Collections: Communication Policy

Program Description

The Department of Communication offers an undergraduate program culminating in a B.A. degree. The department employs nine full-time faculty; teaching concentrations include intercultural, interpersonal, organizational, and visual communication. Specifically, the research and teaching of the department examines how political campaigns function, how organizations conduct business, how films create and reflect a vision of the world, how culture contributes to the shaping of identity, how ethical systems establish possibilities for interaction, and how discourse and speaking has influenced history.

The communication major provides students with an understanding of theories, processes, and practices of human communication. Ten courses are required for the major, three of which are taken by all students in the degree program. The department offers a Film Studies major or minor; students are also offered international and interdisciplinary communication courses. The department strives to provide excellence in undergraduate advising and teaching in addition to providing a firm foundation for graduate study in Communication. The department also recognizes that many graduates go on to careers in law, political consulting, broadcasting, journalism, advertising, public relations, social work, and film production. The overall goal of the faculty is to challenge students in becoming critical users and consumers of communication in a variety of contexts, interactions, and practices.



Subject Resource Guide

http://libguides.tulane.edu/communication



Scope

Selection emphasis is primarily on materials supporting teaching and research in intercultural, interpersonal, organizational, and visual communication with a special emphasis on Caribbean mass media (musical and cultural), cultural studies, gender studies, rhetoric and speech studies, journalism, and film theory and criticism (particularly African and Latin American).



Type

The library collects journals, monographs, monographic series, conference proceedings, and specialized reference works with particular emphasis given to scholarly editions. Textbooks, dissertations, manuscripts, and most collections of previously published materials are not regularly sought.



Format

Journals, monographs, monographic series, proceedings, and reference works are generally purchased as printed text. To broaden accessibility, journals are sought online when this format is available. Print journals may be canceled to reduce costs when ownership of the online version is assured. Online access that requires additional costs with a print subscription will be sought selectively. Other formats are considered, especially when the alternative format would improve access or utility.



Language

The collection emphasis is primarily English with Spanish and French considered selectively.



Chronological Period

Collection emphasis focuses on the classical world and from the eighteenth century to the present.



Imprint Date

Recently published items, appearing in the last two or three years, are given preference; out-of-print materials are sought generally to replace important works damaged or missing from the collection or by special request.



Geographical Considerations

Specific attention is given to works focusing on the United States, the Caribbean, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and Africa though no areas are excluded.



Related Collections

The ethnic history and culture collections of the Amistad Research Center, the public health collection of the Matas Medical Center Library, and the Tulane Law Library contain items of special interest for the Department.



Cooperative Resources

The main library at Loyola University of New Orleans has a solid audio-visual and instructional media collection and a reciprocal borrowing agreement with Tulane. The Loyola campus is adjacent to Tulane's campus uptown. The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library has purchased more than 40,000 ebooks, with records loaded into the library catalog and covering a wide range of subjects, through the SOLINET regional library consortium. The library is one of 14 members of a cooperative consortium of southern research libraries called KUDZU, which includes a shared online catalog. Loan requests through this system receive priority processing and expedited two-day delivery. The library is also a member of the cooperative Center for Research Libraries (CRL) in Chicago, through which may borrow a wide range of rare materials for our users. Graduate students and faculty may borrow materials at other New Orleans area academic libraries through the CALL consortium and at other academic libraries throughout the state through the LALINC consortium. Faculty may in many cases secure temporary borrowing library privileges outside the state through OCLC. For more information about cooperative borrowing privileges inquire at the library's Circulation Desk.



Supply Sources

Approval plans and book notices are supplied by Blackwell's Book Services, Puvill (Spain), and Touzot (France).



Endowed Funds

At present, no specific endowed funds are directed to Communication.



Selection Tools

Choice, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Journal of Communication, Communication Monographs, Text and Performance Quarterly, and Journal of Applied Communication are reviewed regularly.