Sandy Confer
863-4387
sandy.confer@psu.edu
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY
ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Last revision date: March 26, 2009
PRINCIPAL SELECTOR:
Henry Pisciotta
Arts and Architecture Librarian
W320 Pattee Library
865-6778
henryp@psu.edu
PROGRAMS SUPPORTED:
The collection primarily supports the programs of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture which consists of the Department of Architecture and the Department of Landscape Architecture. The Department of Architecture awards Bachelors of Science degrees in architecture (a 4-year program), a much larger number of Bachelors of Architecture degrees (a 5-year professional program, and Masters of Architecture (MArch) degrees with specialties in Theory and Design, Community and Urban Design, or Digital Design. Architecture currently lists 25 tenured or tenure track faculty (some with joint appointments) and 4 affiliated faculty. The Department of Landscape Architecture offers a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA, a 5-year professional program), a Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) degree, and a Master of Science (MS) degree in Landscape Architecture with a specialty in Watershed Management or in Community and Urban Design. Landscape Architecture currently lists 19 tenured or tenure-track faculty (some with joint appointments) and 2 affiliated faculty. An unusual feature of the B. Arch and B.L.A. degrees is a required semester of studio in Rome. Penn State is one of 117 institutions offering degrees accredited by the National Architecture Accreditation Board. Our Architecture Department’s programs focus on design and design technologies. Penn State is one of 62 institutions offering degrees accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board. (Only 7 other CIC institutions have accredited landscape architecture programs. Only one other CIC institution offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees: Ohio State University.) Penn State’s Landscape Architecture Department’s undergraduate program is very highly ranked and extremely interdisciplinary in both its teaching and research. It is important to note that the Landscape Architecture students and faculty make regular use of related Penn State libraries such as: the Arts and Humanities Library, the Earth and Mineral Sciences Library, the Social Sciences Library, the Maps Library, and the Special Collections Library. Certain technology courses in Architecture depend upon the Engineering Library collection.
Modern architecture courses taught in the Department of Art History and portions of some courses in the Integrative Arts Program (in the Department of Integrative Arts) are also supported by the architecture and landscape architecture collections. These collections also support some courses in the Architectural Engineering Department (College of Engineering) as well as the Landscape Contracting Program in Department of Horticulture (College of Agriculture). Portions of some courses in Integrative Arts Program (in the Department of Integrative Arts) are also supported. Related courses taught in other departments are also served by these collections.
DISTANCE LEARNING:
Two introductory, general education courses in Landscape Architecture are offered with the E-Learning Institute of the College of Arts and Architecture. The Rome studio program (Sede di Roma) is supported with an extensive network of library web pages and special procedures for shipping and borrowing library materials.
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THE COLLECTION:
FUNDS USED:
Funds with the ARCHT prefix are the primary sources for purchases and journal subscriptions.
RELATED FUNDS:
ARTS & ARTBZ funds
ARTGL & ARTPT funds
Arts and Humanities Library group funds
Engineering funds (for technological aspects)
Social Sciences funds (for urban planning)
Life Sciences funds (for horticulture and ecology)
Earth and Mineral Sciences funds (for geography, water management, etc.)
Rare Books funds
centralized E-Resources funds
LOCATIONS OF MATERIALS:
Primary location for housing materials related to the ARCT funds is the Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library. Materials with high replacement costs, loose plates, or fragile design may be shelved in closed stack areas with limited circulation. Space in this library is severely limited. As a result, publications about pre-1850 architecture and landscape are shelved elsewhere -- usually in the appropriate Pattee/Paterno stacks, but sometimes in remote annexes. All journal runs in the Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library are held only 30 years back. Any earlier volumes are in the appropriate Pattee/Paterno stacks or remote annexes. Items with low use and extra copies of items with average use may be selected for remote storage. Special considerations of heavily illustrated publications (browsing as a means of selection, the relation of printed illustrations to digital copies, etc.) limit selections for remote storage. Some large sets cannot be stored in annexes because most uses require access to index volumes, complex tables of contents, spine markings, etc. Electronic delivery of information is generally valued by users. Sometimes electronic access is the only form provided.
Special Collections also collects many materials of importance to these programs on other funds and houses them within their facilities. Due to space constraints some materials are stored in remote annexes.
LANGUAGES:
This is primarily an English language collection. Other languages are collected only in special circumstances – for example, when important pictorial content overrides language considerations.
FORMATS AND TYPES:
Most formats and types are collected. Books, periodicals, exhibition catalogs, digital images, video recordings, and databases are important formats.
“How to...” and “idea” books or videos, usually aimed at a popular market are collected on an extremely selective basis. Home gardening books are seldom selected.
Generally not collected: 35 mm slides, audio books, teaching kits, juvenile literature, and amateur manuals.
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL:
The collection is intended to support teaching and research in higher education. Academic publications are the focus. Popular level publications are acquired selectively, when they provide good introductory information, treat subjects of peripheral interest, or provide exceptional visual content.
COLLECTING LEVELS FOR SUB-TOPICS
This portion estimates the current goals for collecting intensity for appropriate sub-topics (and should not be misconstrued as estimates of the strength of the existing collection.) The collecting levels estimate what types of activities (teaching, research, etc.) are supported and range of languages required for that support. The codes for levels are defined in Appendix 2.
Design Theory - - 4E
Design Criticism - - 3E
Visual Design Principles (line, form, color, etc.)
COLLECTED IN PATTEE USING ARTGL FUNDS
Contemporary Architecture (exempla) - - 4E
Contemporary Landscape Architecture (exempla) - - 4E
History of Architecture Before1850
COLLECTED IN PATTEE USING ARTS FUNDS
History of Architecture After 1850 - - 4E
History of Landscape Architecture Before 1850 - - 3E
HOUSED IN PATTEE USING, BUT COLLECTED WITH ARCHT FUNDS
History of Landscape Architecture After 1850 - - 4E
Local & Regional History of Architecture & Landscape - - 4E
Professional Practice - - 2E
Ethics - - 3E Marketing - - 2E
Legal Aspects - - 2E
Cost Estimating* - - 2E
Community Based Design - - 3E
Environmental Resource Management**
Green Design - - 4E
Integration of Site, Structure, & Environment - - 4E
Conservation of Resources** - - 4E
Urban & Regional Planning - - 2E
Site Planning - - 3E
Building Programming - - 2E
Design Processes - - 3E
Design Decision-Making - - 3E
Visualization - - 3E
Computer Aided Design and Modeling* - - 3E
Simulation* - - 3E
Virtual Space, Gaming, etc.** - - 3E
Site Systems (water mgt., transportation, lighting, etc.)* - - 3E
Building Systems (environmental control, electrical, etc.)* - - 3E
Structural Systems* - - 3E
Materials of Architecture & Landscape Architecture - - 3E
Soil Characteristics** - - 2E
Plant Communities** - - 3E
Construction Materials* - - 3E
Construction Methods* - - 2E
Design Standards, Codes, Standard Contracts, Cost Data* - - 2E
Design/Build Processes & Projects - - 3E
* Primarily collected in the Engineering Library.
** Primarily collected in other subject libraries at University Park.
DEACCESSIONS
Items may be removed from the collections when they are deemed to be irrelevant to the current collection priorities. Since the Penn State University Libraries has cooperative arrangements with other research libraries and other libraries within Pennsylvania, deaccession of rare or unique items is handled cautiously.
APPENDIX 1
Collection Development Statement is designed and implemented in keeping with the statement of values recorded in the Penn State University Libraries Strategic Plan 05/06-07/08:
VALUES
The Libraries are committed to:
APPENDIX 2
TERMS AND SYMBOLS USED TO DESCRIBE COLLECTION LEVELS:
Throughout the policies, librarians have expressed evaluations based on a standard set of numbers and letters. Collection levels as defined by a committee of the American Library Association are:
5 = Comprehensive level. A collection in which a library endeavors, so far as is reasonably possible, to include all significant works of recorded knowledge for a necessarily defined field.
4 = Research level. A collection which includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers.
3 = Study level. A collection which supports undergraduate or graduate course work, or sustained independent study; that is, which is adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes, of less than research intensity.
2 = Basic level. A highly selective collection which serves to introduce and define the subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere.
1 = Minimal level. A subject area in which few selections are made beyond very basic works.
Language codes
E = English language materials predominate; little or no foreign language material is in the collection.
F = Selected foreign language material included, primarily Western European in addition to English language material.
W = Wide variety of foreign language material in addition to English language material. No programmatic decision is made to restrict materials according to language.
Y = Material is primarily in one non-English language. The overall focus is on collecting material in the vernacular of the area.
