COLLECTION AREA
Economics
HISTORY
The Department of Economics was created in 1896. In 1935-36, the Department first specified requirements for an Economics major. The Department has a long history of being oriented towards applied economics and the analysis of policy issues and social problems. Beginning in the 1980s, requirements for a major in Economics were significantly changed in response to changes in the study of Economics. A basic foundation in quantitative methods became a requirement. The Department is committed to teaching students quantitative skills in order to apply economic methods to social and policy issues.As the Department has changed so has the research needs of faculty and students. There is a great shift in publishing patterns towards journals and working papers and in particular the need for data. For research in Economics, the crucial ingredient is data. Providing undergraduates with machine-readable versions of major data sets, in order for them to do projects is needed. The Library can support faculty research through purchasing data sets on a much more limited basis.
GENERAL PURPOSE
The collection supports the instructional and research needs of undergraduates and faculty in the major empirical and theoretical areas of modern economics. Emphasis is on current and historical economic theory; on specific methodological approaches such as econometrics, macroeconomics, microeconomics, mathematical economics, and statistical analysis. Fields of concentration are Industrial Organization, International Economics, Labor Economics, Money and Finance and Public Economics.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PROGRAM
Graduate degrees are not offered in Economics but the collection supports a broad range of faculty interests and undergraduate instruction up to the Honors level. In addition the collection supports the economic aspects of other subjects and schools including History, Government, Environmental Studies, Geography, Sociology, Law, and Business Administration. These demands require that the collection be maintained at a research level in most areas.
GENERAL SUBJECT BOUNDARIES
Economics holdings are primarily in the Library of Congress classifications HA through HJ, and the Dewey classification 330.The major portion of the collection is located in the Baker Humanities and Social Sciences Library ; depending on the aspect of Economics, parts of the collection are also located in other campus libraries. Medical Economics (RA 400's) and some Agricultural Economics material (SD 393, SD 427) are located in the Biomedical Libraries. The Cook Mathematics Library contains items related to the statistical and mathematical applications of Economics. Material pertaining to Business and Management (i.e., marketing, advertising, investment, finance, insurance, industry, business) is located in Feldberg Business and Engineering Library. In addition there are several areas where the Economics Department and the Tuck School of Business share a interest (i.e., banking and finance). In these areas Baker and Feldberg have agreed to duplicate materials selectively.
LANGUAGES
English is the primary language of the collection, although other Western European languages, i.e. French, German, and Spanish, are collected. Original works and primary sources in other languages are purchased selectively.
GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
The primary emphasis is on all aspects and levels of economic activity in the United States. The collection is also strong in Canada, Europe, and the former Soviet Union. As interest in underdeveloped and developing areas has increased emphasis in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East has followed suit. No areas of the world are specifically excluded from the collection.
TYPES OF MATERIAL COLLECTED
Monographs, periodicals, periodical indexes and abstracts, bibliographies, statistical sources, and other standard reference works are routinely collected. There is an increasing demand for periodicals, indexes (EconLit), working papers and machine-readable data being available via electronic format to directly to users' desktop computers. The increasing power and decreasing cost of microcomputers, increasing ease of use of networked mainframes and the development increasingly user-friendly statistical packages has accelerated the demand and need for machine-readable data sets. The availability and purchase of machine-readable data in place of or in addition to paper sources data is becoming routine. In areas of Applied Economics the primary means of publication are working papers and journals--as opposed to monographs. In collection patterns, there is a corresponding emphasis on the journal literature and working papers. The collection also relies on the U.S. government and international documents collections, as well as the publications of various national and international groups (i.e., World Bank, OECD, EEC). Technical literature and dissertations are purchased selectively.
FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
The majority of materials are acquired in paper copy. Material is also purchased in microform, on CD-ROM, and on diskettes. As noted earlier, there is an increasing preference and availability of journals, working papers; and machine-readable data in electronic formats via the campus network, stand-alone workstations and the internet.
OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE
As noted above, the Feldberg Library collection supplements the Economics collection in several areas. Aside from resources available in RLG libraries there are no resources on a local or regional level that affect collection activity. An important resource on campus for the Economics Department is the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) collection of data at the Social Science Computing Center in Silsby Hall.
OTHER RELATED COLLECTION POLICIES
Business Administration
Environmental Studies
Geography
Government
History
Law
Sociology
Creation Date
June 1983, [Francis Oscadal]
Revision Date
December 1994, [Francis Oscadal]March 2000, [Miles Yoshimura]
LC Class
HA, HB, HC, HD, HE, HF, HG, HJ
Bibliographer
Miles Yoshimura
List of URLS
Baker Humanities and Social Sciences Library
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~baker/baker.html
Biomedical Libraries
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~biomed/
Business Administration Collection Development Policy
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cmdc/cdp/busadmin.html
Cook Mathematics Library
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~krescook/cookhome.shtml
Department of Economics
http://www.dartmouth.edu/artsci/economics/
EconLit
http://www.dartmouth.edu/perl/dcis/ej-access?FS
Environmental Studies Collection Development Policy
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cmdc/cdp/environmental.html
Feldberg Business and Engineering Library
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~feldberg/
Geography Collection Development Policy
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cmdc/cdp/geography.html
Government Collection Development Policy
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cmdc/cdp/government.html
History Collection Development Policy
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cmdc/cdp/history.html
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/
Law Collection Development Policy
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cmdc/cdp/law.html
Social Science Computing Center
http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/ssc/
Sociology Collection Development Policy
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cmdc/cdp/sociology.html
Tuck School of Business
http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/
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Last updated June 6, 2000 by: (z)