Michigan State University

Collection Development Policy Statement: Urban Planning

Factors Influencing Collection Policy

A. Anticipated Future and Present Trends 

There is a continued interest in the idea of sustainable cities and regional planning. Climate change and disaster planning are also growing subjects of interest. 

Technologies, especially those that influence transportation, such as autonomous vehicles, and surveillance continually evolve and advance, and these topics are also growing areas. Infrastructure, such as broadband provisioning is also considered in an urban context. “Smart cities,” another technology related subject is another growing topic in the field. 

Regardless of location, works that describe interesting or novel approaches or have topical interest in any part of the world may be collected.   

Finally, the legal issues revolving around planning issues, including citizen involvement in the process are important to the field.  

Landscape Architecture has a similar trend towards sustainability and native plant use in landscapes, as well as restoration and reclamation. 

The burgeoning use of numeric and geographical data must also be of direct concern. Statistical sources and numeric data sets can be acquired/licensed as part of this collection. 

B. Relationship to other resources and resources in other collection policy statements 

Resources that are included in this collection that intersect with other collection policies include: 

  • Architecture   

  • Area Studies   

  • Business   

  • Engineering (transportation, water, energy)   

  • Environmental Studies   

  • Government Documents (policy and statistics)   

  • Horticulture   

  • Law (statutes, appropriations, law, legislation)   

  • Map Library (maps and GIS)   

  • Public Administration (administration, budgeting, finance)   

  • Tourism 

These topics will be collected through the lens of urban planning, urbanity in general or landscape architecture which distinguishes them from other areas.