Information Services

Collection Development Policy

Slavic Studies

Purpose

The Slavic Studies program is interdisciplinary in nature with courses in language, literature, linguistics, history, philosophy, and film studies.   The Department teaches Russian language through the advanced level and offers Czech, Croatian and Polish instruction on an individual study basis.   Students may elect to pursue a linguistics concentration within the Slavic Studies major.   Graduating senior majors are expected to show an intermediate high level of language proficiency.   Students are encouraged to study abroad, and faculty from the Department have sponsored programs in the College's SATA and TRIPS programs.   The Library purchases materials to support these programs at the undergraduate level.

General Guidelines

A high priority it given to the purchase of scholarly editions of the works ( Собрание сочинений ) of major Russian authors and to volumes published in the Академический проект , Новая библиотека поета .   Works by contemporary Russian writers such as Aksenov, Narbikova, Erofeev and Sorokin are purchased in Russian and in translation.   The collection includes a good selection of Russian literary anthologies representative of literary groups - such as the Symbolists and the Futurists - and genres, including short fiction and poetry.   Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the department's programs, monographs addressing the histories and cultures of the Slavic nations form an integral part of the library collection supporting the Slavic Studies Department.   The library purchases major secondary works on Slavic writers based on reviews and publisher reputation.   Basic scholarly sources such as biographies, correspondence, memoirs and bibliographic works supplement the literary texts and critical analyses that make up the core of the Slavic collections.         

Types of Materials Collected

The Slavic collection in Shain Library includes major collected works of significant writers, individual literary works in the original language, translated works of fiction and poetry and major works of literary theory, literary criticism and intellectual history of the region.   Major encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks are purchased for the reference collection.   The library maintains subscriptions to a selection of magazines and newspapers in Russian and Czech and subscribes to the major scholarly journals in Slavic area studies.   Access to journal literature is provided through major online databases, including ABSEES , Historical Abstracts, and MLA .   Faculty in the department are actively building the collection of foreign films, many of which are housed in the Language Laboratory.    

Format of Materials Collected

Monographs, reference works and foreign language newspapers are collected in print format.   Generally, the library subscribes to journals in one format only, and preference is given to electronic format when available.   Preference is given to electronic indexes with full text access to journal articles when coverage is comparable.   The Library will collect films as needed by the faculty for their teaching, and preference will be given to DVDs if available.   Slavic language films housed in the Language Laboratory will be listed in the Shain online catalog to maximize access to these materials.

Languages

Russian and English are the major languages represented.   A small number of works in Croatian, Czech and Polish have been added in recent years to reflect changing interests in the department.   Literature of all of the Slavic countries is collected in English translation both to support the department's work and to provide access to these works to all of our users.

Geographical Areas

The primary geographical areas covered in the collection are European Russia, Poland , Croatia and the Czech Republic .   The literatures of other Slavic countries are collected, but only in English.

Chronological Guidelines

The chronological emphasis is on literature from the 19 th century to the present.   Representative and significant works from earlier periods are also included in the collection.

Special Collections and Manuscripts

Shain Library's Special Collections includes several editions of Russian skazki illustrated by Ivan Bilibin, a collection of Soviet political posters and the Pushkinskii dom facsimile edition of the working notebooks of Alexander Pushkin.

Other Resources Available

Currently registered students and Connecticut College faculty and staff have access to monographs, audiovisual materials, and government documents from Trinity College and Wesleyan University through the CTW Consortium.   Interlibrary loan provides access to monographs not held within the CTW Consortium as well as journal articles not available at Connecticut College

Creation Date and Revision History

LC Class

DJK, DK, DR, PG

Collection Development and Information Access Policy

The Collection Development and Information Access Policy can be viewed at: http://www.conncoll.edu/is/info-resources/colldevpolicy.html

Ordering Library Materials

Recommendations and requests for purchase of materials should be addressed to Marian Shilstone, Library Liaison to the Slavic Studies Department.

Liaison

Marian Shilstone
Director of Information Resources
Charles E. Shain Library
(860) 439-2676
marian.shilstone@conncoll.edu