Materials in Western Europe languages are also collected in varying degrees of intensity. Materials in Slavic and Eastern European languages and materials in Asian and Middle Eastern languages are collected only in cooperation with the Slavic and Eastern European Library and the Asian Library, respectively. Labor movements and labor unions are, however, primarily phenomena of the 19th and 20th centuries. Special interest in unions in Illinois. There is little interest in Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, and the Arab Middle East and North Africa.
Emphasis is on scholarly treatment rather than popularization, textbooks, and children's literature.
The Undergraduate Library normally collects more popular treatments and the Education and Social Sciences Library collects children's literature for its School Collection. Materials in supporting subject areas, such as labor statistics, as well as whatever can be identified on labor in Illinois, are also collected. Awareness of current research at sister labor institutes is maintained through a cooperative exchange agreement. Practitioner literature, materials on instructional theory and practice for use by extension faculty, and popular literature for use by students in extension programs are all acquired selectively. Great emphasis is placed on collecting serial, monographic, and ephemeral material published by labor unions and workers' organizations and on obtaining histories of unions.