Collections, except in individual cases where the scarcity or the condition of a piece has made this advisable.

2. Regional or network resources, if any

The Joseph A Labadie Collection of radical and social protest literature at the University of Michigan and the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University are both outstanding libraries in Michigan for those interested in fields that pertain to American radicalism. Currently, no formal collecting relationships exists with these libraries.

C. Relationships to resources treated in other policy statements

  • History
  • Political Science
  • Ethnic Studies
  • Women's Studies
  • Gender Studies