Audience The Department of Economics was created in 1896. In 1935-36, the Department first specified requirements for an Economics major. The Department has a long history of being oriented towards applied economics and the analysis of policy issues and social problems. Beginning in the 1980s, requirements for a major in Economics were significantly changed in response to changes in the study of Economics. A basic foundation in quantitative methods became a requirement. The Department is committed to teaching students quantitative skills in order to apply economic methods to social and policy issues.
As the Department changed through the years, so did the research needs of faculty and students. There is a great shift in publishing patterns towards journals and working papers and in particular the need for data. For both faculty and student research in Economics, the crucial ingredient is data. To major in Economics, undergraduate students are required in their 40 level classes to complete a project where they find data on their own. Access to data through the Library is crucial to the success of these projects.
While there is no graduate Economics program, to support their research both faculty and students require a Library collection matching their Ivy League peers.
The collection also supports the Tuck School of Business, and over the years the primary responsibility for collecting business monographs has shifted from the Library’s Business collection to the Economics collection. In turn, the Economics collection over time increasingly relies on the Business collections for access to financial data.
Boundaries The Library focuses on the following Library of Congress classifications, with exceptions based largely on requests from Economics faculty and students as the budget allows. HB – Economic theory. Demography HC – Economic history and conditions HD – Industries. Land use. Labor HE – Transportation and communications HF – Commerce HG – Finance HJ – Public finance
Partnerships Access to comprehensive book and journal collections from our Borrow Direct and InterLibrary loan partners has allowed the Library to collect books and journals in specific areas of Economics and from specific publishers. The Economics faculty have been a great help in guiding and building the collection. Data licensing does not allow for data transfer between libraries, requiring Dartmouth College Library to provide access to the subscription data sources faculty and students require.
Specific Delimitations to collecting in this subject area
Languages Primarily English, selectively in other languages.
Geographical Areas (if applicable) All.
Types of Materials Collected Statistical data, working papers, academic journals, books, relevant governmental and NGO documents.
Format of Materials Collected Statistical data is collected intensively online, as are working papers and academic journals. Books are collected in print and online.
Collective Collections Faculty and students rely on online collections like HathiTrust and Google Books for access to historical and governmental books and journals that do not have copyright restrictions. Statistical data collections such as ICPSR and DataVerse are growing in importance.
Revision History December 1994, Fran Oscadal March 2000, Miles Yoshimura August 2016, John Cocklin john.cocklin@dartmouth.edu