Retrospective collecting is largely through gifts and other donations, or the re-acquisition of lost materials. In areas being developed, Central Asia for example, retrospective collection building is important. The Museum Library attempts to collect at a research level materials pertaining to the curricular and research interests of the faculty and Museum staff. Most new monographs from domestic academic publishers are received through one of several approval plans, supplemented by individual selections from vendors' lists and patron requests. Exclusions Folklore is generally collected at Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, except when it presents a primarily anthropological perspective.
Human anatomy is excluded, although it is taught as part of physical anthropology.
Sociological treatments of contemporary ethnic populations are excluded. Ethnographic studies in vernacular languages of the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, are usually excluded. The Academy of Natural Sciences is used for supporting ancillary studies in botany, geology, paleontology, and related sciences, and the College of Physicians Library is useful for physical and medical anthropology. The best collection in the region supplementing the Museum Library holdings in archaeology is the Art and Archaeology Library at Bryn Mawr College. Important early archaeology materials are in the Library Company of Philadelphia, Syro-Palestinian and Near Eastern materials at the Annenberg Research Institute and Gratz College, and Classical art and archaeology at Princeton University.