Much of this material is not superseded and still in active use today. Coverage of the scholarly literature in the major European languages continues fairly solid up to the late 1970's. After that the collection is noticeably uneven, with wide gaps in holdings of more recent scholarship. This greatly detracts from the overall utility of the collection since most important scholarship in classics has been and still is European, with the Italians playing a critical role in Roman history and archaeology. As a results, existing gaps are perpetuated and new ones continuously formed.
Priority is given to maintaining the existing base of serials and monographic series.
Remaining funds are used to acquire, on a highly selective basis, monographs relevant to known research interests of the current faculty. No new series subscriptions can be started which is unfortunate since much of the important literature in Classics is published in series. Geographically selection extends to all areas which fell within the Greaco-Roman cultural or political sphere, but only for those periods during which such inclusion was actually in force. Britain is not. Languages include all known Greek dialects, all Italic dialects and all non-Italic dialects of the Italian peninsula.