The sociology bibliographer selects materials for purchase, with priority being given to faculty requests. The libraries maintain an approval plan for books from many university press and significant trade publishers and standing orders for many important serials. The libraries receive on subscription a substantial number of the English language periodicals indexed in Sociological Abstracts, Social Science Index , and the various anthropology indexes. The libraries hold membership in some of the pertinent professional groups. Significant gifts of materials not already owned are rarely received, but duplicate copies of frequently used titles are sometimes added by gift.
Retrospective purchases are limited to filling in journal holdings or adding important older titles.
Federal documents from a variety of agencies provide primary data and secondary materials of interest in sociology. Upper division textbooks are acquired selectively. Newsletters, newspapers, and most conference proceedings are not considered to be important for the sociology collections. Theses and dissertations from other institutions are generally not acquired. Resources which support other disciplines such as psychology, political science, economics, geography, and history often support the research and curricular interests of sociology faculty and students.