A. Anticipated Future Trends
There will be a continuing interest with the study of race, gender, and social history with less emphasis on political and diplomatic history. In addition, there is also an increasing focus on the study of U.S. history through a transatlantic and international lens, with a focus on the exchange of goods, services, and people between regions and cultures both within and outside the U.S.
The proliferation of electronic resources has several implications for the growth of this collection. Ebooks now constitute an important element of this collection, in large part because of the support they provide to distance and online learning students. In addition, text mining capabilities and an interest in the availability of data for analysis and mining will also influence the types of materials purchased for this collection. Finally, there is a growing interest within the History Department and across campus is engagement with digital history tools and methodologies. This interest in and emphasis on digital scholarship will shape the types of resources purchased for this collection.
Given the price tags of many of these resources, the ultimate decision for purchasing most electronic resources will not rest with the American History selector but at higher levels. The task of the selector will be to provide timely input. Moreover, the selector should selectively publicize free Internet resources. Also the selector will have to decide on the appropriate mix of formats.
B. Relationship with Other Resources: