Communications Studies Collections

Collecting Goals	Government Information	Microform Collections	UNC Web Sites
Reference Collections	Media Collections	Special Collections	Other Web Sites
Electronic Collections	Newspaper Collections	Related Collections	Library Contacts
General Collections			Faculty Library Liaison

Collecting Goals:

The Library's collections related to communication studies support teaching and research in the undergraduate and graduate programs of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They also serve as a resource for the people of the State. The collections are particularly strong in the fields the Department emphasizes: communication and cultural studies, interpersonal and organizational communication, media studies, performance studies, and rhetoric and cultural theory.

Reference Collections:

The Library has extensive collections of reference materials in all formats to support Communication Studies. Many major indexing and abstracting tools are available online, notably Communication Abstracts, and Communication and Mass Media Complete. Printed works are located primarily in the Reference Department of Davis Library. E-Reference materials are a good place to begin the investigation of communication studies, while research guides and tutorials facilitate exploration in depth in selected areas. For further information about reference materials or help using them, please consult the Reference staff.

Electronic Collections:

Library databases provide access to thousands of titles. In addition there are dozens of newspapers that are listed under "News" in "Article Databases." They include the New York Times Historical Newspaper, the Atlanta Constitution Historical Newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective, and African American Newspapers: The 19th Century. Statistical databases appear under "Statistics (numeric data)". The most noteworthy serials database for Communication Studies is Communication and Mass Media Complete mentioned above, which, in addition to indexing 400 journals, provides the full text of over 200 journals related to communication and mass media. Information about dozens of other serials is available on a collected list. However, the best way to find information about individual electronic serials is to enter a title search on the Library's "E-Journal Finder" web page. To request a database or serial, please contact the Humanities Bibliographer.

General Collections:

The libraries contain a wide range of scholarly materials in English and the major European languages that reflect departmental strengths in the following areas:

Communication and Cultural Studies: The Library has thousands of books and many journals and other materials in the humanities and social sciences to support this interdisciplinary area, which is concerned with finding ways to describe and evaluate the effects of cultural practices on the organization of social power and the everyday lives of people. Collections in English literature, sociology, history, anthropology, and economics extend library holdings in this field.

Interpersonal and Organizational Communication: The Library related to interpersonal and organizational communication include most significant books published in English, plus extensive holdings of major journals. They are wide-ranging and offer significant breadth and depth in the behavioral and social aspects of communication. Collections in psychology, sociology and business extend library holdings in this field.

Media Studies: To support programs in media studies, the Library acquires many resources related to film, television and radio, including shooting scripts, videotapes and audiotapes, which are housed in the Media Resources Center of the Undergraduate Library. The Manuscripts Department houses collections of documentary and broadcast media related to the South. Secondary materials include works of history, criticism and biographies of the major figures associated with these media. Monographic studies of the effects of media on culture are also important, and the Library acquires most of those published in English and selectively in the major western European languages. The Library also acquires books to aid individuals who are producing and directing media events. Collections in American studies, anthropology, English literature, and sociology extend library holdings in this field.

Performance Studies: The Library has extensive collections of plays, short stories, poetry, fiction, essays, and speeches published in English and other languages that serve as primary material for performances and textual study. These titles are available in print, microform and electronic formats. It also has a variety of critical material discussing performance as an aesthetic event and a social and rhetorical act. The Media Resources Center in the Undergraduate Library has audiotapes and videotapes of various performances and of some master classes teaching performance techniques. The Manuscripts Department houses thousands of oral histories that can be used to study performances. A broad range of ethnographic works are also available in the Library. Studies dealing with Latin America, Oceania, and East Asia are particularly rich. To aid in writing, designing and directing performances, the Library acquires manuals and other materials about these areas. Collections in dramatic art and English literature extend library holdings in this field.

Rhetoric and Cultural Theory: The Library acquires materials to support rhetorical studies, both current and historical. It includes the classical treatises on rhetoric in print, beginning with Aristotle, and a microform collection of rhetorical texts (British and Continental Rhetoric and Elocution). Primary sources for rhetorical studies include not only books, however, but a large number of newspaper backfiles in microfilm. More recently, the collections have expanded to embrace not only print media, but electronic resources and videotapes of films and television shows, and audiotapes of radio, most of which are housed in the Media Resources Center of the Undergraduate Library. The Library supports these primary materials with works of scholarship in English and the major western European languages. Collections in classics and English literature extend library holdings in this field.

A list of current print subscriptions in the discipline is available. For further information or to request a title, please consult the Humanities Bibliographer.

Government Information:

Campus libraries provide web access to the major index and abstracting databases for government information, notably the GPO Monthly Catalog (GPO), which contains more than 450,000 records for all types of government documents printed by the US government. Major full-text and statistical databases are also available, including LexisNexis Congressional, which is a comprehensive source of current and historical bills, testimony, and reports from the US Congress going back to the founding of the republic in 1789. The Documents Section located in the Reference Department of Davis Library holds over three million print and microfilm items from the federal government, U.S. states, and international intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations and World Bank. Foreign government printed documents are housed in the Davis stacks. For further information about government publications, or help using them, please consult the Documents Staff. Online information about North Carolina is available through NC Information Resources, while the North Carolina Collection has the most complete holdings of printed documents for the state. The Law Library contains extensive electronic and paper collections of federal and state legal publications, such as codes and statutes.

Newspaper Collections:

Current domestic and foreign newspapers arrive daily in the Serials Reading Room. The Library acquires at l east one print newspaper and microform backfile from each of the major regions of the country, with emphasis on the Southeast. It also subscribes to more than 40 international newspapers from Europe, Latin American, Russia, Eastern Europe, and China, to support academic programs in those areas. To request a title, please contact the Humanities Bibliographer.

Media Collections:

The Media Resources Center in the House Undergraduate Library contains more than 12,000 feature and documentary films, hundreds of screenplays, and other materials of potential interest to faculty and students in Communication Studies. The Digital Media Lab located there offers a wide range of video hardware and software, giving UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty and staff access to the latest in multimedia software and hardware. For further information about this collection, please consult the Media Resources Center Librarian.

Microform Collections:

The Microform Reading Room contains thousands of titles that might be of interest to faculty and students in Communication Studies. Of particular note are plays, historical periodicals, and the backfiles of important newspapers. For further information about microforms or help using them, please consult the Reference staff. To request a title, please contact the Humanities Bibliographer.

Special Collections:

The Special Collections departments of the Library contain valuable materials for communication studies. The Mass-Market Paperbacks Collection in the Rare Book Collection in Wilson Library consists of twentieth-century paperbacks designed for distribution to a mass audience through supermarkets, drugstores, newsstands, and other outlets. The Barzun-Taylor Mystery-Detective Collection contains 12,500 volumes of novels and short stories by American and British writers, while the Breen Collection has 26,000 comic books. For further information about these and other collections, please consult the Curator of the Rare Book Collection. The North Carolina Collection has unmatched resources for the study of mass communication in the state, most notably its newspapers, clipping files, and Photographic Archives. For further information, please consult the reference staff of the North Carolina Collection. The Manuscripts Department houses Publishing Archives and Collections, particularly "North Carolina Press Club Records." For further information, please contact the Manuscripts Department.

Related Collections:

Collections in Journalism and Mass Communications, American studies, Dramatic Arts, English literature, history, and the social sciences extend library holdings related to Communication Studies. Perkins Library, at Duke University, also has significant holdings of relevant material. Users can therefore expect to find most of the resources they need in the area. The Center for Research Libraries supplements these holdings with additional microform collections related to Communication Studies, particularly foreign dissertations and government publications, books and periodicals in languages other than English, newspapers published abroad, ethnic newspapers published in North America, and large microform sets (especially for foreign area studies). UNC faculty and students can request unlimited amounts of materials from CRL via the web and keep them indefinitely, or until another person needs them. For further information, please consult the Humanities Bibliographer.