DEPARTMENT & COURSES

The Brooklyn College Department of Philosophy consists of twenty one faculty members including the Chair Emily Michael, Professors Jonathan Adler, Nanette Funk, Donald Levy, Angelica Nuzzo, Associate Professors Edward Kent, Iakovos Vasiliou, Adjunct Associate Professor Fred Michael, Assistant Professors Daniel Campos, Robert Lurz, Michael Menser, Matthew Moore, Abraham Schwab, Robert Sinclair, Saam Trivedi, GTF Richard Brown and Emeritus Professors Arnold Koslow, Beth Singer, Elmer Sprague, Eric Steinberg, Paul Taylor. For changes see at http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/philo/Facultypage1.htm.
Angelica Nuzzo serves as the library representative for the department.

The Department of Philosophy offers an undergraduate major and minor, and philosophy concentration for majors in the following programs: early childhood education teacher (birth-grade 2); childhood education teacher (grades 1-6). There are four options of courses, offered to students, planning graduate study in: I. Philosophy, II. Philosophy and Law - careers involving public affairs, law, or planning and management, III. Philosophy and other fields - careers in medicine, cognitive science, and for other students interested in acquiring a knowledge of philosophy, that also contributes to the understanding of another field, IV. Philososphy and Business - careers in business. Special topics, seminars, and independent studies courses require advanced research.

The Department of Philosophy participates in the college's core curriculum through Core Studies 10 - Knowledge, Existence and Values.

The Philosophy Collection is funded through state-leaved money that comes through the annual budget of the Library. There are no gift funds devoted to Philosophy.

GENERAL APPROACH TO MATERIALS SELECTION

A. ACQUISITIONS STRATEGY

Print and non-print resources are identified through review resources with broad subject area coverage including printed resources Choice, Library Journal, Booklist, online resources including Books in Print, Amazon, and specialized journals in the Brooklyn College Library collection that include book reviews. Publisher catalogs are checked for recent publications in the field. 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.
Electronic Web-based resources identified for subscription access will be recommended to the Department of Philosophy for consideration. Items that may be of 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 accessible, added to the subject guide for Philosophy on the Brooklyn College Library home page.

B. LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY

Materials will be collected on a college level to support undergraduate and to a lesser degree graduate course work through the master's level. Faculty research is supported as resources are available.

C. LANGUAGE

Most materials will be collected in English. Prospective graduate students in philosophy should develop reading comprehension in at least one of the following languages: French, German, Greek, and Latin.

D. GEOGRAPHIC AREAS INCLUDED/EXCLUDED

Collection includes primarily Western philosophy, and some Oriental and Judaic.

E. CURRENT PURCHASES

Current publications are of primary importance and account for most ordering activity. It is extremely important to locate out-of-print titles, because these titles may be the only materials available on various subjects, 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 for classroom use. 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, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, indexes and abstracts, 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. All formats will be considered including paper, microform, CD-ROM and online.

H. DUPLICATION:

As is generally the policy of the Library, books will be not ordered in duplicate. Exceptions are made, however, for titles that will be in heavy demand.

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 Philosophy alerts the department library representative when funds become available for purchase and will encourage him/her to inform department colleagues of the availability of the money. The bibliographer's goal is to balance with faculty requests.

SELECTION ACTIVITY/PROBLEMS

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

COMMENTS

A system for alerting library and classroom faculty of important new acquisitions in Philosophy and all areas could be beneficial. An alerting system may be integral with the newer version of the library catalog, as well as the newly constructed database of its uncatalogued electronic subject resources.

Updated: December 17th, 2006
Prof. Eva Dimova-Angelov