Michigan State University

Collection Development Policy Statement: Physics and Astronomy

Written by: Judy Matthews Date Drafted: 3/11/99, rev. 3/11/03, 10/16/06, 1/8/16, 03/1/17, 04/03/2018

Purpose or Scope of Collection

A. Curricular/Research/Programmatic needs

Physics and Astronomy liibrary collections support the present and anticipated research and teaching needs for the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, which includes: the NSCL (National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (Cyclotron), the FRIB (Facility for Rare Isotope Beams), and Abrams Planetarium, all within the MSU College of Natural Resources.  The collection is maintained at a graduate/ research collection level in the majority of its areas. Current major areas of collecting focus include: accelerator physics, biophysics, chemical physics, elementary particle theory, experimental particle physics, low-temperature physics, many-body theory, nuclear physics, physics education, quantum computing, nanotechnology theory, condensed matter physics, atomic, molecular and optical physics, and observational and theoretical astrophysics. Additionally, the collections support the interdisciplinary research needs of the entire university science community. Necessary tools used for teaching undergraduate physics and astronomy are also maintained.

MSU's Department of Physics-Astronomy, including the NSCL (National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory) and the FRIB (Facility for Rare Isotope Beams) is recognized world-wide as a leader in the study of nuclear physics. MSU's Department of Nuclear Physics is ranked #1 in national rankings of graduate studies.  .  

B. History of the Collection/Existing strengths and emphases

The first library containing physics-astronomy materials opened in September, 1949 within the Physics-Math Library. In 1967, the Physics-Math Department and its library materials moved to Wells Hall. In 1972, the Physics Library became the Physics-Astronomy Library. In 1990, the first Physics-Astronomy librarian was hired to manage the collection on a half-time basis. In 2002, the Physics-Astronomy Library moved and merged its collections with the Chemistry Library into the new Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) Library. In December 2009 the BPS Library closed and its collections were relocated to the Main Library. Many electronic journal backfiles in Physics-Astronomy were purchased at that time.  A very small number of older print journals, conference proceedings, and and monographs are located in the Cyclotron Library, which is not open to the public.

C.  Data Management

Adding research data is a potential step for this subject collection. For guidelines see  http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=139267