Michigan State University

Collection Development Policy Statement: Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Purpose or Scope of Collection

MSU Libraries' Latin American and Caribbean Studies collection supports the research and instructional needs of faculty with Latin American studies interests, and provides resources for their students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Current faculty and graduate student research interests and applied experience in Latin America and the Caribbean cross a broad spectrum of disciplines and include business and trade, history, literature and the arts, archaeology, anthropology, environmental studies, geography, political science and sociology. This is reflected in the broad range of materials selected for the collection, and the preponderance of social sciences and humanities resources. Materials on topics in Latin American agriculture, health, and natural history are acquired selectively.

While the collection focuses generally on social science and humanities disciplines, historically greater strengths are seen in the social sciences. English language resources to support all levels of instruction in Latin American studies are a collecting priority. In terms of geographic emphases, Mexico has been the Latin American country of greatest interest to scholars at MSU. This is reflected in the strong holdings in materials from and about Mexico. Brazil and Argentina have followed in importance, as reflected in the numbers of volumes acquired from those countries. There are notable strengths in works from Central America and the Caribbean as well.

  For this subject collection, the acquisition of faculty research data for inclusion in the MSU Libraries research data repository will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Michigan State University