Women & Gender Studies

Purpose

The collection policy is a used as a guide for purchasing relevant collections and prioritizing purchases. Purchase decisions are the responsibility of the collections librarian in consultation with faculty and students in the program.

This policy has been developed by Joanne Oud, the Women & Gender Studies Librarian, in cooperation with the Women & Gender Studies Coordinating Committee.

Collection Focus

The Library collection supports teaching, study and research at the undergraduate degree level, especially in support of current courses:

• Introduction to Women’s Studies
• Gender, Subjectivity and Resistance
• Women and Gender Relations in Canada
• Girls, Women and Popular Culture
• Women, Gender and Work
• Women, Gender and Visual Culture
• Violence Against Women
• Women and Leadership
• Introduction to Feminist Thought and Action
• Diverse Masculinities
• Food and Feminism
• Feminist Theory
• Gender and Colonial Legacies
• Gender, Culture and Technology
• Women and Social Justice
• Gender and Social Politics in Contemporary Muslim Societies
• Gender, Cinema and the Third World
• Transnational Sexualities

Collection Scope

• Language: works written or translated into English are preferred
• Place of Publication:  all areas, though priority is given to materials published in North America and the UK
• Dates of Publication: emphasis is placed on recently published works
• Chronological Period:  emphasis is placed on the contemporary period (late 20th and 21st century) except for works on the history of feminist thought and action
• Geographical Areas:  no area is excluded
• Publishers:  scholarly and academic publishers are given priority, although non-scholarly publishers are considered for activist materials

Types and Formats of Materials Collected

• Readership:  academic level materials preferred
• Format:  single copies of books in print formats are usually purchased.  Online format is preferred for reference sources, journals, and books of interest on multiple campuses or intended for course reserve or use for online courses.
• Types of materials not purchased:  textbooks, abridgements, study aids, limited editions, works by vanity presses, juvenile works, pamphlets, reprints and partial contents (e.g. single issues of journals, single chapters of books).

Subjects Collected and Collecting Priorities

Works collected have a feminist perspective, and emphasize diverse representations around issues of race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and ability/disability, especially emphasizing intersectionality or the intersections between these collecting areas (e.g.visual culture and transnational sexualities).

There are 2 levels of collecting priorities:

• A=highest emphasis. Materials that directly support major courses in Women and Gender Studies
• B=secondary emphasis. Materials on major Women and Gender Studies topics, but not directly supporting courses or supporting courses less frequently taught

Related Programs and Support

Related materials are also purchased to support departments and programs such as Communication Studies, English and Film Studies, Sociology, Global Studies, Philosophy, Cultural Analysis and Social Theory, Religion & Culture, and Cultural Studies.

The University of Waterloo also offers an undergraduate degree program in Women’s Studies, and has collections that complement those at the Laurier Library. Their collections are available to Laurier students and faculty through the shared Primo Library catalogue.