HISTORY1. INTRODUCTIONThe Library's History collection contains materials to support research and teaching programmes of the History Department. 2. DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTIONHistory as a discipline encompasses a wide range of specialties, and the collection reflects this diversity. The collection comprises serials, monographs and audiovisual material. While many monographs and serials are located in the General Library at Dewey sequences within the 900s, some material can also be found outside these numbers, for example social history within the 300s and history of science in the 600s. Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East are not areas of current teaching and research, and the History collection in those areas is maintained at a basic information level. Primary sources are core resources for research, and together with
secondary material they support the curriculum teaching and research
of the History Department.
Electronic material is provided through Library website. The major online databases are listed at subjects/hist/his.htm Major collections in electronic format include:
Historical newspapers available online include:
Microfilm collections include numerous New Zealand newspapers including these titles:
Major reprint collections include publications in these series:
Special Collections includes archives and manuscripts, with an emphasis on trade union and political material, and people connected to the University. The Arts Reference Collection holds non-borrowable reference works including bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and atlases. Many citation and abstracting databases are now available online. The Short Loan Collection holds prescribed and recommended texts for courses, including multiple copies of items in high demand. Journal articles and book chapters are digitised and available online. Little-used material is kept in Off-Campus Storage. Criteria for moving items from the General collection to Off-Campus Storage include the demand for the title and the age of the material. Age of the title is not as significant a criterion for History as for other subjects. Little-used duplicates are withdrawn, keeping a unique copy in Off-Campus Storage. Standard guidelines for stock weeding are followed and there is a continuous programme to ensure the relevance of the collection. 3. USERSUsers are primarily undergraduate and graduate students and staff of the History Department. Students and staff from other departments use the collection for interdisciplinary studies. Members of the public, secondary and tertiary students from other institutions, and teachers, also consult the collection. Some History Department staff are part of other programmes, such as the centres for Development Studies, Latin American Studies, MEDEMS (Medieval and Early Modern Studies) and material is added to the collection to support those programmes. 4. SELECTION CRITERIA/POLICIESThe Library Liaison Officer and other staff of the History Department in conjunction with the History Subject Librarian select material for the collection. The Subject Librarian also selects relevant material for the Arts Reference Collection, including electronic resources. The History collection is predominantly in English. Some foreign language material is collected including core texts in a subject area and primary sources. Material which does not fit into current teaching or research programmes may be purchased if it is considered appropriate for the general interest of users and the scope of the University Library's collections. 5. PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATIONItems requiring special measures for preservation and conservation are kept in Special Collections. In some cases where a resource is available online, duplicate print copies are kept in Off-Campus Storage. For high demand material, print copies may be kept in the General Library or Short Loan Collection. 6. COOPERATIVE ARRANGEMENTS AND RELATED COLLECTIONSThe range of materials in the History collection includes material of use to other departments and subject areas. These are: Latin American Studies, English, Asian Studies, Classics and Ancient History, and Sociology. The History Department's Willis Airey reading room has a small
collection of books and other research material. This is outside the
scope of the Library's history collection. Philip Abela |