Guidelines for Geography

Table of Contents

1. Purpose
2. General Collection Guidelines
    A. Language
    B. Chronology
    C. Geography
    D. Publication Date
    E. Treatment of Subject
    F. Types of Materials and Formats
3. Area Resources
4. Subjects and Collecting Levels
5. Methodology

 

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1. Purpose.

To support teaching and research through the undergraduate level. The Geography Program is an interdisciplinary minor program jointly supported by the School of Education and the College of Humanities and Sciences.  The program includes a variety of courses and workshops in both human and physical geography at the undergraduate and graduate levels.  Continuing education courses and workshops are offered to professional audiences in such fields as education, geographic information systems, planning, and international affairs.  Specializations within the minor are available in physical geography, human geography, and geographic methodology including cartography, air photo interpretation, and geographic information systems.

2. General Collection Guidelines.

A. Language.
English is preferred, but primary and secondary sources in Western European languages may be purchased selectively in support of faculty research.

B. Chronology.
No limitations.

C. Geography.
Collecting efforts focus primarily on the geography of the Americas and Canada, the Caribbean, Western Europe, Eastern bloc countries, Africa, and Israel. There is selective collecting of material on the Near and Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Rim.

D. Publication Date.
In general, monographs with a publication date previous to 1900 are not acquired.

E. Treatment of Subject.
Works offering a critical, technical, historical, or biographical treatment of a subject are acquired. Theses are purchased only if they provide a unique source of information unavailable elsewhere. Juvenilia or popularizations are not acquired.

F. Types of Materials and Formats.
Most materials are in the form of books and periodicals. In addition to serials and monographs, these include dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and specialized bibliographies. Films, videos, slide collections, kits, and cassettes providing instructional support are selectively collected. Particular attention has been given to strengthening serial holdings through the addition of new titles and the purchase of corresponding backfiles, when possible. An effort is also made to remediate any deficiencies in retrospective monographic holdings. Unpublished theses and dissertations are collected on a highly selective basis, when they provide an unique source of information on a particular topic.  GIS databases and datasets are acquired as funding permits.

Excluded are textbooks, juvenile or popularized treatments of material, and maps.

3. Area Resources.

Notable among area resources are the Virginia State Library and Archives, the Virginia Historical Society, the Valentine Museum, and the Museum of the Confederacy.

4. Subjects and Collecting Levels.

Subject	Call Number Range	Present	Desired
Regional Geography	D21.5; G141; G575-922	D	C1
Physical Geography	GB	D	C1
Cultural Geography	GF	D	C1
Cartography / GIS	G70; GA	?	C1
Oceanography	GC	?	C2
Environmental Sciences	GE	?	B

5. Methodology.

Collection centered: List-checking, using samplings from:

Books for College Libraries. 3rd ed. Vol. 3. (Chicago: ALA, 1988).