Michigan State University

Collection Development Policy Statement: Iberian Studies

Factors Influencing Collection Policy

A. Anticipated Future Trends.

The trend in recent years in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies with respect to Spanish and Portuguese,* has been towards cultural studies, broadly defined. This is evidenced in the research agendas and course content of recent Spanish and Portuguese faculty hires and in the PhD topics of graduate students in Spanish that involve film and society, state cultural policies, visual culture (outside of film), and popular culture, including sports. Courses in Medieval, Golden Age, and contemporary literature and literary culture, in addition to language proficiency, continue to be core to the peninsular Spanish curriculum, and faculty scholarship requires an expanding, rather than narrowing base of research resources.

*The Department's focus is on Brazilian Portuguese language and culture, while on the Hispanic side both Latin American and peninsular Spanish literature and culture are important.

B. Relationships with Other Resources

MSU Libraries particpates in several interlibrary loan networks. Book borrowing for extended loan periods of 12 weeks is available via U-Borrow (a program between Big Ten university libraries). MSU also participates in MeL, the Michigan eLibrary, which through its shared online catalog permits interlibrary loan of books and other materials between participating libraries, including many public and college libraries throughout the state. MSU's holdings of foreign films on DVD have been particularly impacted by MeL borrowing, with a high number of circulations attributable to MeL library requests.

C. Relationships to Resources Treated in Other Policy Statements

Many resources deal with Hispanic or Lusophone topics that include both Spain and its former New World colonies, or Portugal and its former colonies around the world, and therefore the Iberian studies collection overlaps with the Latin American and Caribbean collections and with the African studies collection. Logically, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Bibliographer is also the selector for Iberian Studies, eliminating potential confusion in selection and fund assignment. The African Studies Bibliographer identifies and purchases Portuguese imprints dealing with Portuguese-speaking African countries, their history and literature. Portuguese imprints dealing with certain topics of interest at MSU, such as exploration and colonization in Asia, are usually identified by the Iberian Studies Selector and purchased with Iberian studies funds.

Iberian Studies resources are selected in all formats, including electronic journals and e-books. Books and journals in print dealing with Spanish and Portuguese language, literature, history and social science subjects are almost entirely integrated into the Main circulating collection, while some lower-use materials are in off-site storage. A very strong reference collection for peninsular Spanish literature was integrated into the circulating collection in 2009. DVDs are housed in the Digital & Multimedia Center, maps and atlases are in the Map Library, and many additional resources for Iberian Studies can be found in the Fine Arts Library. The Map, Music, and Art Librarians in particular contribute to the Iberian Studies collection through their selecting activity, primarily acquiring English-language resources. Additional selections, including a limited number of Spanish imprints, are made by the Iberian Studies librarian for these Main Library internal branches.

A small number of resources destined for Murray and Hong Special Collections.have been acquired by the Iberian Studies librarian, including several very fine facsimile editions of Medieval texts and materials for the Comic Art collection.