Collection Development Statement
Hospitality Management
Principal Selector
Diane Zabel
Benzak Business Librarian
309 Paterno Library
Secondary Selectors
Gary White
Head, Schreyer Business Library
309 Paterno Library
Daniel Hickey
Business/IST Librarian
309 Paterno Library
Kevin Harwell
Business Librarian
309 Paterno Library
Fund
HRRM (a fund that also supports Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management)
General Statement
Hospitality management prepares students for managerial positions in all sectors of the hospitality industry. This includes careers in restaurant management, noncommercial/institutional/contract foodservice, club management, hotel/resort management, meeting and convention planning, consulting, and the casino/gaming industry.
Program Information
Penn State’s nationally ranked (consistently ranked in the top five programs in the country) hospitality management program was established in 1937. It is one of the oldest hospitality management programs in the country. While curricular requirements have changed over the decades, the emphasis has always been on “combining a broad educational foundation with ‘real world’ experiences and other opportunities for students to hone their leadership, business, and communication skills.” (The School of Hospitality Management at Penn State Web Site: http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/shm/) The School is based in the College of Health and Human Development.
Students may earn a B.S. in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management. This degree program (which is only available at University Park) offers two options: 1) Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management and 2) Management Dietetics. Baccalaureate students may also earn a Minor in Information Sciences and Technology for Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management. Associate degrees (A.S. in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management) are offered at Penn State Berks and Penn State World Campus. The School has an enrollment of 800 undergraduate students. There are currently 32 faculty members at University Park and one faculty member at the Berks campus.
The School’s graduate program offers two options: 1) the M.S. in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management and 2) the Ph.D in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management. There are currently 17 students enrolled in the graduate program. The master’s degree program has recently been ranked number one in the nation and the doctoral program has been ranked second in the nation. (College of Health and Human Development Strategic Plan 2008-2013)
Areas of Focus/Strengths
Collection strengths include restaurant/foodservice management and hotel management. Given the managerial focus of the program, students make heavy use of electronic resources providing company information, industry analysis, and marketing data.
Description of Materials Covered
Hospitality management collections consists of resources relating to restaurant and foodservice management, hotel management, resort management, club management, gaming as an economic activity, and management of service industries in general. Types of materials collected include encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, handbooks, statistical compendiums, scholarly monographs, quantity cookery books, research journals, and trade periodicals. The following types of materials are collected selectively: textbooks, popular works, conference proceedings, and trade cookbooks. Hospitality management collections also include career-related materials and audio visual materials.
Overlap with Other Collections
Due to its highly interdisciplinary nature, there is a great deal of overlap with other collection areas, including, but not limited to the following:
• Accounting
• Architecture
• Finance
• Information Sciences and Technology
• Law
• Management
• Management Information Systems
• Marketing
• Nutrition
• Psychology
• Recreation, Park and Tourism Management
• Supply Chain and Information Systems
Subject & Language Modifiers
Emphasis is placed on English language materials. However, some Spanish language materials are purchased to support the “Spanish for Hospitality” program, an area of specialization in the undergraduate program. Since the hospitality industry is a global industry, no region or country is excluded. Materials published in the last two to three years are primarily collected because of the need for currency.
Exclusions
Hospitality management collections generally exclude dissertations and theses (except for those written by individuals who join the Penn State faculty in this school), working papers, and case studies.
Special Considerations
The information sources for this discipline are often ephemeral specialized publications from diverse and scattered publishers and professional trade associations. Special effort is made to acquire the literature produced by numerous professional trade associations (including but not limited to the National Restaurant Association and the U.S. Travel Association) specialized publishers, consulting firms, market research companies, and research centers.
Future Directions
New or expanding areas of interest include sustainability, corporate social responsibility, human resource management strategies for the hospitality industry, services marketing, new food product development, effect of nutrition information on food choice, and international hospitality management. The School’s strategic goal in the area of research/scholarship is “to be recognized within academia as the premier hospitality management research program in a public university in the world.” (The School of Hospitality Management at Penn State Web Site: http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/shm/) Consequently, it will be critical to enhance research collections in hospitality management.
May 2009
