Maureen Pardee Redfield LI813: Reference and User Services April 16, 2011

Reference Collection Development Proposal Assignment Intro:

This proposed collection is for the use of students in an academic library at a small, academically rigorous, private college. The students who will be using this collection are primarily undergraduates. Our school has strong humanities and social sciences programs that, with the addition of a new incoming faculty member, will be embarking on the path to a new interdisciplinary programas a partnership between the sociology, economics, history, political science, and philosophy departmentsin the field of poverty studies. Over the last 60 years the issue of poverty has increasingly shown up on the radar in our country. The answers, however, have proved to be elusive. More study is needed and new scholars need to be introduced to the discipline. Our college has seen this writing on the wall and decided that we were the right ones to help produce some of these new scholars. In order to provide the reference services our students will need we need to add this list of poverty studies books to our reference collection.

Reference Sources:
Crane, D. R., & Heaton, T. B. (2008). Handbook of families and poverty. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. 495 pgs. $125. An Essential book according Choices 2008 review, this resource will provide our students with a resource to explore the important facet of family within the field of poverty studies. This is a meticulously researched (Choice, 2008) book edited by two prolific researchers. The book covers the stated topic exclusively, leaving discussions more concerned with social structures and institutions and their implications in discussions of poverty to other sources. One downside, as pointed out by Pamela Monroe in the Journal of Family Theory and Review (2009, 1, no 2), is that the organization is not intuitive. The arrangement of chapters is not what one would expect from a handbook. The first section of the book addresses critiques of the welfare system in this country rather than background and historical material as one might expect. Luckily, as this source will be in our American Poverty Studies Reference Collection, our patrons will be utilizing this book in a more piece-meal fashion as benefiting a reference book. Every chapter can be read as a stand-alone, well researched article. The books contents are easily accessible via the detailed table of contents and the comprehensive index. Each article is followed by a
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Maureen Pardee Redfield LI813: Reference and User Services April 16, 2011

good sized reference list (some more than one page) to provide further things to explore in each topic. The 50+ contributors range from well-known scholars to up-and-coming researchers in the discipline. Gilbert, G. (2008). Rich and poor in America: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. 275 pgs. $55 This reference handbook contributes to our collection the essential comparison of, not just what defines poverty but also, a discussion of wealth. This source analyzes the growing disparity between rich and poor. One unique aspect of this book is the inclusion of biographical sketches of important figures in poverty studies including scholars, activists, and successful people. Written by an economist, this book provides a superb review of some of the key questions and data that are relevant to understanding the causes, consequences, and trends related to economic inequality. (ARBA, 2009) Gilbert supports his discussions with relevant graphs, charts and tables. A list of selected print and non-print sources is included to provide recommendations of websites and videos, in addition to the standard scholarly articles and books, for our students to examine in their continuing research. In addition to the list of sources, students are pointed on to additional information in the discipline through lists of data and documents and, uniquely, a directory of organizations with interests in different aspects of poverty studies. Access to the material is provided through a detailed table of contents, a brief glossary and the index. Gilbert also gives our students a clear, easy to understand, explanation of some critical social science and economics data analysis tools such as the Gini coefficient. All told, this handbook earns its highly recommended rating in Choices 2009 review. Glasmeier, A. (2006). An atlas of poverty in America: One nation, pulling apart, 1960-2003. New York, NY: Routledge. 95 pgs. $85. This atlas is a collection of maps, figures and graphs illustrating statistics and analysis of census data relating to poverty both in numbers and geographical dispersal. This data is examined in the context of children, women, black families, black male incarceration, Hispanic Americans, elderly, and the working poor. In addition to current numbers, poverty data is also shown for each of the last four decades. Three geographic areas are also highlighted with more specific information: Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and the U.S.-Mexico border area. Rural and Native American Reservation areas also have sections devoted to them in the Distressed Regions
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Maureen Pardee Redfield LI813: Reference and User Services April 16, 2011

portion of the book. A brief discussion of the history of American poverty policies for the focused time-frame is included with supporting charts, tables and graphs. One of the nice features of this book is that the author has divided the Sources listing into sections, rather than a strict alphabetical listing. This will allow our patrons to easily utilize the resource list to find further information about their sub-topic of interest: the paradox of American poverty, children and poverty, women, blacks, Hispanics, the working poor, Appalachia, etc. One drawback of this atlas might be its unusual size. While it is a slim volume, the unusually large depth for the more standard height may make shelving a bit of a challenge. The dimensions make the book a bit awkward to hold and consult, leading to the atlas requiring a good bit of its own desk real estate but the quality hardcover binding seems to withstand the necessary juggling. The book has a clear, detailed table of contents followed by a listing of tables, figures, maps and photographs. Nearly all tables, figures, and maps have informative descriptive titles, allowing the patron to quickly locate the data and map of interest. Lastly, a clear, easy to read alphabetical index rounds out the available access points. The atlas also comes with a CD-ROM containing a demonstration version of CensusMappera software for creating maps of US Census Data that our students might find interesting and useful for creating their own maps to support whichever specific theses they are working on. Amy K. Glasmeier is a professor of geography at Penn State and comes with not only an extensive CV but has done a great job producing this atlas, that receives highly recommended and visually powerful accolades from Choices 2006 review, with support from the Ford Foundation. Mink, G., & OConnor, A. (Eds.). (2004). Poverty in the United States: An encyclopedia of history, politics, and policy. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. $185 This encyclopedia starts off with overview of the history of American poverty from colonial times to the present then proceeds to over 300 alphabetically listed entries in two volumes that cover the topic broadlyprimarily focused on this century. Entries range from one to about ten pages with most falling in the three to four page range. Each entry is followed by a see also listing of other related entries and a brief References and Further Reading section. Each volume contains the whole table of contents of entries and the second volume contains a lengthy index for the set. In aiming so broadly, this encyclopedia, of course, lacks in depth. The inclusion of primary sourcesphotographs, excerpts from speeches and Supreme Court opinionsadds to
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Maureen Pardee Redfield LI813: Reference and User Services April 16, 2011

the understandings that can be gleaned from these volumes. Historical emphasis gives students a background and jumping off point to further research about controversies, historical waves/changes in policies and the social conditions that have influenced them. Highly recommended in Choices 2005 review. Mink and OConnor can certainly be lauded for recruiting such a diverse academic list of contributors for this encyclopedia. The editors have attempted, in this work, to give readers a resource that acknowledges the many facets of poverty in America including major literary works, historical events, and social movements. In all appearances, theyve succeeded. pi k r, ., r , L. S., Gordon, D., & CROP International Studies in Poverty Research. (Eds.). (2007). Poverty: An international glossary. (2nd ed.). London, UK: Zed Books. 246 pgs or e-book. In this glossary, which is available as an e-book that our students can access online directly through a link from the catalog or in the traditional print format, the editors have compiled an excellent resource for understanding the terminology in the study of poverty. After a brief introduction, the alphabetized list of over 200 terms begins. Each entry is followed by a brief list of resources, demonstrating the well-researched nature of this text as well as providing a leaping off point for topics of interest and study. The editorial board is comprised of 15 contributors from around the world and from a variety of disciplines. Together theyve aimed to construct an authoritative guide to the terminology in use in the wide and interdisciplinary study of poverty. While this glossary is overtly and intentionally international it is unique and will be a much referred to source for our students in their quests to understand and contribute to the scholarship surrounding the problems of poverty in America. The terminology in the international study of poverty is not mutually exclusive to the study of American poverty and having the availability of a more international resource can allow for our students to make connections between their studies and the research in action on a wider, global, picture. This volume will help our students gain a firm grasp of terminology, which is essential to true academic discourse. The editors recognized the inconsistent and widely varied language being used in the scholarship and have worked to pin down definitions in order to provide the groundwork for intelligent dialogue in the field. Without defining ones terms, we can be hard pressed to be sure we are actually talking about the same thing in an intellectual manner.
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In addition to the alphabetical table of contents, the text includes a detailed index and an insightful essay at the end discussing twelve ways to frame the poverty discussion. The e-book version includes all of the features of the print version, less the index, with the addition of the ability to search the entirety of the contents. This seems to be the only book of its kind and a much desired resource for our students.

Reflection:
This assignment was more challenging than I expected it to be. I found it difficult to decide on a setting and a user community. Perhaps my sense of imagination is not very well developed? After trying on, and discarding, several other options I was able to stick to the American Poverty Studies Reference Collection. This user community selection felt like I settled. I was hoping to broaden my knowledge and horizons by targeting a public library user. This proved to be frustrating. I had little luck finding things that I could classify as reference sources. I changed gears to target some aspect of an academic library community. I know academics, academic libraries, and academic library patrons far better than the needs of public library patrons. Even though I did not use this assignment to learn more about a different type of library and a different population of library patrons, I think I managed to learn something. Discovering reference sources was both interesting and elusive. I wish I could filter search results to reference books! I found World Cat, the Choice Reviews Online database and the ARBA Online tools to be the most useful. I did look at some more mainstream resources at Amazon.com and Google Books for reviews and peeks inside books I didnt have physically. As usual, I found Google Books to be more irritating than helpful. Perhaps Im a bit strange, but one of the hints given for determining if a source was a reference source seemed to not quite apply to me. I want to sit down and read nearly all of my sources front to back! Most of them look to be very interesting and several have gone on to my personal to-read list. I did get a bit wordy with some of my annotations and was unable to cut out any evaluation points. There was a plethora of different, mentionable, types of information in most of my sources.