Washington University in St. Louis

Collection Development Policy

Library: Olin

Subject: Anthropology

Collection: General

Date revised:  April 2014

Subject Librarian: Jennifer Moore

 

1. General purpose:

The collection development policy for anthropology encompasses bibliographic, electronic resources and data, which support research and teaching in the Department of Anthropology. 

 

2. Overview:

• Faculty: 38 faculty members
  • Working in 3 subfields: Archeology, Physical Anthropology, Socio-Cultural Anthropology
  • Field work spans the globe
  • Needs are very interdisciplinary
• Graduate education:
  • 75 graduate students
  • Working in 3 subfields: Archeology, Physical Anthropology, Socio-Cultural Anthropology
  • Field work spans the globe
  • Needs are very interdisciplinary
• Undergraduate education:
  • Anthropology majors: 380
  • Minors: 240
  • Global Health and Environment track offered

 

3. Subjects excluded:

• Linguistics

 

4. Overlap with other collections or subjects:

• African Studies
• American Cultural Studies
• Art History and Archaeology
• Biology
• Classics
• Earth and Planetary Sciences
• Environmental Studies
• History
• Jewish, Islamic Studies, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies
• International Area Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Psychology – Neuroscience - Philosophy
• Public Health
• Religious Studies
• Social Work
• South Asian Studies
• Urban Studies
• Women, Gender and Sexuality

 

5. Languages included and excluded:

• Included:
  • The profile for African Ethnic Groups
  • Folklore of Africa and Clothing of Africa
• Excluded (however, if a faculty member requests such items specifically, they will be considered):
  • Non-English languages
  • English translations  

6. Geographical limitations:

None

 

7. Chronological limits:

None

 

8. Retrospective acquisition:

Older materials are not actively acquired, but considered upon faculty or graduate student request.

 

9. Types of material collected and excluded:

• Excluded (all faculty and student requests are considered):
• K-12 textbooks
• Test preparation guides
• Reprints when the original is held locally 
• Dissertations from other universities (acquired for individuals but not necessarily added to the collection)
• Newsletters.  
• Some graduate/advanced level textbooks are purchased. 

 

10. Other factors to consider:

• Monographs:
• Items requested by members of the WUSTL community are generally purchased
• eBook format purchased over paper, if available; DRM-free preferred
• In general, eBooks are not duplicated in paper
• Duplicate monographs included in the CRCnetbase or Safari subscriptions, or ebooks packages, such as ebrary and ScienceDirect, purchased at Becker Library, or widely available through consortia are avoided unless faculty or graduate students require a campus copy.
• Nothing on the anthropology profile ships automatically; users must select items through the Purchase On Request (POR) program.
• Journals and other electronic resources: New subscriptions occur online-only when available with post-cancellation access guarantees and preservation mechanisms. Selection is based on faculty research needs.
• Data – Datasets may be purchased when unavailable in the public domain, and which have potential for use and reuse by the WUSTL community.

 

11. Subjects and Collecting Levels:

 

• CC 1-960 Archaeology (General)
• GN Anthropology
• GN 1-32 General
• GN 33 Philosophy. Relation to other fields
• GN 34 Methodology
• GN 35-41.5 Museums. Collections
• GN 41.6-48 Anthropological profession. Study and teaching.
• GN 49-69.7 Physical anthropology and somatology (general)
• GN 69.8 Forensic anthropology
• GN 69.9-268 Human variation
• GN 269-280.6 Race (general)
• GN 280.7-292 Human evolution
• GN 293-295 Mummie
• GN 296-297 Medical anthropology
• GN 298-300 Social aspects of the human body
• GN 301-345 Social and cultural anthropology, ethnology
• GN 346-356 Methodology
• GN 357-377 Culture and cultural processes
• GN 378-396 Collected ethnographies
• GN 397-405 Applied anthropology
• GN 406-450 Material culture
• GN 451 Intellectual life
• GN 452 Communication
• GN 453 Creativity
• GN 454-467 Recreation, games, sports
• GN 468-468.3 Philosophy.
• GN 468.4-468.5 Classification and naming systems
• GN 468.6-469.4 Ethics. Values
• GN 469.5-469.9 Concepts of time
• GN 470-474 Religion and ritual
• GN 475 Magic and witchcraft
• GN 476 Science and knowledge
• GN 477 Medicine
• GN 478-479.4 Social organization
• GN 479.65-479.7 Sex role
• GN 480-481 Family
• GN 482-485.4 Life cycle
• GN 485.5-486.2 Death
• GN 486.3-486.4 Friendship
• GN 486.5-489 Kinship
• GN 490 Associations
• GN 491 Social stratification
• GN 492 Political anthropology
• GN 493-495.3 Social control
• GN 495.4-496 Ethnicity
• GN 497-501 Warfare and weapons
• GN 502-536 Cultural traits, customs, institutions
• GN 537-549 Ethnic groups (general)
• GN 550-561 North American ethnic groups
• GN 562-574 Latin American ethnic groups
• GN 575-589 European ethnic groups
• GN 590-642 Asian ethnic groups
• GN 640-641 Arab groups. Islamic groups A91012
• GN 643-661 African ethnic groups,
• GN 662-672 Ethnic groups of Oceania
• GN 673 Ethnic groups of Arctic regions
• GN 674-890 Prehistoric archaeology
• GR Folklore
• GR 1-39 General
• GR 40-43 Philosophy. Relation to other topics
• GR 44 Methodology
• GR 45-71 General
• GR 72-93.4 Folk literature. Folktales
• GR 93.5-99 World ethnic groups and regions
• GR 100-113 Folklore of North America
• GR 114-134 Folklore of Latin America
• GR 135-264 Folklore of Europe
• GR 265-349 Folklore of Asia
• GR 350-359 Folklore of Africa A91002
• GR 360-364 Folklore of Atlantic and Indian Ocean Island

 

(Items related to primatology are also very important, often QL73).