Collection Policies

The library's juvenile literature collection supports the subject areas of children's literature and young adult literature in the Education Curriculum and Instruction Department and the English Department, and provides materials for use by student teachers and counselors from all education departments. To a more limited extent, the juvenile collection also serves as a resource for the children of students, staff, and faculty and those adult students who come to learn English as a second language.

Materials collected about children's literature as a discipline also support the classes in Curriculum and Instruction (ECI), Early Childhood Education and Special Education (ESSE) and the English Department's course on Children and Literature.

Language:
Collecting juvenile literature or works about children's literature is mainly done in English. However, materials in any language, especially those languages studied here or represented by the student population should be included.

Chronological Guidelines:
There are no chronological limits to the materials in this collection, though most titles added are current.

Treatment of Subject and Types of Materials:
Fiction and nonfiction at all levels from pre-kindergarten through high school are included. Fairy tales and folktales from various traditions are added to both groups, while titles about folk literature are added to the children's literature collection.

For the discipline of children's literature, bibliographies, book lists and evaluative titles are regularly added to both the reference and general collection. Prize winning works for children, especially those that win the Caldecott and Newbery awards, are added to the collection.

Formats:
In juvenile literature, materials may be collected or otherwise acquired in any format: print, electronic, and/or audiovisual. Different formats are shelved with the format, not with the bulk of the print juvenile collection which is shelved together.

Date of Publication:
Works published within the last ten years are emphasized. Historical materials of significance are also added.

Other General Considerations:

1. Related Subject Policy Statements: Education - All Areas
2. Other Resources: The department of Educational Curriculum and Instruction contains a textbook depository and a large collection of children’s books. These two collections also help further research in and use of children's literature.
   

Our Center for Research Libraries membership entitles us to access to various state education publications and other rare titles that could be useful to research in children's literature.

There is a growing number of resources for all education programs available over the Internet, both through VIVA (Virtual Library of Virginia) and from nonprofit sources. Through VIVA, there is access to databases such as ERIC and Library Literature that provide references to articles about children's literature. General internet sources on children's literature can also help the student teacher.

Other Collection Considerations: The Library's juvenile collection is the recipient of a few hundred books and other material formats received annually through a grant administered by Dr. Kathy Bucher in ECI. The continuing gift has allowed us to build up our collection with fiction and nonfiction titles. Since the juvenile collection includes all subjects and call numbers; analysis by LC classification and Subject are only done for Children's Literature.

Collection Development Policy Analysis by LC Class and Subject
(key to collection codes)

Division: Juvenile Literature Collection & Children's Literature
Bibliographer: Nancy Schafer
Date: 3/2000