Subject Librarian: Kalina Grewal
Academic Programs Supported and Description of Current Collection
The Libraries support the program in Sociology up to, and including, the Ph.D. level. Undergraduate students can enroll in the Specialized Honours B.A., Honours B.A., Honours (Double Major) B.A., Honours (Major/Minor) B.A., Honours (Double Major) Interdisciplinary B.A., or Honour (Minor) B.A. Program. The Interdisciplinary B.A. in Sociology can be linked with the following: African Studies, Canadian Studies, Health and Society, Labour Studies, Law and Society, Communications, Science and Society, Social and Political Thought, and Urban Studies.
At the Graduate level, students can concentrate in the following fields: classical and contemporary theory; cultural studies; family and intimate relations; health studies; power, class and change; qualitative and quantitative methods; race, ethnicity and immigration; regulation, law and crime; sex, gender and feminist studies; sociology of education; state and citizenship; and work and labour.
As well as supporting the Sociology program, the collection serves students and faculty in the Social Sciences Division; School of Social Work (B.SW and M.SW); the School of Women's Studies (B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.); the program in Social and Political Thought (B.A. and M.A.); the graduate program in Disability Studies (M.A.); the Centre for Health Studies; and to some extent, the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Psychology, and the program in Communications.
The following institutes and centres are most closely tied to the collection: Institute for Social Research, the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution, the Centre for Refugee Studies, the Centre for Health Studies, the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, Centre for Research on Work and Society, the Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, the Nellie Langford Rowell Library and the Centre for Feminist Research.
Description of Current Collection
As sociology is concerned with the connections between individuals, organizations, and societies, both past and present, almost anything can fall under the sociologist's lens. The strength of the collection is the North American experience, particularly works exploring issues of ethnicity, race, gender and sexuality. Emerging areas of interest to faculty and students include the sociology of the environment, globalization, health and disability and the collection will grow to reflect such interest. To maintain the currency of the serials collection, subscriptions to new and/or established serials are begun while subscriptions to irrelevant serials are cancelled. York University Libraries are also members of various consortia that serve to provide broader access to select serials in electronic format.
Related Collections at York
Sociology has fairly strong connections to a number of other disciplines, particularly psychology, history and law, making collecting in sociology a fairly collaborative endeavour. Works dealing with counselling, addictions, or anti-social behaviour may fall into either psychology or sociology call number ranges and purchasing these items require consultation between the sociology and psychology librarians. Or in the case of history, works dealing with ethnic minorities or lesbian and gay issues in the past may more rightly fall into sociology call number ranges, but are instead classed in the history call numbers. Co-operation ensures the collection is as comprehensive as possible, regardless of how the item is classed.
The Government Documents/Administrative Studies Library collects important statistical data produced by various levels of government and by non-governmental bodies. The Libraries are also a member of the Data Liberation Initiative and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Science Research, further enabling empirical research.
Languages
The collection is almost exclusively English language but some French-Canadian materials are acquired in subjects relevant to the collection.
Geographical Coverage
Monographs and serials from around the world are sought, but as the focus of teaching and research is on North America, materials from this region predominate. Cross-cultural research is emphasized.
Chronological Coverage
The contemporary period is emphasized.
Date of Publications
Current publications predominate. All works by major scholars in the field are sought regardless of publication date. The latest editions of important and heavily circulated monographs are purchased. Some retrospective material is purchased at the request of faculty and students.
Duplication
Multiple copies are bought for most Canadian publications and for areas that are of great interest to students. Added copies of non-Canadian materials are ordered for general circulation, if needed. About ten heavily used serials are subscribed to in both microform and paper formats.
Gifts
Generally, only gifts of recently published materials are accepted.
Relegation and Weeding
Superceded editions of textbooks are slowly being weeded from the collection.
- Books -Paperback and hardback monographs are selected, with the emphasis on paper. Some paperbacks are bound for protection. Textbooks are available through Scott Reserves, and only a few, generally written by renowned scholars, are purchased for the general collection. Earlier editions of textbooks are not selected unless they contain essays that do not appear in the latest edition. Monographs in a series are selected on an individual basis.
- Journals – Subscriptions are maintained for all significant journals and those journals representing "alternative" scholarship. Journals about "minorities" (sexual, ethnic or racial) or from the Majority World and published from their perspective or in that region are actively sought. Few newsletters and annual reports are selected.
- Microforms—Microform back runs are selected as backup to heavily used or frequently mutilated journals, or if paper copies are unavailable. A few microform collections of original documents have been purchased, including Women and Health, Women and Gender Issues in Latin America, Sex and Sexuality, 1640-1940-Literary, Medical and Sociological Perspectives, Colonial Discourses: Women, Travel and Empire, 1660- 1914 and Race Relations in the International Arena, 1940-1955.
- Theses and Dissertations—Dissertations may be purchased, especially if they are of Canadian interest. They are bought in paper format.
- Ephemera—Ephemera are seldom selected.
- Electronic Resources—The libraries are subscribing to increasing numbers of electronic journals and multidisciplinary full-text databases.
- Films, Videos, Recordings—These items are selected by the librarians in SMIL.
- Exclusions—Tests and self-help books of a popular nature are not acquired. Usually items of less than thirty pages are excluded unless they are of some Canadian significance.
Resources Elsewhere in the Toronto Region
The Toronto Reference Library and Robarts Library at the University of Toronto are excellent resources available to students.
Last updated 2000