Dartmouth College Library
Collection Management & Development Program
Collection Development Policy
GEOGRAPHY
- COLLECTION AREA
- GENERAL PURPOSE
- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PROGRAM
- GENERAL SUBJECT BOUNDARIES
- LANGUAGES
- GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
- TYPES OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
- FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
- SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND MANUSCRIPTS
- CREATION DATE
- REVISION DATE
- LC CLASS
- BIBLIOGRAPHER
- COLLECTING INTENSITY CHART is located on a separate page.
Geography
Geography materials are intended to meet the research needs of faculty and students. Geography, as it was thought of years ago, included a large element of materials dealing with exploration and travel. Works like these are still collected, but they do not form a large part, or even always a part, of the diverse interests of all contemporary geographers. Geographers continue to be interested in place and locality, but contemporary geographical study relates to and uses all areas of the social sciences and sciences. The acquisitions program seeks to provide resources for these needs. At the same time both the more general needs of the College community which do include resources such as travel guides, gazetteers, and the like, as well as the need for materials supplementing work in other disciplines must be met.
The Department of Geography offers not only a major in the discipline but also a modified major which the interdisciplinary nature of geography easily allows. It has an honors program in which, at the present time, 33% of the students do thesis work. Assistance is given to students who plan to go on to graduate work. The faculty is involved actively in research which brings in a significant amount of grant money. Work in the department offers courses in both human and physical geography including urban, political, population, and economic geography. There is great interest among the human geographers in the domestic economy from the point of view of immigration and internal migration. Much work is environmentally related: for example, in regard to energy resources and water resources management. Regional studies includes courses on Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Union. Courses of a technical nature include those in cartography, remote sensing, and geographical information systems. The Rauh Laboratory provides facilities for active student and faculty work in these areas. Advanced courses deal with such varying topics as industrial location analysis, labor migration , tree-ring analysis, and fluvial geomorphology.
The Library of Congress classification G represents the category of material specifically assigned to geography. It includes such topics as geographic names, gazetteers, travel, and exploration, The old "G" class which includes many books representative of the way geography was thought of years ago contains many volumes of description , travel, and exploration. If reclassed into the Library of Congress system, many would go into D, E, and F. Journals both popular and professional can be found in the present G classification. The group G-575 to G - 890 is assigned to the Stefansson Collection in Special Collections for pre-1925 Arctic and pre-1940 Antarctic materials. Sheet maps, globes, and the majority of atlas are located in the Map Room. (See the policy statement for the Maps and Atlases Collection.) Library of Congress GA (mathematical geography and cartography) locates in Baker while GB (physical geography) is partially Baker and partially Kresge, GB 400 (geomorphology) to end being assigned to Kresge. GC (oceanography, hydrology) is also assigned to Kresge. GF (human geography or ecology and anthropogeography) is Baker's category.
The size of the G--geography category is not large as compared to some other disciplines. This reflects the fact that so very much of a geographer's research is interdisciplinary, using materials that are economic, historical, agricultural, scientific, and environmental in nature. and includes consultation of resources not only in Baker but also in Kresge, Dana, and the Feldberg Library. The research interests of the faculty indicate this: biogeography, dendrochronology, ecology, geomorphology, regional development, industrial location, population geography/demography, migration and immigration, spatial studies, political geography, historical and cultural geography, and the history and philosophy of geography, remote sensing, urban geography, and area studies (Europe, Latin America, Central America and the former Soviet Union).
Reference works, bibliographies, and indexes are collected generously, many locating in the Reference Room in either a G or Z number, while others are in the stacks. Similar pertinent aids might be used on site in the other libraries or via online searches at Baker.
See also policy statements for related areas such as anthropology, architecture (urban architecture, particularly NA 9000-9425), biology (biogeography is covered in QH, for example), economics, earth sciences, climatology, environmental studies, and sociology (especially HT which includes regional planning and the social and economic aspects of city planning and urban renewal).
Materials are collected primarily in English, though suitable materials in the other languages would be acquired, if appropriate.
In addition to the United States and Canada, materials pertaining to Europe, Latin America, the countries of the former Soviet Union and Russia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are collected the most heavily; no areas are specifically excluded.
Serials, monographs, indexes, abstracts, and documents form the larger part of the collection, though no pertinent types are excluded.
No form is specifically excluded, although the Library has not attempted to collect computer programs due to the fact that the Geography Department does acquire them. With the development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), receipt of the Census Bureau's Tiger Files, and the establishment of the Rauh Laboratory, along with future building and organizational changes, this situation may change.
In addition to the printed format of many indexing services, access is also provided via online commercial systems.
The Stefansson Collection on Polar Regions in Special Collections provides primary resources for Antarctic and polar study, and supplements materials in the library system and at the U.S. Cold Region Research Laboratory. These resources are of value not only for faculty-student work but also to the Institute of Arctic Studies.
February 1982, Helen MacLam
February 1993, Virginia L. Close
G,
GA,
GB (1-399),
GF,
and other call numbers, as appropriate.
John Cocklin
Top of Page
Collection Development
Policy Table of Contents
CMDC Home Page
Last updated January 29, 1999 by: CMDC@Dartmouth.Edu (jdh)