Current Collection Policy:

1. Objective: The art, art history, and classical archaeology collection should be developed to directly support the undergraduate and graduate curricular needs, and to provide faculty research materials. Content should be at the upper-undergraduate and graduate readership level. General works on areas not currently taught will be collected on a basic survey level at the upper-undergraduate and graduate readership level.
2. Formats:Monographs, monographic sets and series, catalogue raisonnes, oeuvre catalogues, exhibition catalogues, and serial publications will be collected. Textbooks, sales and auction catalogues are not collected. Dissertations are acquired on a limited basis for instructional use upon faculty recommendation. Heavily illustrated works are collected as long as a scholarly text is present. Hard-back editions are preferred to soft-cover. Spiral bound and loose-leaf publications are avoided. For retrospective purchases of journals, print format is preferred because of the heavily illustrated nature of most art history journals. Microfiche is preferred over microfilm. Videos will be collected only in VHS format. Videos and CD-ROM products will be evaluated in the same way as are print formats.
3. Languages:English is the primary language of the collection. Materials in French, German, Italian, and Spanish are acquired more heavily than other languages. Dual or multi-language publications are regularly acquired. When available, English translations will generally be preferred over original language publication. Exceptions are the works of important artists, architects or art historians for which the original language publication should be collected also. Foreign language publications account for 57% of the firm order titles received and paid for during the 1994/95 fiscal year.
4. Publishers:Monographic and serial publications by university presses, major museums and galleries, scholarly societies, trade and commercial presses are collected. In addition to scholarly works, many commercial publishers also produce "coffee table" type books which are heavily illustrated and have "popular" texts. These are not collected. English and dual language monographs are collected using a subject-based approval plan and a 20-university press plan established with Blackwell North America and Blackwell England. An approval plan with Worldwide Books supplies exhibition catalogues by 53 American and European museums. An Abrams approval plan supplies titles on art history published or distributed by Abrams at a 40% discount. All other materials not covered by approval plans must be firm ordered.
5. Chronological Time Periods Collected:All periods of art history from prehistoric to contemporary are collected although at varying intensities.
6. Date of Publication:Current publications are the primary collection focus. Reprints are acquired to replace worn materials or fill in collection gaps. About a third of the firm order budget is used for retrospective collection development.
7. Geographic Areas Collected: No areas are excluded. Emphasis is on Western Europe, Mediterranean world, United States, China, and Japan.
8. Place of Publication: Restrictions apply to approval plans which limit publication in North America, Great Britain, and Europe. No areas are excluded for firm orders. Physical and intellectual quality of works generally produced by publishers determine whether titles are acquired.
9. Related Policy Statements: A second copy of faculty publications should be purchased for the Woodson Research Center if possible.

Collection Levels by LC Classification: