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Pat Knight, Divisional Collection Management Librarian - Arts & Humanities, with the assistance of Margaret Black, Assistant Divisional Collection Management Librarian - Arts & Humanities
September 1997
1.1 To evaluate the Political Science collections throughout the University of Melbourne Library.
1.2 To identify areas of the collections which need improvement in currency and scope.
1.3 To lay the foundation for a collection management policy for Political Science.
The collections were assessed using criteria set out in the Australian Conspectus Manual.[1]
Note: Low use materials are housed in the Kidds Warehouse. Items held in Kidds have not been included in this Conspectus evaluation.
Although the study of political science has been a subject of inquiry since Platos time, it was only from the mid 19th century that political science began to emerge as a distinct discipline. Even so, it is acknowledged that
This contributes to the problem of the Political Science Conspectus Division being limited to Dewey 320s and 350s. Political scientists interests are often cross-disciplinary and include material from fields such as economics, law, sociology, history and area studies which fall outside these ranges of Dewey. A proper evaluation of the librarys political science material has to take into account some of the material classified at other Dewey numbers within the social sciences.
The main types of sources used by the political scientist are probably no different from those used by any other researcher in the social sciences; monographs and journals. As well as scholarly treatises (in the original language and in translation), critical works, journal articles, and conference papers, the political scientist also utilises current affairs sources (in both print and electronic form) and government publications (international, national and local).
Established nearly fifty years ago, the Department of Political Science offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate courses from first year to fourth year honours and a range of postgraduate courses ranging for Graduate Diplomas to Master of Arts by Thesis or Coursework to Doctorate degrees.
The Department of Political Science is one of the larger departments of the Faculty of Arts with twenty-four full-time teaching staff, a full tutorial program, over 1000 students studying undergraduate subjects and over 200 studying post-graduate courses. The Department's courses focus not merely on current Australian issues but also on areas such as Europe, the United States, the post-communist societies, the Middle East and China. There are also subjects dealing with broad issues of social and economic change, as well as subjects which concentrate on providing a variety of research skills used in political analysis: including an Internship Program to gain practical experience of working as a researcher in the Victorian Parliament. [3]
The Departments teaching and research focuses on six main subdisciplines: comparative politics, international relations, Australian politics, political theory, psychosocial politics and public policy.
The Department also co-ordinates the Arts Faculty Sociology Program and is host to The Centre for Public Policy. [4]
The Department undertakes research across a number of areas of political science. These include:
In addition to the work focussed within the Department of Political Science, research and teaching is also being conducted on Indonesian politics within the Department of Language Studies. The newly appointed Professor of Indonesian Studies has strong research and teaching interests in Indonesian Politics and these programs will be developed over the next few years.
There has also been a strong interest in the politics of China and Japan from the Department of Japanese and Chinese.
The Faculty of Arts is host to the Contemporary Europe Research Centre. This Centre is made up of two research units; the Research Unit on Russian and Euro-Asian Studies and the Research Unit for European Union Studies
The Librarys collections are housed in a total of 25 libraries, some of which are small branch libraries and others which are quite sizeable. There is also an Archives Collection housed separately. The collections relating to the subjects covered by the Political Science 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 ERCs main collection.
The Library also has a large collection of government publications, particularly Commonwealth and State Government and British Government material. These publications are dispersed throughout the branch libraries, the Baillieu Library and the research collections, as well as in the Government Documents Collection in the Baillieu, the AX and BX Special Collections, and the Law Library.
The Library has a 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 in accession number order so cannot be browsed by subject. Material in this collection has not been included in the total volumes recorded in the Conspectus database.
The Library also 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.
There are a number of items of value to political scientists in microform. Examples include: Congressional Hearings, 25th Congress- (1839-); the Australian National Universitys Department of Political Sciences Commonwealth Government of Australia (and its former title, Government & Politics of Australia); AFPTI (American Foreign Policy and Treaty Index); Djakarta Press Summary; Archives of the British Conservative Party; Archives of the British Labour Party; Archives of the British Liberal Party; The Library is also a depository library for documentation, in microform, from the Commission of the European Communities.
The Baillieu Library has a separate Government Documents Collection mainly consisting of Australian and British parliamentary publications and state and Commonwealth government gazettes. The collection takes up approximately 690 metres of shelving.
The information recorded on the Conspectus database does not include a count of material in these Special Collections.
6.3.1 AX Collection
This historical collection of
Australian material contains approximately 2,000 volumes of material falling
within Dewey 320s and 350s.
6.3.2 BX Collection
This historical collection of
non-Australian works contains about 625 volumes falling within Dewey 320s and
350s.
6.3.3 McLaren Collection
The historical collection includes
approximately 1,035 books and 330 pamphlet boxes on Australian politics. Titles
include The Official Report of the National Australian Convention Debates:
Sydney, 2nd March to 9th April 1891, published in Sydney by George Stephen
Chapman in 1891, and Thirty Years of Colonial Government: From the Official
Papers of the Rt. Hon. Sir G.F. Bowen, edited by S. Lane-Poole and
published in London by Longman in 1889. In addition there are approximately 11
pamphlet boxes of material on communism from 1914 to the 1970s.
6.3.4 Rare Books Collection
The Rare Books Collection
includes a collection of about 100 anti-Vietnam War broadsides.
6.3.5 Communist Party of Australia Collection
This
substantial collection of pamphlets, serials, monographs and newspapers came
mainly from the Victorian Branch of the Communist Party of Australia when it
was disbanded in 1990. It contains not only material about the CPA, but also on
communist theory and communist regimes around the world. The collection takes
up about 160 metres of shelf space.
6.3.6 Goodwin Collection of Political Ephemera
This
collection contains archival material relating to the Communist Party of
Australia and to left-wing political groups in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. It was
collected by Joan Goodwin who was actively involved in a wide range of
political groups over five decades, from the 1940s to 1990s. It is housed in
seven archive boxes, two pamphlet boxes and one newspaper case.
6.3.7 The Murray-Smith Collection
This collection consists
of material dealing with Australian politics, and the peace movement in
particular, for the late 1940s and the 1950s. During that period Dr Stephen
Murray-Smith was the National Organising Secretary for the Australian Peace
Council. Material includes books, pamphlets, periodicals, correspondence and
presscuttings. Although Murray-Smith was the founding editor of
Overland, the collection does not contain any material relating to
Overland. The collection takes up six metres of shelving.
6.3.8 Bellinghausen-Natouralis Papers
This collection of
papers of Vladimir and Rostislav Bellinghausen-Natouralis, great-grandsons of
Captain F.F. Bellinhausen, the Antarctic explorer, consists of correspondence,
photographs, prints and ephemera relating to Russians in Australia. It amounts
to four archive boxes and two flat boxes.
6.3.9 Reginald Byrne Papers
This archival collection of
materials relating to the Australian Labor Party of New South Wales, between
c.1914 and 1940, includes family correspondence, minute books and proceedings,
pamphlets and handbills. Apart from personal correspondence, the collection
relates to the Stanmore and Darlinghurst branches of the ALP, with an emphasis
on the conscription issue of 1914-18. It includes correspondence with W.A.
Holman, Curtin, Chifley, Hughes, Calwell and others.
6.3.10 Ratzer Papers
This collection of correspondence,
diaries, notebooks, travel documents, cards and photographs is all in Russian.
The bulk of it is made up of the diaries of Anna Ratzer, from 1919 to 1926,
during the Russian Civil War and exile in Persia. She and her husband emigrated
to Australia in 1939. The material is housed in two archive boxes.
6.3.11 Richard Samuel Collection
Consisting of books (in
German), research notes, manuscripts and correspondence, this collection
documents the work of Richard Samuel, a former Professor of Germanic Studies at
the University, in the areas of Nazi documents, German literature and German
studies in Australia. In 1947 Samuel came to Australia from England where he
had held academic posts in the UK and translated Nazi documents for the British
Foreign Office. The papers in this collection, written mainly in German, are
housed in 53 archive boxes. The books, which take up 12 shelving bays, are all
literary works.
6.3.12 A.F. Howells Papers
This collection of consists of
correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, political handbills and ephemera and
amounts to two archive boxes of material. Arthur Bluey Howells
(1907-1986) was a labour and peace movement activist in Melbourne and Sydney in
the 1920s and 30s. He visited Spain in 1938 and served in the RAAF from
1941-45. The material reflects these activities and includes an unpublished
memoir of his time spent in the RAAF in Darwin.
6.4 Archives
The University of Melbourne Archives
Collection contains a number of collections of value to Political Science.
These include papers of individuals such as David McKenzie Dow, a former
journalist and diplomat, and of political figures including George Swinburne
and Sir Phillip Lynch. Records of organisations held include those of various
branches of the Australian Labor Party, the Trades Hall Council and associated
unions, the Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division), and the Victorian
Branch of the Communist Party of Australia. Some 100 trade unions are now
represented in the collections as well as professional, community,
womens, peace and political organisations. Further information and a full
list of the collections is available on the Internet -
http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/archgen.html.
The following bibliographies were used to check how representative the Librarys collections are:
7.1.1 Monographs
Overall the Library holds 62.3% of
monographs listed in the three sources checked. Results show some consistency
between the bibliographies used, particularly between the International
Bibliography of Political Science and International Current Awareness
Services. The similarity in results from the two Routledge publications
may be due, in part, to their common source, The British Library of Political
and Economic Science.
|
Bibliography. |
Number Checked |
Number Held |
% Held |
|
Internat Bibl. 1991 |
324 |
195 |
60.2% |
|
Internat. Curr. Awaren. Services |
315 |
188 |
59.7% |
|
York |
194* |
130 |
67% |
|
Total |
833 |
513 |
62.3% |
* As well as monographs this number includes a small number of journal titles
7.1.2 Serials
The Library subscribes overall to 43.3% of
journals listed in the two sources checked, with a greater proportion of titles
listed in International Political Science Abstracts being held by the
Library. The difference that exists between results for the two sources may be
due, to some extent, to the differences in numbers (and hence, breadth) of
titles indexed by each. International Bibliography of Political Science
indexed about 2,900 journals and International Political Science
Abstracts about 820 in the editions checked.
|
Bibliography |
Number Checked |
Number Held |
% Held |
|
Internat. Bibl. 1995 |
287 |
117 |
40.8% |
|
Internat. Pol. Sci. Abs. |
115 |
57 |
49.6% |
|
Total |
402 |
174 |
43.3% |
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.
Academic staff from the Departments of Political Science, Language Studies and History were invited to participate in the evaluation of the collection, by identifying the areas of collection needing to be developed to meet teaching and/or research needs.
The total collection of monographs in political science amounts to approximately 46,000 volumes. A wide range of publication dates is represented (from the 17th century onwards) and the collection includes a wealth of materials in languages other than English. Current acquisition of titles from the mainstream, English language publishers is very good, but more patchy for foreign language material and for titles from the smaller publishers. A high proportion of the Librarys funding allocation to the Department of Political Science is taken up by serial subscriptions, leaving most monograph purchases to come from approval plans which are funded separately. Political Science. Academic staff have raised the issue of the need for more multiple copies of books for undergraduates. Overall the political science monograph collection is rated a level 3a with a goal level of 3b
The Library has approximately 230 political science serial titles which are classified within the Dewey 320s and 350s. Of these approximately 187 are current subscriptions. In addition serials which are of interest to political scientists are also to be found in Dewey 300s, 330s and 900s. The serials which fall within the range of Dewey numbers covered by the Political Science Conspectus Division are rated as being at level 3a with a goal level of 3b.
The Library has a wide range of general reference material in political science including dictionaries, handbooks, directories, encyclopaedias, biographical sources and bibliographies. The collection level of level 3b meets the goal level, but new material needs to continue to be acquired if the collection is to retain this collection level in the future.
The University Library holds or provides access to a wide range of indexing and abstracting tools of relevance to Political Science in both print and electronic form. The collection is judged to be at a level 4. Titles include:
The Library has a separate collection of government publications mainly Australian and British parliamentary papers (see section 6.2), as well as non-parliamentary material integrated into the main collection and into the microform and special collections. Like many Australian university libraries, the University of Melbourne Library is a participant in the Australian Government Publishing Services (AGPS) free issue scheme. Since 1974 the Library has been receiving copies of all AGPS publications which are not subject to security restrictions. With fewer Commonwealth Government publications being published by AGPS, the Library has to ensure that this scheme is augmented by local selection if the collection is to retain its current level. Victorian government publications are also collected comprehensively. The collection level for Australian government and Victorian state government publications is level 4 (research).
The Department of Political Sciences research interest in political ideologies is well-supported by the Librarys main collections, and special and research collections. Particular strengths are in political ideology in general, socialism, communism, liberalism and nationalism. The collection overall is at a research level (level 4).
The Library has a strong collection of material on South African politics, particularly twentieth century politics. Until recently this was an area of teaching as well as research interest in the Department of Political Science. The collection also supports research being carried out within other departments in the Faculty of Arts. Since 1987 the Library has received considerable financial support from the Drakensberg Trust. As well as providing funds for material in all areas of relevance to political scientists, the Trust has targeted South African Politics. This has enabled the purchase of books, serials and microforms (including archival material on microform) which brings the collection to level 4 (research level).
The Library has an extensive collection of material on United States politics and government at the federal level covering both domestic and foreign policy. This material includes an wide range of Congressional Information Service (CIS) publications such as The CIS Annual, The CIS Serial Set, Committee Hearings, Congressional Masterfile 1 and 2 on CD ROM, and AFPTI (American Foreign Policy and Treaty Index). The collection is judged to be at a level 4 (research) level.
Although the Library has a strong collection of Australian government publications, it has not been comprehensively collecting materials needed to support all teaching and research in Australian politics. An examination of monographs classified at the Dewey number 320.994 by The Australian National Bibliography from 1987 to 1996 shows that the Library held 70.6% of titles. While some of the material not held does include some titles for children, other titles not held tend to be from the less mainstream publishers. Obviously Australian politics is classified at a wider range of numbers than the 320.994s, but this sample is indicative of the broader pattern. It is a situation borne out by evaluations by academic staff. As well as needing to acquire material from the less mainstream publishers, academic staff also recommended that the collection needs to be developed in breadth, diversity and numbers to meet the demands large undergraduate classes. The collection is currently at a level 3a (intermediate: introductory) and it needs to be developed to level 4 (research).
The subject of democratization has been, and continues to be, of enormous interest to political scientists around the world for much of the past decade, particularly since the onset of dramatic changes to the former communist countries in Europe. Current research interests are in political theory and comparative politics particularly as these relate to Europe. Material on democratization is classified at a number of Dewey numbers, not just in the 320s and 350s. While some areas of the collection are already at a level 4 (research) others need to be developed to a goal level of 4, or at least 3b (intermediate: augmented). Although the Library has a reasonable amount of material in English, French, German and Italian this needs to be augmented by material in Russian and Slav languages if research activities are to supported fully.
This is an expanding area of research, as is evidenced by the volume of material being published. The collections will need to continue to be developed if they are to meet teaching and research needs. This will be covered in greater detail in the Business and Economics Conspectus report.
Indonesian politics is an expanding research area within the University. Researchers are interested in all aspects of Indonesian politics. This includes the following:
The collection of English language material is quite strong, but Indonesian and Dutch language material needs to be strengthened. Overall the collection, currently assessed at level 3b (intermediate: augmented), needs to be developed to level 4 (research).
This area is one that should be noted as needing improvement. It will be covered in detail by the Business and Economics Conspectus Report.
Evaluation by academic staff indicates that while material on Australian foreign policy is reasonable, the collection needs to be developed in the area of international politics relating to the Asia-Pacific region. The Library, in particular, needs to extend its collection by acquiring material published in Asia in English and Asian languages. The current collection level of 3a (intermediate: introductory) needs to be developed to a level 4 (research).
The Department of Political Science has recently developed research interests in local government; particularly in comparative studies between Australia, Britain, North America and Europe. There is relatively little material published on local government compared with publications on other tiers of government. The Librarys collection is currently at a level 2 (basic) while the goal level is 3b (intermediate: augmented).
Although political psychology is not on the Universitys teaching program, the Department of Political Science has an international reputation for research in this area. The political psychology collection is one that needs to be extended and updated. A criticism received from a researcher is that the Library does not subscribe to many of the newer journal titles published within the past 10 to 15 years. While the majority of publications would fall within Dewey number 320.01, there are other numbers outside the 320s and 350s covered by the Political Science Conspectus Division which also need to be considered. These areas are generally within the early 300s and are covered by the Sociology Conspectus Division. Overall the collection in political psychology is rated at 3a (intermediate: introductory). The goal level is at least level 3b (intermediate: augmented) or 4 (research).
Public policy is an area of growing interest to the University as evidenced by the recently established Centre for Public Policy. An assessment of the Librarys collection needs to take into account not just material classified in the Dewey 320s and 350s (particularly 320.6, 350 and 351), but also that classified under specific subjects classified elsewhere such as health, welfare, education, migrants, women, and housing. Overall the collection is at level 3a (intermediate: introductory) and it needs to be developed to a level 4 (research) if it is to be able to meet the Universitys research and teaching needs adequately.
This broad, interdisciplinary area is of teaching and research interest to the University. Although the Librarys collection of womens studies material is at a research level (level 4), the growing areas of gay and lesbian studies and mens studies need to be further developed if they are to attain this level. This will be covered in greater detail in the Sociology Conspectus Report.
I would like to thank the academic staff from the Departments of Political Science, Language Studies and History who generously gave their time in assisting with this assessment.
Last modified: August 18 2004.
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