English Collection Development Guidelines

English-The Department at KSU:

The English Department Homepage contains extensive information about the faculty, research focus, instructional programs, as well as interdisciplinary and special projects.

General Department Information

Department Goals:

"At the most global level, the goal of the English department is to construct new understandings of the social functions of texts in a variety of contexts both within and outside the academy and to promote the implementation of these understandings in academic and non-academic settings. This goal manifests itself in all of our programs, including the undergraduate program, which directly reflects the several specific niches we are developing at the graduate level...The English Department's graduate and undergraduate programs and research agendas foster knowledge of the interconnectedness of language and literature and a profound sense of the way in which texts of all kinds construct and reflect the cultural and social worlds in which we live. An understanding of the social function of texts, we would emphasize, is integral to a more sophisticated understanding of our world and ourselves."-Departmental niche document, Jan. 2000

Four distinct concentrations have been designed to meet the educational and professional goals of a variety of students.

Rhetoric and Composition: LRSP: The Literacy, Rhetoric, and Social Practice (LRSP) doctoral major focuses on the social production, distribution, and function of texts, taking as a primary focus the study of literacy and rhetoric as they are embedded in workplace and civic practices of college graduates.

TESL/ESL: Theoretically and practically, the M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) and the English as a Second Language (ESL) program approach the production and use of texts from the perspective of functional linguistics, which examines grammatical structures and whole texts in relation to the work they do in social contexts.

Creative Writing: The department's undergraduate and graduate courses in creative writing provide students with unique opportunities to engage with the social functions of texts through the study, creation, and performance of original works of fiction and poetry.

Literature: The niche of the department's literature component is characterized by the new Ph.D. focus in Modern and Postmodern Literature, Cultural Theory, and Social Practice; by the revised M.A. degree in English Studies; and by certain dimensions of the recently revamped undergraduate program. The program stands out from others in the state by providing a sustained focus upon the social functions of all categories of texts (both literary and non-literary). Such social functions include the conditions of production, distribution, and consequent use of various texts.

Departmental Areas of Concentration:

• Literacy, Rhetoric and Social Practice
  Workplace Literacy
• Literature, Culture Theory and Social Practice
  Emphasis on Modern and Postmodern Literature
  Literature and Psychanalysis
  

Degrees Offered:

• BA in English
• M.A. in English w/a specialization in:
  English Literature or
  Rhetoric and Composition
• M.A. in English for Secondary School Teachers
• M.A. in Comparative Literature
• M.A. in TESL
• Ph.D. in Literacy, Rhetoric and Social Practice
• Ph.D. in Literature

Special Programs within the School:

• Center for Literature and Psychoanalysis
• Center for Research in Workplace Literacy
• Institute for Bibliography and Editing
• Medieval Colloquium
• Wick Poetry Program
• ESL Center

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Scope of Coverage

The following subject areas are collected at the research level:Materials applied to the study of the department's primary niches; Literacy, Rhetoric and Social Practice, Literature, cultural theory and social practice and Modern and Postmodern Literature.

The following subject areas are collected at the advanced instructional level: Literary traditions (old or middle English, British literature 16th -20th century, American literature 17th- 20th century), genre studies (minority literature, feminist theory, women's literature, post colonial literature), critical theory, literary theory, literary history, linguistics, ethnography, teaching, writing and rhetoric.

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Apply the Following Parameters to the Above Scope of Coverage Areas

Language: Only materials originally written in English are collected.

Date of Publication: Emphasis is on current materials.

Geographical guidelines: Selecting primarily materials published in: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and US editions of UK or Canadian titles.

Society or Publisher Emphasis: Emphasis is on University and scholarly presses, but also includes trade and professional publishers. The following presses are emphasized:

• Ablex
• Cambridge University Press
• University of Chicago Press
• Harvard University Press
• Johns Hopkins Press
• Lawrence Erlbaum
• University of North Carolina Press
• Princeton University Press
• Routledge
• Sage
• Stanford University Press
• University of Toronto Press
• Yale University Press

Multiple copies: Multiple copies are purchased under special circumstances only.

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Material Types
Recent Acquisitions!

Monographs:

Books: Research level collection of works in the selected subject areas.

Audio Visual Material: Selectively acquired on request.

Theses and dissertations: Selectively acquired on request.

Microform reproductions: Selectively acquired on request.

Serials:
List of current serial subscriptions

Government Documents:

Methods of acquisition: The Government Documents department has established a selection/approval plan with the federal government depository system. Materials arrive automatically based upon the established plan.

Federal government publications and information: There are three major government agencies that are related to the humanities disciplines. They are:

• National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• Humanities and Social Sciences Division

The Kent State University main library's government documents approval plan selects ALL materials that fall under these three agencies. Many of these materials are now also available via the Internet.

Online Services and Electronic Resources:

The KSU Libraries and/or the OhioLINK consortium currently subscribe to (or own portions of) the following online resources, which pertain to the needs of English Studies:

• MLA International Bibliography
• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (to 1997)
• Essay and General Literature Index
• Arts and Humanities Citation Index
• Humanities Abstracts
• Bibliography of American Literature
• Book Review Digest
• Dictionary of Literary Biography
• Digital Dissertations
• Gale Literary Index
• Academic Search Premier
• RLIN Bibliographic Database
• WorldCat
• African American Poetry Database
• American Poetry Database
• Contemporary Authors
• Bible in English
• Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare
• Eighteenth Century Fiction
• English Poetry Database
• English Prose Database
• English Short Title Catalogue
• English Verse Drama
• Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Edition)
  
  

 Interdisciplinary Relations:

There is a strong interdisciplinary connection between the departments of English and History. There is also much interaction with American Studies. A new minor has been established in Medieval Studies, which involves many departments on campus including History, Philosophy, Sociology, and Modern and Classical Language Studies.

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