Houston Cole Library

Philosophy and Religion

Collection Assessment

Submitted by

Charlcie Pettway Vann

June 2010

Introduction

The Philosophy and Religion collection is rated an overall 3bP (Intermediate Study or Instructional Support Level). The rating is based on the guidelines established by the WLN Collection Assessment Service, which provides a framework to evaluate a library’s current holdings and the level of activity at which the collection is being developed. The lower rating is based primarily on the defined access criterion set by WLN, and the number of books published on these subjects in the past eight years versus the number of books collected by the library in the same time. Refer to the Philosophy conspectus sheets and checklist analyses for a more detailed examination of the Library’s collection.

Holdings

The Philosophy and Religion Collection contains 21,764. The number of monographic titles classification(s) B-BD and BH-BX is 20,625. The total number of ebooks for Philosophy and Religion is 1,139. Library of Congress Classification, categories, and number of holdings are listed below. Please see the attached Appendix and conspectus worksheets for more detailed list.

LC Class / Category / Number of Title Holdings /
B / Philosophy / 3,984
BC / Logic / 299
BD / Speculative Philosophy / 840
BH / Aesthetics / 234
BJ / Ethics / 1,260
BL /

Religions, Mythology,

Rationalism / 2,510

BM

Judaism

/ 520

BP

Islam, Bahaism, Theosophy

/ 584

BQ

Buddhism

/ 166

BR

Christianity

/ 2,294

Bible

/ 1,392

Doctrinal Theology

/ 1,253

Practical Theology

/ 1,713

Denominations

/ 3,576

Ebooks

General Philosophy & Religion

/ 1,139

Total

/ / 21,764

Expenditures and Titles Added

The Philosophy and Religion expenditures are merged together with the Psychology expenditures and are not able to be individually divided. The amounts listed in the table are the combined totals of all three subject areas. The average expenditures for books in these subject areas for academic years 2004/2005 – 2008/09 are $61,474.92.

Fiscal Year

Amount Expended

2004/05 / $10,052.99
2005/06 / $16,418.39
2006/07 / $11,898.12
2007/ 08 / $12,465.68
2008/ 09 / $ 10,639.74
Total / $61,474.92

The Library’s collecting level was measured against the Blackwell’s All Publishers Approval Plan Coverage which is now Baker and Taylor. The average percentage of titles added from 2003 to 2009 is 18.3%. The Philosophy and Religion monograph collection focuses on acquiring the necessary electronic resources to support both our on campus and our growing Distance Education programs and for this reason it merits a 3bP rating.

TITLES ADDED/TITLES PUBLISHED 2002/03 - 2009

Fiscal

Year

/ Added to
Philosophy / Blackwell Approval Program Coverage Cost Study (# of books) / Percentage
2003/2004 / 106 / 458 / 23.1%
2004/2005 / 111 / 461 / 24.1%
2006/2007 / 118 / 484 / 24.3%
2007/2008 / 110 / 543 / 20.2%
2008/2009 / 134 / 1,169 / 11.5%
4 Year Totals / 579 / 3115 / 18.6%

· Compiled from Blackwell Approval Program Coverage and Cost Study reports 2004-2009. (http://www.blackwell.com/librarian_resources/coverage_and_cost). Average possibly higher; figures from 2005/2006 not accessible at the date of the assessment preparation. Ebooks are not included in titles.

A collection of reference bibliographies was used to measure the quality of the Philosophy and Religion collection. In checking the bibliographies along with the Library’s catalog, the following percentages were revealed in specific subject areas within Philosophy and Religion.

Titles / Collected / Listed / Percent
Held /
American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) 2003 / 7 / 61 / 11%
American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) 2004 / 9 / 52 / 17%
American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) 2005 / 7 / 55 / 12%
American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) 2006 / 7 / 69 / 10%
American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) 2007 / 9 / 68 / 13%
American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) 2008 / 6 / 59 / 10%
American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) 2009 / 2 / 38 / 4%
Reference Sources For Small and Medium-Size Libraries 2008 (monographs only) / 17 / 107 / 16%

Periodicals and Serials

The Serials expenditures in philosophy for both print and electronic subscriptions and standing orders average $32,667.43 from 2004 to 2009.

FISCAL YEAR / Total
2003/04 / $ 36,139.46
2004/05 / $ 35,815.62
2005/06 / $ 38,723.59
2006/07 / $ 42,659.27
2007/08 / $ 25,245.90
2008/09 / $ 34,325.94
Totals 2003-2009 / $212,909.78

See the Appendix first and second tables for print and electronic journal information.

Access to Electronic Resources (Defined Access)

The Library's defined access is rated a 3 (Study or Instructional Support level). The Library provides both on campus and off campus (registered users) access to numerous databases in support of Philosophy and Religion. These databases offer citations, abstracts, and full text information for research in Philosophy and Religion through journals, magazines, newspapers, reference works, dissertations, etc. The Library also subscribes to databases specific to philosophy. The specific databases are described below. Most of the electronic journal titles are integrated, analyzed, and accessible through the Library’s online Voyager catalog. Additionally, Internet sites are evaluated and those of high quality and authority are added to the Library’s catalog.

JSTOR offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. It includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.

The archive is unique in terms of scale, content, and the significant use it receives. It is recognized specifically for:

· offering a unique, interlinked aggregation of scholarly works

· facilitating interdisciplinary and historical research

· exemplary standards for digitization and completeness

· interfaces and functionality that support academic use

· highly reliable access

· long-term preservation

PsycARTICLES –Provides full text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology from respected sources dating from 1894 to present.

The database contains more than 140,000 articles from over 60 journals published by the American Psychological Association (APA) and from allied organizations including the Canadian Psychological Association and the Hogrefe Publishing Group. It includes all journal articles, book reviews, letters to the editor, and errata from each journal.

PsycINFO – PsycINFO is an abstract database that provides coverage of the psychological literature from the 1800s to the present. PsycINFO is an essential tool for researchers, which combines a wealth of content with precise. This database contains bibliographic citations, abstracts, cited references, and descriptive information across a wide variety of scholarly publications in the behavioral and social sciences. PsycINFO has 2.7 million records and is updated weekly.

Full-text, citations and abstracts for research in Philosophy and Religion are available through several of the Library’s general periodical and newspaper databases, including, yet not limited to:

· EBSCOhost

· Gale Group’s Databases

· America: History and Life

· ProQuest Databases

· Education Abstracts Full text

· Biography Resource Center

· Britannica Online

· Emerald Fulltext

Audio-Video Materials

The Philosophy and Religion collection contains 43 audiovisual titles. See Appendix for the complete list of DVD, video cassettes and sound recordings.

Preservation and Withdrawals

The Preservation Commitment indicator is a Level 2. Missing items are replaced by the original titles if possible (or with the purchase of new titles in the same subject area) while damaged items are sent for repair routinely.

Philosophy Withdrawals:

The total number of withdrawn materials from the B - BX classifications from 2003/04 to 2009 was 94.

Withdrawn

Total B-BX = 94

Call Number / 2004/05 / 2005/06 / 2006/07 / 2007/08 / 2008/09 / 2009/10 / TOTALS
B-BD, BH-BX / 19 / 2 / 9 / 2 / 12 / 2 / 46
BF* / 6 / 5 / 17 / 10 / 9 / 1 / 48
TOTALS / 25 / 7 / 26 / 12 / 21 / 3 / 94

Supplemental Support

The Philosophy and Religion Collection is further supported by many other collections throughout the Library. The following disciplines offer supplemental support to the Philosophy and Religion collection:

Education

Business

Political Science

History

Humanities/Social Sciences

Summary

The Philosophy and Religion monographic collection serve as support subjects for primary and degreed majors of Jacksonville State University. The Collection’s holdings have increased.

Strengths

The Philosophy and Religion collection is adequate to support the following disciplines, English, Psychology, History, and Criminal Justice departments. The Doctrinal Theology category has more than tripled since the last assessment in 2003 from 389 to 1,253. LC Classes BC-BX has experienced increases ranging from 4% to 9%. The Philosophy collection is strongest in the Western and Modern Philosophy range. The Religion collection is strongest in the Christianity, Protestantism, Mythology and Bible ranges. The Islam, Bahaism, Theosophy categories increased by over 26% since the previous assessment. Also, the Buddhism subject collection has increased by 42%.

Weaknesses

Several areas in the B-BD and BH-BX ranges remain near the same level as previously assessed. The following areas had little growth:

Jewish Philosophers

Philosophy and Psychology of Religion

Confucianism

Judaism – Ancient and Medieval History

Roman Catholic Church

Anabaptists, Adventists

Methodism

Recommendations

The Library should continue to increase the Philosophy and Religion collection. Many of the Social Science disciplines have assignments which require the use of this collection. Philosophy and Religion is popular among undergraduate History and English classes.
APPENDIX

Electronic books

Philosophy and Religion ebooks B-BX classification list. Total number of titles is 1,139.

Title / Call Number
Caliban's reason [electronic resource] : introducing Afro-Caribbean philosophy / Paget Henry. / B1028 .P34 2000eb
Contours of agency [electronic resource] : essays on themes from Harry Frankfurt / edited by Sarah Buss and Lee Overton. / B105.A35 C665 2002eb
Living across and through skins [electronic resource] : transactional bodies, pragmatism, and feminism / Shannon Sullivan. / B105.B64 S85 2001eb
Vehement passions [electronic resource] / Philip Fisher. / B105.E46 F57 2002eb
Food for thought [electronic resource] : philosophy and food / Elizabeth Telfer. / B105.F66 T45 2002eb
History of the mind-body problem [electronic resource] / edited by Tim Crane and Sarah Patterson. / B105.M53 H57 2000eb
Order and disorder [electronic resource] / David Z. Rich. / B105.O7 R47 2001eb
Terms and truth [electronic resource] : reference direct and anaphoric / Alan Berger. / B105.R25 B47 2002eb
Triangle of representation [electronic resource] / Christopher Prendergast. / B105.R4 P74 2000eb
Seeds of virtue and knowledge [electronic resource] / Maryanne Cline Horowitz. / B105.S43 (INTERNET)
Francis Bacon and the transformation of early-modern philosophy [electronic resource] / Stephen Gaukroger. / B1198 .G38 2001eb
Philosophy of Robert Boyle [electronic resource] / Peter R. Anstey. / B1201.B434 A57 2000eb
Eastern philosophy: key readings [electronic resource] / Oliver Leaman. / B121 .L43 2000eb
Hobbes and history [electronic resource] / edited by G.A.J. Rogers and Tom Sorell. / B1248.H5 H64 2000eb
Basic writings of Mo Tzu, Hsün Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu [electronic resource] / translated by Burton Watson. / B125 (INTERNET)
Reflections on things at hand [electronic resource] : the neo-Confucian anthology / compiled by Chu Hsi and Lü Tsu-ch'ien ; translated, with notes, by Wing-tsit Chan. / B125 (INTERNET)
Source book in Chinese philosophy [electronic resource]. / B125 .C45eb
World of thought in ancient China [electronic resource] / Benjamin I. Schwartz. / B126 (INTERNET)
Readings in classical Chinese philosophy [electronic resource] / edited by Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. Van Norden. / B126 .R43 2001eb
Aristotle in China [electronic resource] : language, categories, and translation / Robert Wardy. / B127.L35 W37 2000eb
Title / Call Number
Instructions for practical living, and other Neo-Confucian writings [electronic resource] / by Wang Yang-Ming ; translated, with notes, by Wing Chan. / B128.W34 (INTERNET)
Routledge philosophy guidebook to Locke on human understanding [electronic resource] / E.J. Lowe. / B1294 .L65 1995eb
Liberty worth the name [electronic resource] : Locke on free agency / Gideon Yaffe. / B1298.F73 Y34 2000eb
Alciphron, or, The minute philosopher [electronic resource] : in focus / George Berkeley ; edited by David Berman. / B1316.B47 B47 1993eb
Yoga [electronic resource] : a medical dictionary, bibliography, and annotated research guide to internet references / James N. Parker and Philip M. Parker, editors. / B132.Y6 .Y64 2003eb
Silence unheard [electronic resource] : deathly otherness in Pātañjala-yoga / Yohanan Grinshpon. / B132.Y6 G68 2002eb
Characteristics of men, manners, opinions, times [electronic resource] / Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury ; edited by Lawrence E. Klein. / B1385.A3 S52 1999eb
Scotch metaphysics [electronic resource] : a century of enlightenment in Scotland / George Davie. / B1402.E55 D38 2001eb
Routledge philosophy guidebook to Hume on knowledge [electronic resource] / Harold W. Noonan. / B1489 .N66 1999eb
New Hume debate [electronic resource] / edited by Rupert Read and Kenneth A. Richman. / B1498 .N49 2000eb
Rosenzweig and Heidegger [electronic resource] : between Judaism and German philosophy / Peter Eli Gordon. / B154 .G67 2003eb
Key philosophers in conversation [electronic resource] : the Cogito interviews / edited by Andrew Pyle. / B1567 .K48 1999eb
Routledge philosophy guidebook to Mill on utilitarianism [electronic resource] / Roger Crisp. / B1603.U873 C75 1997eb
Politics and post-structuralism [electronic resource] : an introduction / edited by Alan Finlayson and Jeremy Valentine. / B1616.S87 P65 2002eb
G.E. Moore's ethical theory [electronic resource] : resistance and reconciliation / Brian Hutchinson. / B1647.M74 H85 2001eb
Karl Popper, the formative years, 1902-1945 [electronic resource] : politics and philosophy in interwar Vienna / Malachi Haim Hacohen. / B1649.P64 (INTERNET)
Classical philosophy [electronic resource] : a contemporary introduction / Christopher Shields. / B171 .S52 2003eb
Teachers and texts in the ancient world [electronic resource] : philosophers, Jews, and Christians / H. Gregory Snyder. / B177 .S65 2000eb
Meditations on first philosophy in focus [electronic resource] / René Descartes ; edited and with an introduction by Stanley Tweyman. / B1853.E5 H35 1993eb
Routledge philosophy guidebook to Descartes and The meditations [electronic resource] / Gary Hatfield. / B1854 .H38 2003eb