DEPARTMENT & COURSES:

The Brooklyn College Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies consists of five faculty members including the Chair Virginia Sanchez-Korrol, Deputy Chair Antonio Nadal, and Professors Hector Carrasquillo, Maria Perez y Gonzalez and Anthony Stevens-Arroyo. Maria Perez y Gonzalez serves as the library representative for the department.

The Department of Puerto Rican Studies offers a major, a minor, and an education concentration for undergraduate BA degrees in Puerto Rican and Latino Studies and education. The department also offers graduate courses for students in other fields. Coursework covers culture, religion and the arts, history and literature, contemporary society, Latin American and transnational societies, and bilingual (Spanish-English) studies. Special topics, seminars and independent studies courses require advanced research.

The Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies participates in the College's core curriculum through Core Studies 9.

Along with The Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library and Archives at the Jacqueline Grennan Wexler Library of Hunter College the Brooklyn College Library serves as the predominant library for undergraduate research in the field.

The Puerto Rican and Latino studies collection is funded through state-levied money that comes through the annual library budget.

Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM) provides guidance for acquisition of Latin American library resources. Additionally, print and non-print resources are identified through review resources with broad subject area coverage including the printed resources

• Choice
• Library Journal
• Booklist

• Books in Print
• Amazon

• Caribbean Quarterly
• Caribbean Review
• Cuadernos Americanos: Nueva Epoca
• Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos
• Hispamerica
• Hispania
• Hispanic
• Hispanic American Historical Review
• Hispanic Review
• Hispanofila
• Journal of Caribbean Studies
• Latin American Research Review
• Latin American Literary Review
• Third World Quarterly

Publisher catalogs, in particular from publishers with a special interest in the topic and small press publishers will be examined. Additionally, the site Latin American Network Information Center maintains links to publishers and bookdealers and these may be followed.

For media purchases, video catalogs and Web sites are checked including the directory sites

• Resources for Locating and Evaluating Latin American Videos
• Texas Tech Universities Libraries, International Culture Center, Vendors and Distributors

• Audiovisuales del Caribe, Inc.
• Cinema Guild
• Facets Multimedia
• Filmakers Library
• Films for the Humanities and the Sciences
• First Run/Icarus Films
• International Video Network
• Isla Films
• NLCC Educational Media
• Taller de Cine La Red, Inc.

The online catalogs of other university and research libraries are checked for appropriate resources in specific areas.

Books are also identified in the Strand Bookstore flyers that are circulated to the librarians.

Electronic Web-based resources identified for subscription access will be recommended to the department of Puerto Rican and Latino studies for consideration. Items that may be off interest to the entire City University of New York (CUNY) will be brought for consideration before that CUNY Electronic Resources Advisory Committee.

Web resources that are available at no cost will be identified through their mention in other printed and electronic publications (including Web sites, listservs, and e-mail correspondences). These sites will be evaluated for appropriateness and, if acceptable, added to the subject guide for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies on the Brooklyn College Library home page.

B. LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY

Most materials will be collected on a college level. Books appropriate for teachers of elementary education that cover biography, country studies, and holidays and celebrations may be purchased on the K-6 level. Popular material that is likely to be requested and that is relevant to the curriculum will also be collected.

C. LANGUAGE

Material will be collected in English and Spanish.

D. GEOGRAPHIC AREAS INCLUDED/EXCLUDED

Latin America including Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America are heavily emphasized in addition to regions in the United States such as the southwest, the southeast and urban areas with a large latino population.

E. CURRENT AND RETROSPECTIVE PURCHASES

Current publishing is heavily relied upon due to the constant state of change regarding educational, political, social and other issues. It is extremely important to locate out-of-print titles because these titles may be the only materials available on various subjects, these titles may be useful for historical purposes, and often may be considered rare items.

F. FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED/EXCLUDED

Printed and non-printed resources will be collected. Videos will be ordered if requested by the department. CD-ROMs may be ordered on a limited basis if they offer information not readily available in some other format. Electronic resources requiring a subscription for access as well as free electronic resources will be included.

G. REFERENCE POLICY

Bibliographies, indexes, standard reference tools, and materials that would normally circulate but are in "high" demand because of their importance should be included in the reference policy.

H. DUPLICATION

As is generally the policy of the Library, books will not be ordered in duplicate.

I. WEEDING POLICY

Weeding should be done on a yearly basis to replace lost or stolen items and to remove popular materials that can be replaced by scholarly materials. Inventory should be made when organizations publish lists, or bibliographies are published, of core collections.

J. SELECTION ACTIVITY

The subject bibliographer for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies alerts the department library representative when funds become available for purchase and will encourage her to inform department colleagues of the availability of the money. The bibliographer will allow 1/3 to ½ of the library budget to go to purchases requested by the department representative. The subject bibliographer will make selections with the remaining money in order to provide balance to the overall collection and its cross-disciplinary uses.

At this time, there appears to be no problems with selection.

A system for alerting library and classroom faculty of important new acquisitions in Puerto Rican and Latino Studies and all areas could be beneficial. The Library is constructing a database of its uncatalogued, electronic subject resources and an alerting system may be integral to its construction. Additionally, suggestions are available for how to create an e-mail notification system which would notify patrons when new titles are catalogued (see http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0006/0158.html ).

Updated: September 7, 2000
Prof. Beth Evans