A.     Purpose of Collection  

1. Program Information

French is one of the languages taught within the Modern Languages and Literatures department here at WSU.  At the moment, two professors, Dr. Brigitte Roussel (medieval and early modern literature) and Dr. Wilson Baldridge (modern literature) handle the mainly undergraduate level language courses with a few literature classes thrown in.  In addition, Dr. Marat Santallov teaches French language classes.  Undergraduate classes are offered in Elementary French, Intermediate French, Intermediate French readings, Intermediate Conversation and Cooperative Education.  Graduate classes are taught in French Phonetics, Advanced Conversation, French Literature of Africa and the Caribbean in translation, French Civilization: Middle Ages to the Restoration, Contemporary French Civilization, Renaissance French Literature, 17^th Century French Literature, 18^th Century French Literature, 19^th Century French Literature, 20^th Century French Literature and Contemporary French Literature.

2. Collection Description

The French collection consists of paper books, some journals, database access and limited e-book access.

 

Due to our collaboration with the two professors noted above, the Libraries’ book holdings in this regard are quality selections even if they are smaller than other MCLL areas such as Spanish.  Two analyses illustrated this fact.  The first test compared our holdings to the bibliography in The Oxford Companion to French Literature. In terms of works prior to 1970, we had half of the English language reference items and a few original language entries.  The second test, using the recently published A Short History of French Literature rendered positive results showing that we have 85 percent of the core works written in English for this area.[i]

 

We tend not to collect dissertations, essay collections or conference proceedings for this area, as it is an undergraduate program.  However, these items are available upon request.
 

Our journal holdings in this regard are not as strong as they could be.  Interdisciplinary journals as well as those literary journals in English provide the bulk of our coverage.  We do have a few French language journals, which we are still receiving and several historical runs up in the general stacks.  However recent budget cuts have taken their toll on those items.  Running our historical and present-day collections up against the MLA Bibliography reveals that our original language collections are weak in this regard, not even having core journals in most regards and only a few of the English language serials.  As such, researchers rely heavily on Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery for most of their materials.  These journals need to be protected whenever possible in future serials reviews.

 

Database access remains limited to mostly English language works.  The only access we have for French language works comes the MLA Bibliography.  That database, however, provides citations and abstracts only.  While there are links to full text, they are from other databases and then, only those that we subscribe to.  Full text access to articles in English comes from JSTOR (retrospective coverage) and Project Muse (mostly the last fifteen years’ of publication runs).  Humanities Index and InfoTrac Web’s Expanded Academic provide some additional coverage for English works.  Yet in the latter’s case, only 1 out of every 4 academic works is available in full text.

 

E-Book coverage remains in flux as well.  Netlibrary does not have a great deal of French literature, historical or cultural works in its holdings.  With the possible addition of the ACLS Humanities E-Book and other packages may offer possibilities in this regard.

3. Anticipated Trends

As with other areas within the Humanities, two items will drive our collecting efforts for French:  access and budgets.

The balance between print and electronic media may help to bridge several gaps in the future.  Certainly, in terms of electronic journals, we could stand to benefit if publishers provide affordable foreign language journal packages here in the United States.  Even so, French journals would rank behind Spanish in this regard.  The same can be said for French monographs and source materials.  Fortunately, the interdisciplinary coverage in JSTOR and Project Muse does assist in bridging this gap.  Once again, however, this balance can change depending upon budgets and which databases we can acquire/hang on to in the future.  While the Libraries probably will not increase its holdings in foreign language journals or databases in a large way, our access to materials in English could benefit from adding JSTOR’s Arts & Humanities II and III packages to our repertoire.  Cost could determine whether we keep Project Muse beyond 2005 so we need to plan accordingly.  A switch to EBSCOHost Expanded Academic could increase access as well.  In terms of e-book coverage, an increase in Netlibrary, ACLS History E-Book Collection and/or other collections in this regard can only help narrow this gap while providing quality materials to our patrons.

 

With French, due to the collaboration between Dr. Roussel, Dr. Baldridge and the liaison librarians, we have strong core collections for the most part, emphasizing quality over quantity.  Given the budgetary situation and priorities both for the MCLL department and the Libraries as a whole, this activity will need to be monitored carefully to insure a balance between a general collecting base, meeting faculty research needs and satisfying patron’s needs.  To their credit, these two professors make it a point to balance all three of these components in their requests for books and our discussions.  Also, since French literature does touch on the other subject areas across campus noted above, we do need to keep some literary works (mainly in translation but with some original holdings) available for patron use as well.  These issues are concerns for the French CD area.
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B.    B.     Scope of Coverage

1. Chronological Focus

For French literature, the primary chronological areas are Medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern and Modern.  This could be expanded depending upon the interests of the new faculty hire.

 

Other areas can be collected depending upon available budgetary resources; the importance of the analyzed work(s) within the scope of French literary history in general and the quality of the scholarship in that work.  In any event, that activity would never exceed C2 or D Levels as explained in Appendix B.

 

2. Geographic Focus

The primary geographic focus is France.  Other areas include Quebec, the Low Countries (medieval—see Burgundian holdings) and the Maghrib (Northern Africa).  Once again, the new person’s research interests could affect the geographic coverage as well.

3. Formats and Materials Collected

For French literature, the collecting efforts include printed works both in English and French.  The following formats are collected:  books, journals and serials.  As noted above, when the appropriate opportunity arises to investigate electronic access for French language journals and electronic works, we will do so.