Classics
Collection Development Policy Guidelines
- General Scope
- Audience
The collection supports the undergraduate instruction needs and the research requirements of the faculty in Classics. Undergraduate majors in classics are centered around Greek and Latin literature and classical archaeology, with varying emphasis on any one aspect. There are foreign study programs each year in Greece and Rome. Members of the faculty regularly engage in professional research. The departments of philosophy, religion, history, and art also have a strong interest in classics. - Boundaries
The primary holdings for Greek and Latin language and literature are in Baker Berry Library in the Library of Congress PA classification, with older works in the Dewey Decimal System’s 870-899, which cover ancient history and culture as well. Greek and Roman history is found in Library of Congress DE, DF, and DG, with ancillary and more general materials in C and D. Archaeological materials are in the history classifications and Dewey 913, but when the emphasis in a publication is thought to be artistic rather than historical, the materials may be classed in the Ns and Dewey 700s at the Sherman Art Library. In addition, as archaeology embraces the methods of the physical and biological sciences, some materials may be found in Dana, and Feldberg libraries. For related areas see the Collection Development Policy for History. - Partnerships
Participation in Borrow Direct allows the Library to rely on member libraries for deeper layers of the secondary literature that would be impractical to collect. - Specific Delimitations to collecting in this subject area
- Languages
All major editions of ancient authors are collected in the original Greek and Latin and in English translation. Translations into European languages are acquires as well if they are of major importance or otherwise fill a gap. English is the major language for secondary sources, but scholarly works are regularly acquired in French, German, Italian, and to some extent for archaeology, Modern Greek. For students in the foreign study program there are courses in Modern Greek for which ancillary material may be bought. - Geographical Areas (if applicable)
There are no restrictions by geographical areas. - Types of Materials Collected
Monographs (single and in series), periodicals, atlases, encyclopedias, grammars, lexicons, thesauruses, dictionaries, and corpora of various types are collected. Festschriften, dissertations, textbooks, and conference materials are acquired on a highly selective basis. - Format of Materials Collected
The general approach to collection for classics is in tradition bound books and serials. The Library acquires many classics monographs in electronic format through standing orders to Project Muse and Oxford Scholarship Online. Print copies of authored ebooks are often purchased, while edited ebooks are considered sufficient in electronic-only format. Reference materials and bibliographic tools are collected in electronic format whenever possible. Some key tools, such as L’Anneé Philologique, are also collected in print. Generally, journals are collected in digital format when available. Microfilm is no longer collected. As stated in the Fine Arts Collection Development Policy, slides are collected by the Art Department. - Collective Collections
Discovery of the extended classics collection available through HathiTrust (pre-1923 monographs and serials) is accomplished by searching Summon. The Borrow Direct catalog is increasingly powerful as a research tool, providing access to collections at partner libraries with doctoral-level research programs in classics. Print copies of journals in JSTOR are available for loan through the Center for Research Libraries. They also have strong holdings in foreign dissertations in classical studies. - Revision History
- Revised September 2016, William Fontaine
- Updated October 1994 by Reinhart Sonnenburg
- Created by William Moran
- Classics bibliographer: Daniel H. Abosso