Fiction
Collection Development Policy

Librarian: William A. Wortman March 1992

Overview

The fiction collection serves several purposes and types of readers. First it supports academic programs. Second, it provides a collection of serious literary fiction of interest to students, faculty, and staff. Third, it provides recreational reading fo r students and others. The English Department teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in contemporary English and American fiction, in creative writing, and in literature in translation (French, Russian, Spanish, German, Japanese). Students in creativ e writing need a wide range of fictional formats and styles that will serve as useful examples; students in literature, now and in the future, need an extensive collection of significant, representative fiction of our time. Courses cover mainstream critic ally acclaimed fiction but also on occasion genre fiction (crime and science fiction) and best sellers. Collecting goals include: to identify and acquire fiction that will be studied in the future, to acquire complete collections of published books by sig nificant or promising writers, and to acquire an extensive collection of little magazines that publish fiction. This policy deals with contemporary English language fiction; older fiction and non-English fiction are dealt with in policies for the literature departments.

Collection

The collection emphasizes American fiction and, to a lesser extent, British fiction. Commonwealth and other English-language fiction is not collected extensively. The Sinclair Collection and other fiction selected by Prof. Sinclair, the microfilm America n Fiction collection, and the long history of collecting popular fiction provide a solid base collection, but the quality of the editions is not always adequate for scholarly purposes. The Reference Department tries to anticipate research needs and is well supplied with bibliographies, indexes, plot and character summaries, and author biographies.

Materials and Acquisitions

Formats, Publishers, Language and Geographical Emphases

1. Consider all trade, academic, and small press editions of English and American novels, short stories, anthologies,and other formats (such as graphic novels), but avoid limited editions and unscholarly editions of older works. Generally we prefer Englis h editions of British fiction, but do take price differences into consideration especially for genre fiction. When it is known that there are significant textual differences between English and American editions, we will buy both. We do collect paperback originals and replacement copies when necessary. Literary reviews and little magazines are important sources of contemporary fiction and we have tried to maintain a strong subscription list.
2. The fiction selector should read the following review journals regularly: the New York Times Books Review, Library Journal, Choice, Publishers Weekly, Times Literary Supplement, British Book News, and selected literary reviews and little magazines from the USA and Great Britain. We buy on the basis of reviews and status of author, including unfavorably reviewed novels of writers widely considered significant; generally we acquire prize-winning work.

Acquisitions

1. The Baker & Taylor Profile includes sections for English and American fiction in which established authors are listed by name and marked Book or Form. The Blackwell/Oxford approval plan does not provide slips for British fiction.
2. The fiction fund is used for purchase of current English language fiction; the English Department fund is tapped for new editions of older fiction; foreign language funds supply foreign fiction in the original and in translation; the fiction share of t he Hum/SocSci reference fund is used to buy some translations and original fiction in the non-taught languages, as well as to supply replacement of lost and worn out copies.
3. Current poetry is purchased from the English fund, current drama from the Theatre fund, and children's fiction from the Children's Literature fund.

Special Concerns

1. Preservation, particularly of older works: increasingly publishers are issuing current American editions on longlife paper.
2. Collections of contemporary foreign language fiction in original and translation, espedially of literatures not taught here, are weak.
3. Best sellers, popular fiction, and genre fiction are difficult to select consistently and in quantity; we have not been buying romances and historical fiction but perhaps should give consideration to these genres. The need in these areas is for both a popular reading collection and for long-term development of the fiction collection for future students and scholars. 4. Use of the fiction collection, especially of that bought for students' general reading interests, needs to be increased: various methods of current awareness and reader advisory ought to be developed.

Resource Sharing

No cooperative plans exist at the moment, but we should consult with Lane Public Library, the University of Cincinnati, Xavier University, and Cincinnati Public Library and try to develop a mutual fiction collection development policy.
March 1998 | William A. Wortman | Email wortmawa@muohio.edu