Collection Development Policy
English and American Literature

Librarian: William A. Wortman
March 1992

Department: History, Programs and Emphases

History of Department

The English Department is the largest academic department at Miami in number of faculty (over 60 FTE) and resident graduate students (over 100). It has offered masters level graduate work since the 1930s and doctoral work since 1969; it ranks among the t op departments in number of undergraduate majors and offers two majors and a number of concentrations within these. Tenure and promotion requirements include book publication; expectations for the faculty's scholarly achievement are high.

Degree Programs

Special Emphases and Programs

The Department's undergraduate major allows students to select from five emphases: literature, teaching certification, creative writing, journalism, and professional writing; masters students can chose literature, creative writing, the MAT, or the technic al writing programs; and doctoral students can emphasize literature or composition and rhetoric. In addition the Department has a major in linguistics and a minor in film studies.
  • English and American literature. The program is comprehensive, with courses, faculty research, and theses and dissertations in all periods and genres. Current critical and pedagogical approaches in the field and the Department emphasize multidisciplin a rity and the latest critical theories, applied to both traditional literary and to so-called non-canonical writings. Expectations for faculty research are very high and the Department has an admirable publication record, including a number of books from m ajor university presses.
  • Composition and Rhetoric. The department offers advanced graduate programs in composition and rhetoric, including a Ph.D. specialization. Undergraduate courses are offered in first year and advanced composition, business writing, journalism, creative w riting, and technical writing; most graduate students are required to take courses in the teaching of composition and rhetoric. Miami has a national reputation in its composition and rhetoric programs.
  • Creative Writing (poetry, fiction, drama). The department offers several undergraduate and masters level courses and the Theatre Department also offers a course in play writing. The English courses have high enrollments and creative writing masters stu dents make up a large percentage of the graduate enrollment. See separate policies for Fiction and for Theatre.
  • Journalism and Business Writing. The department supports an active undergraduate program that emphasizes applied journalism; there is very little need for library materials beyond journalism history and ethics. Many Communication majors take these jour nalism courses. Business writing is a multiple section service course for the School of Business.
  • Linguistics. The department offers a linguistics major, but faculty research is more in composition and rhetoric (practice, theory, history) than in traditional linguistics.
  • Film Studies. The emphasis in this program is on traditional film criticism and theory and on literary connections.
  • Technical Writing. Undergraduate courses are offered and the Master of Technical and Scientific Communication program is unique in Ohio and has a national reputation.
  • Teaching. Undergraduate majors and MAT students can emphasize secondary English education.
  • Ohio Writing Project. This program provides workshops and other programs for Ohio school teachers and serves to improve the teaching of writing in Ohio schools.

    Overview of the Collection

    The collection has a number of strengths, especially in American literature, but there are weaknesses at the doctoral level because acquisitions for a Ph.d. program did not start until 1969 and because cognate collections are weak, except in history, which is the only cognate subject that offers the Ph.D. Special Collections does have strong holdings in Restoration and 18th c. English literature, 19th c. American literature, and children's literature, but needs collections of literary mss. Microform hold ings are strong in early English and American books (the two STC series, English and American drama, and the Evans, Sabin, Wright's American Fiction series) and in literary periodicals (American Periodical Series, English Literary Periodicals, and purchas e of individual titles included in the Wellesley Index). The list of current scholarly journals and little magazines is strong in number and in quality. Since about 1970 the approval plans, standing orders for important series, and a healthy direct order budget have enabled us to purchase most university press books from the USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom; acquisitions of poetry and appropriate fiction is more problematic, however. The King Reference collection is strong in English and American literature, English language dictionaries, and general trade and national bibliography. Currently, most author bibliographies (works by and about) are put in Circ but with secondary bibliogr aphies marked "For Use in Library Only" if they are likely to be consulted frequently. Most subject, period, and genre bibliographies also go into Circ not King Reference. Related collections in theater, communication, bibliography, and literary theory are solid.

    Materials: Formats, Acquisitions Procedures, Special Concerns

    We try to collect literature in multiple versions, in a variety of types of editions, representing writing from the traditional canon as well as from women, African-American and ethnic minorities, regionalists, popular genres, and ideological camps, with special attention in the case of contemporary writing to little magazines and independent publishers, and in the case of past writing to periodicals and the editions over which authors had some editorial control, as well as to whatever evidence (biograph ical, financial, social, etc.) remains of the collaborations that helped produce literary texts as published and read.
    Formats
    Books: monographs, reference books, collections of original essays. Primary texts and secondary texts. There is a continuing need for new primary texts, that is new editions of older texts (scholarly, facsimile, student, and practical) as well as current English language poetry, fiction, drama, and essays. Secondary mater ials in book form include critical studies of writers and works, critical theory, and scholarly tools (concordances, bibliographies, subject dictionaries, etc.) Contemporary English and American Poetry. Purchased with English funds, the intention being to develop a collection representative of current writing and likely to be useful to future generations of literary scholars. The Baker & Taylor approval plan prov ides a generally adequate supply of books or slips for American poetry, but the selector must keep current with reviews in PW, Choice, LJ, and little magazines. Buy from important small presses, university presses, and trade publishers, generally on basis of reviews. Standing order for all British Poetry Society titles, 1990-. Try to buy most editions of collected poems, many selected poems, as well as favorably reviewed individual volumes, but generally do not buy chapbooks or limited editions. The colle ction supports courses in creative writing and so must reflect faculty and student interests. See separate CDPs for fiction and Theatre. Periodicals. In this field periodicals have acquired an increasingly important role both in scholarship and creative writing. Much new writing appears first in little magazines and literary reviews; criticism (explicative and interpretative, theoretical, synthesizing) also is journal-centered. In little magazines and literary reviews we aim for those that regularly carry prize-winning work and that have some Ohio connection, but there is also a good representation of American regions, British writing, and English-language international writing. Microforms. The budget now precludes purchase of most new sets, but we continue to acquire individual titles of literary and theatrical periodicals according to plan and as funds permit. Non-Book formats. Very selective purchase of films, filmed plays, videocassettes, cassettes and records; purchases in this area should be of independent merit, while those that support classroom work should be purchased by AudioVisual Services. Textbooks. Buy very little in how-to-study, how-to-teach, how-to-write literature, but do need to acquire and retain some record of English and literature teaching emphases and methods. Dissertations. We do not normally buy unpublished dissertations. Exceptions would be for specific requests, especially if they are editions or bibliographies. We are very selective in purchase of published dissertations from such publishers as Garland and Lang. Computer programs and databases. We have acquired some text databases, such as WordCruncher (with Shakespeare and some Library of America fiction), and should be alert for future developments, possibly working through OhioLink. The CD-ROM indexes MLA In ternational Bibliography and Humanities Index have proved valuable. Reprints. No longer buying reprint sets, but do buy single titles. Out of print. We do not actively search dealer catalogs, but do occasionally request OP items through Acquisitions.

    Languages, Publishers, Geographical Emphases

    English language predominates; buy foreign language monographs only when they are specifically requested but do buy relevant foreign language reference books and scholarly tools (such as concordances). Publishers. Emphasize academic and scholarly publishers in USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Selective in purchase from European publishers; very selective for publishers from other parts of the world. Active purchasing of small press fiction and poetr y. Do not buy from vanity publishers and are very selective with subsidy and similar less selective publishers. Geographical emphasis is USA and United Kingdom; an occasional course is taught or article or book written about individual writers from Canada, Australia, South Africa so we buy for these needs but are not developing the collection of English language li terature from other countries.

    Special Concerns

    Preservation of 19th and 20th collections is a serious problem not yet addressed here. Replacements and collection renewal. Major effort required: we spend over $1,000 per year currently on replacements. Added copies. Major effort is required to identify titles needing added copies to support large enrollment undergraduate courses and graduate students' needs. Primary materials. Maintain a suitable level of buying for new editions of standard works and current writing--about 20% of total English and Fiction acquisitions currently. Reference. Buy most primary and secondary bibliographies, concordances, dictionaries, and handbooks for authors, genres, and periods. Collections of critical essays. Selective purchase of reprinted essays, depending on likely undergraduate use and the state of current holdings. Currently (1990) buying the G. K Hall and Norton Critical Edition series but not the Chelsea series. Festschriften. Selective; emphasize those containing important essays. Pamphlets. Very selective. Many books of poetry are, technically, pamphlets at under 50 pages; in the case of poetry, we buy "pamphlets" but not chapbooks. Limited editions of literary works: very selective and we defer to Special Collections. Facsimile editions of manuscripts, first editions, historic editions. Selective. Buy if of scholarly value but not if only of commemorative interest. Study guides such as Cliff's Notes. Do not buy; rely on alternatives, such as the many Magill series. Anthologies. Regularly buy anthologies of unpublished literature, significant field-defining anthologies, collections of critical essays, and Norton anthologies. Do not buy classroom anthologies of literature and essays.

    Guidelines for Selection

    The Department produces a masters reading list and a list of upcoming graduate seminars and visiting writers.

    Acquisitions Issues

    Approval Plan profile with Baker & Taylor revised fall 1988. Slips-only plan with Blackwell/Oxford.
    The periodical and standing order lists are unchanged since 1992 when a major cancellation project was carried out.
    Considerable time is required to select current poetry, drama, and fiction.

    Resource Sharing

    Neighboring Collections.
    UC is strong in contemporary poetry; Cincinnati Public library in 19th century periodicals and current fiction; Xavier U and U Dayton collect Catholic authors; Ohio State and Indiana U have excellent, comprehensive English collections supported by strong collections in cognate areas.
    Resource Sharing agreements.
    None other than our CRL membership, but we hope to develop sound coordinated collection development, preservation, and weeding & storage programs through OhioLINK.
    March 1998 | William A. Wortman | Email wortmawa@muohio.edu