National Library of Australia


University of Melbourne collection assessment
Philosophy & Religion

Pat Knight, Divisional Collection Management Librarian - Arts & Humanities, with the assistance of Margaret Black, Assistant Divisional Collection Management Librarian - Arts & Humanities

April 1997

  1. Aims
  2. Methodologies
  3. Religion: Study and Research within the University Of Melbourne
  4. Philosophy: The Nature of the Discipline
  5. Department of Philosophy
  6. Department of History & Philosophy of Science
  7. Research in Other Departments
  8. The Library's Collections
  9. List Checking
  10. Shelf Scanning
  11. Evaluation by Experts
  12. Assessment of the Philosophy Collection
  13. Areas of Collection Strength
  14. Areas Needing to be Enriched
  15. Acknowledgements


1. AIMS

1. To evaluate the Philosophy collections throughout the University of Melbourne Library

1.2 To evaluate those areas of the Religion collections in the University Library which are of direct relevance to the University’s teaching and research programs.

1.3 To identify areas of the collection which need improvement in currency and scope

1.4 To lay the foundation for a collection management policy for the Philosophy and Religion areas.

2. METHODOLOGIES

The collections were assessed using criteria set out in the Australian Conspectus Manual:

Note: Low use materials are housed in the Kidd’s Warehouse. Items held in Kidd’s have not been included in this Conspectus evaluation.

3. RELIGION: STUDY AND RESEARCH WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Religion, as a separate discipline, is not included in the University’s teaching and research programs. Some aspects of religion however are covered within other subject disciplines, not all of which will be represented by materials classified in the 200s. Specific subjects include the following:

The major resource for religious studies is in the theological colleges associated with the University - see section 8.3 of this report

4. PHILOSOPHY: THE NATURE OF THE DISCIPLINE

Philosophy is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, scholarly disciplines in the world. The development of philosophical thought worldwide has traditionally followed two quite distinct and separate paths; those of eastern and of western philosophies. Within western philosophy there is further divergence into analytic and continental approaches. The analytic approach is most common in universities in the English-speaking countries and in Scandinavia, while the continental approach has been favoured by European universities and those in South America and some parts of the United States. In recent years there has been some blurring of these distinctions, with philosophers using an analytic approach to study eastern philosophies, and others exploring eastern ideas through approaches used by western philosophers.

Philosophy departments in Australian universities have a very strong foundation in the anglo-american analytic approach to the study of philosophy, but most are now looking more widely than the traditional areas of philosophical inquiry (“metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of science and logic” [1]) and including Asian philosophies, feminist approaches as well as a range of philosophies of other subject disciplines (e.g. philosophy of language, philosophy of aesthetics, professional and applied ethics).

The types of sources used by the philosopher are no different than those used by any other scholar in the humanities - mainly monographs and academic journals. Both are of equal importance. Specific ‘tools’ most commonly required by the philosopher include scholarly treatises (in the original language and in translation), critical works, journal articles, conference papers, proceedings and transactions of philosophical societies, as well as abstracting and indexing sources.

It should be noted that within philosophy departments in Australian universities, it is a widely accepted convention of the discipline that works of the modern philosophers do not always need to be read in their original language; that English translations can suffice. Although there are projects which do require reading knowledge of modern European languages for their successful completion, it is often possible to write a doctoral thesis on a French or German philosopher - Descartes or Husserl, for example - without reading primary or secondary sources in the original French or German. The guideline given in the Australian Conspectus Manual, that for a collection to be assessed at level four, Research, ”the collection will provide materials in all appropriate formats and languages...” [2] needs to be applied in the context of this local convention.

5. DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

The following entry from the Department of Philosophy’s Home Page on the Internet provides an historical overview of the development of Philosophy in the University of Melbourne.

“The University of Melbourne was founded in 1853. For some years, Philosophy was studied only as part of Classics. Independence came in 1881, when Henry Laurie, a former student of the University of Edinburgh who had, as the editor of a provincial newspaper, campaigned for extended teaching of Philosophy, was rewarded with a Lectureship in Logic. In 1886 he was appointed to the newly created Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy.
 
“Laurie was succeeded in the Chair in 1911 by W.R.Boyce Gibson, an Oxford graduate who had studied at Jena and there been much influenced by the ideas of Rudolf Eucken. To the promulgation of these in Australia he devoted much effort, though his more enduring contribution arose from his later interest in Husserl, and particularly from his translation of the Ideas, which for many years remained the standard.
 
“In 1935 W.R.Boyce Gibson died. His son, Alexander (`Sandy') Boyce Gibson, then a Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, succeeded him in the Chair, which he held until his retirement in 1965. Under the younger Boyce Gibson, the Department expanded considerably. Gibson pursued a policy of even-handedness in appointment which gave his Department a diversity of philosophical and religious outlook which has remained a trademark. At the same time, a broadly Wittgensteinian perspective gradually emerged as the dominant one of the period, thanks to the powerful advocacy of three of Wittgenstein's former pupil - George Paul, Douglas Gasking, and A.C.Jackson.
“In 1966, the Department found itself Boyce Gibson-less for the first time since 1911. This situation was rectified by renaming the Chair the Boyce Gibson Chair of Philosophy, and appointing Douglas Gasking to it. Under Gasking's benevolent rule the Department flourished until his retirement in 1976... In 1977, Gasking was succeeded in the Chair by the logician Leonard Goddard from St Andrews, who brought into the Department a more formal perspective than that which had traditionally been adopted. After his retirement in 1989, Goddard in turn was followed by Tony Coady, the present Boyce Gibson Professor.” [3]

Professor Brian Scarlett, the Head of Department, gives an update of where the Department of Philosophy sits today.

“Historically the Department has been strongest in the anglo-american analytic approach to the discipline, with particular emphasis on philosophy of language, logic, and epistemology and philosophy of mind. We have attempted to increase our strength in this area but also to diversify. Even at the height of the analytic tendency, political philosophy, ethics and history of philosophy were well represented and teaching in contemporary European philosophy was introduced. In recent years, in spite of declining resources, new courses in Asian philosophy, metaphysics, feminism, medieval philosophy, environmental philosophy, cognitive science, medical ethics and philosophy of music have been added.” [4]

5.1 Research in the Department

The Department undertakes research across a number of areas including,

6. DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

The entry from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science’s Home Page on the Internet provides an overview of the Department and its aims.

“The University of Melbourne began teaching History and Philosophy of Science in 1946, one of the first universities anywhere in the world to do so. The aim then was to bridge the gap between the "two cultures" of science and the humanities: students in the technical Faculties were to gain some appreciation of the humanities by studying the historical and philosophical foundations of their own subjects, while Arts students would come to know something about science by applying the techniques of historical and philosophical analysis to carefully selected scientific case studies. Since then a quite different rationale for the subject has come to the fore. With science and science-based technology occupying an increasingly central place in modern life, it now seems important that all students alike should have an opportunity to think in a systematic way about the processes whereby scientific knowledge is generated, validated and used, and about the relationship between science and the wider society in which it is practiced - in short, to think about science as a product of human activity, and its relationship to other human activities.” [5]

6.1 Research in the Department

Members of the Department are engaged in a number of areas of teaching and research. Those relating specifically to the philosophy of science include:

7. RESEARCH IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS

A number of departments, other than the Departments of Philosophy and History & Philosophy of Science, also have research interests which fall within this Conspectus Division. Areas of research include the following:

8. THE LIBRARY’S COLLECTIONS

The Library’s collections are housed in a total of 20 libraries, some of which are small branch libraries and others which are quite sizeable. The collections relating to the subjects covered by the Philosophy and Religion Conspectus Division are housed in three main collections in the University Library; the main collection of the Baillieu Library, the Research Collections (the B and AB collections) in the Education Resource Centre (the ERC), and the ERC’s main collection.

The Library also has an extensive microform collection of some 1,347,000 items which is housed in the Baillieu Library. The collection covers both serials and monographs, many of which are of importance for scholars doing historical research. Material is arranged by accession number so cannot be browsed by subject

In addition the Library has a number of special collections, collectively housed in the Special Collections Section of the Baillieu Library. These collections include an extensive range of material, much of which is rare and/or of historical value.

The Baillieu Library has a separate East Asian Collection of Chinese and Japanese language material which is classified according to the Harvard-Yenching Classification. A separate Conspectus evaluation of this material has been completed.

8.1 Microforms

Material in microform is not included in the number of volumes recorded in the Conspectus database. The following examples will serve as an indication of the type of material in microform:

8.2 Special Collections

The information recorded on the Conspectus database does not include a count of material in these Special Collections.

8.2.1 BX Collection
This collection houses almost 600 volumes on Philosophy (including approximately 200 volumes on temperance and abstinence published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) and about 1,200 volumes on Religion published from the 1600s to the early part of the 20th century

8.2.2 McLaren Collection
The McLaren collection contains approximately 800 volumes on Christian theology published in the 19th and 20th centuries (up until the 1970s).They are either Australasian works or works about theology in Australasia. Included are the Minutes of the First Conference of the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Church, 1855. In addition there are 55 boxes of pamphlets on theology.

Also included are approximately 1,400 19th and 20th century pamphlets, some of which are unique. The pamphlets include official documents from church bodies in Australasia (e.g. Wesleyan Mission).

About 40 bibles translated into Pacific Island languages are also housed in this collection.

McLaren also has a number of volumes on temperance, including The Rechabite and Temperance Magazine, 1906-07 to 1979 - 82, which replaced Temperance News.

8.2.3 The Rare Books Collection
The Rare Books Collection consists mainly of material which is of value as a physical object rather than for its content. The collection includes various Polyglot editions of the Bible (e.g. the Walton’s Biblia Sacra Polyglotta published in 1657 and a facsimile reprint of Plantin’s Biblia Sacra), other versions of the Bible (e.g. facsimile editions of Tyndale’s New Testament), and about 65 volumes of works by and about Cicero published between 1534 and 1904.

8.2.4 The Morgan Collection
This collection contains over 200 books for children on the Christian religion (including prayer books, tracts, texts on religion and morality, and books awarded to children as Sunday school prizes) as well as approximately 60 volumes on Philosophy.

8.2.5 Ormond College Rare Books Collection
The University Library also acts as caretaker to the University’s Ormond College Rare Books Collection. This comprises about 220 books, mostly on religion and theology.

8.3 Collections Outside the University Library’s System

8.3.1 The Gibson Memorial Library
This library is the departmental library of the Department of Philosophy and is independent of the University Library system. It contains over 7,500 monograph volumes on philosophy and about 45 journal titles. These are all duplicates of titles held in the University Library which is in keeping with the Faulty of Arts’ policy on departmental libraries. Due to decreases in funding for this library in recent years the collection is growing only slowly. The library’s catalogue is available through the World Wide Web - http://www.arts.unimelb.edu.au/dept/Philosophy/Phillis.

8.3.2 Joint Theological Library, Ormond College, The University of Melbourne
The collection consists of approximately 130,000 volumes specialising in the areas of theology, biblical studies, ministry and liturgy.

8.3.3 Queen’s College Library, The University of Melbourne
This Library specialises in Wesleyania and Methodistica. It includes an 18th century collection of books published by John and Charles Wesley in their lifetimes and an extensive collection of 19th and 20th century, British and Australian, Wesleyan and Methodist books. Formats include books, microform, manuscripts and memorabilia.

8.3.4 Ridley College’s Theological Library, The University of Melbourne
This collection contains approximately 35,000 volumes. Its main areas of specialisation are bibles, theology, ethics, church history and practical ministry. It subscribes to approximately 130 journals.

9. LIST CHECKING

The following bibliographies were used to check how representative the Library’s collections are:

9.1 Results of the List Checking

9.1.1 Monographs
Results from list checking reveal some consistency between the two older bibliographic sources used, Tice and Slaven’s Research Guide to Philosophy, and List and Plum’s, Library Research Guide to Philosophy. A significantly lower percentage of titles were held from the most current source, Bynagle. This may, in part, be due to the different emphasis of Bynagle which concentrates more on bibliographies and reference works in philosophy. Bynagle also includes a larger percentage of non-English language titles (27.9% of the number sampled), while 16% of titles sampled from List and Plum were non-English titles and just over 2% of Tice and Slavens. Further investigation may need to be carried out to see whether the acquisition rate of new material has dropped in recent years.

Table 1 Monographs

Bibliography

Number Checked

Number Held

Percentage

Bynagle

183*

95

51.5%

List & Plum

125

100

80%

Tice & Slavens

297

248

83.5%

Overall

605

443

73.2%

* As well as monographs this number includes a few serial titles.

9.1.2 Serials
Results of checking the bibliographic sources for serial titles varied according to the source used, with the highest percentage of titles being held from Bynagle’s Philosophy: A Guide to the Reference Literature, and the lowest from Philosopher’s Index. This might well be a reflection of the purpose and extent of the lists. Bynagle lists a total of 32 “core” journals, while Philosopher’s Index includes over 430 serials on all aspects of Philosophy and some related disciplines.

Table 2 Serials

Bibliography

Number Checked

Number Held

Percentage

Bynagle

32

25

78.1%

De George

134

73

54.5%

Philosopher’s Ind.

107

38

35.5%

Overall

273

136

49.8%

10. SHELF SCANNING

In addition to list checking, shelves were also scanned to count the number of volumes at each subject line, the date ranges, the languages, and any titles worth noting.

11. EVALUATION BY EXPERTS

A number of academic staff from the Departments of Philosophy and History & Philosophy of Science were consulted and asked to assign levels to subject lines on the Conspectus worksheets. In addition, some of the academic staff from other departments with an interest in religion were also consulted. Specific information is supplied in sections 12 and 13.

12. ASSESSMENT OF THE PHILOSOPHY COLLECTION

12.1 Monographs

The total collection of monographs in Philosophy amounts to well over 20,500 volumes. A wide range of publication dates is represented (from the 16th century onwards) and the collection includes a wealth of materials in languages other than English. The acquisition rate of titles from the larger, mainstream publishers is good, but there is some concern that there are gaps in publications from some of the smaller publishers. There are also some subject areas which need to be built up - see section 14 of this report. Acquisitions plans need to concentrate more on these areas. Overall the philosophy monograph collection is rated a level 3b.

12.2 Serials

The Library currently subscribes to approximately 140 serials in Philosophy. Results of list checking indicate that the Library holds the core journals as well as those that are in fields in which there is a research interest. There is some concern among academics, however, that some individual titles of monographs in series are being missed by the approval plans currently in place. A review of approval plan profiles and of the Library’s subscriptions to monographs in series would seem to be appropriate. Overall the rating is level 3b.

12.3 Reference Works

The Library has a wide range of reference resources, both on philosophy in general and on specific philosophers, schools and periods. Results of checking Bynagle’s Philosophy: A Guide to the Reference Literature (see section 8.1) indicate that there are a number of potentially useful titles that the Library does not hold. Overall the reference material is rated at level 3b.

12.4 Indexing & Abstracting Resources

The University Library holds, or provides access to, a wide range of indexing and abstracting sources relevant to philosophy in both print and electronic form. Sources covering religion specifically are less numerous. The collection in philosophy is judged to be at a level 4, and in religion, at a 3a level.

Titles include:

13. AREAS OF COLLECTION STRENGTH

13.1 Ethics (Moral Philosophy)

The Library has a research level collection in the area of ethics in general. However, of the more specific applications of ethics political ethics, business ethics and professional/occupational ethics need to be developed to an intermediate level.

13.2 Existentialism

Although the overall assessment for critical philosophy (Dewey 142) is at Conspectus level 3a (Intermediate: Introductory), within that number existentialism is of a research level.

13.3 Modern western philosophy

The collection’s strengths in modern western philosophy are mainly in the work of German and French philosophers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Foucault and Derrida. Works of these authors are in their original language and in English translations. Secondary sources are primarily in English with some older titles also in European languages.

14. AREAS NEEDING TO BE ENRICHED

14.1 Causation, Laws and Explanation

This is a specialised but developing area in which a great deal of research interest has been shown over the past two decades. The Library needs to not only insure current works are acquired, but that gaps in earlier publications are filled. English is the predominant language of publication. Most works, even those published in France, Germany and Italy, being in English.

14.2 Islamic Studies

Although the Library has a reasonably good collection of classical Islamic sources in Arabic (Qur’anic studies, Hadith texts and Islamic history in general), and of general works on Islam by western scholars, there are areas which need to be developed. These have been identified are as follows:

14.3 Logic

Contemporary research in logic depends, more than any other area of philosophy, on journal articles. The Library’s journal collection includes the core titles as well as a many of the more general philosophical titles with some logic content. In recent years the Library has subscribed to a number of new logic journals. During the evaluation a few gaps were identified in the more general philosophy journals, but no titles central to logic were noted as absent from the collection.

The monograph collection in logic was assessed as being “reasonable” in its coverage of materials up to the 1960s, but dropped off during the 1970s. There have been great improvements since then, particularly in the coverage of material from the major publishers (including the main monograph-in-series publications), but some important titles from the less mainstream publishers are being missed. This needs to be addressed and some mechanism put in place to insure that titles are identified at the publication stage. Some retrospective purchasing is also needed.

Some criticism was levelled at the readership level of some of the newer titles acquired, specifically, that many were “undistinguished, base-level textbooks”.

14.4 The Medieval Church in Europe

Although the collection has its strengths (e.g. holdings on Luther, medieval works on heresy), there are many areas which need to be built up. The collection reflects former teaching and research programs and has not always changed to reflect current research needs (e.g. Calvin, French Protestantism, the Roman Catholic Church in Europe which is a significant part of European church history, religious congregations and orders, primary resources on the Templars, and the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus). Until the late 1980s teaching and research was focussed almost entirely on Britain, or the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period. There has now been a shift in interest to Europe in the period, 1100-1300 AD.

There is a great deal of interest among research students in religious women in medieval Europe and both primary and secondary resources in this area also need to be built up

It was noted that the collection lacks some basic tools such as the histories of the Councils of Roman Catholic Church, the registers of the medieval popes and church penitential books which explain the penances for the various sins.

14.5 Daoist Studies

The collection on Daoism is reasonable, but needs to be further developed if it is to support the research needs of the University. This includes materials in both western languages and Chinese. Development in particular needs to concentrate on materials in English and French on the background of the wider range of Chinese traditional thought.

14.6 Bioethics

Although bioethics is not an area of research interest within the University, there is a need for at least a basic collection of books and, in particular, journals at an undergraduate level.

15. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank all of the academic staff who generously gave their time in assisting with this assessment. The greatest number of staff were from the Department of Philosophy, but also represented were the Departments of History & Philosophy of Science, Classics & Archaeology, History, Language Studies, and Japanese & Chinese.

REFERENCES

1 Teichman, Jenny & Katherine C. Evans. Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide. 2nd. ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.

2 Henty, Margaret. Australian Conspectus Manual: A Collection Assessment Guide. Rev. ed. Canberra: Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services, 1992.

3 http://www.arts.unimelb.edu.au/dept/Philosophy/history.htm

4 Email correspondence, 20 January 1997

5 http://www.arts.unimelb.edu.au/dept/HPS

Last modified: August 18 2004.