Collection Development Policy: Computer Science
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Lee Pedersen

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Benjamin Raphael

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The computer science department was officially founded in 1979 by faculty from the departments of Applied Math and Engineering. Although it was part of the curriculum long before this, since its founding, the department has continued to grow and expand into new areas of research, and is now recognized as one of the leading programs in the country. The undergraduate program is designed to combine educational breadth in the areas of software and theoretical computer science with deeper understanding of specialized areas such as software system design, programming languages, machine architecture, analysis of algorithms, theory of computation, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence. The department offers undergraduate concentrations in the areas of mathematics and computer science, applied mathematics and computer science, economics and computer science, and computational biology.

    Graduate students at Brown pursue research in analysis of algorithms, artificial intelligence, combinatorial optimization, computational biology, computational complexity, computational geometry, computer graphics, computer vision, computer-aided verification, concurrent data structures and architectures, constraint programming, database systems, agents and E-commerce, graph drawing, software engineering, and static analysis, nanotechnology, scientific visualization and scientific computing, security and cryptography, theory of computation, theory of networking, internet computing, mobile and ubiquitous computing, randomized algorithms and probabilistic analysis, robotics and computer vision, and user interfaces and virtual reality. The advanced interdisciplinary nature of the research connects computer science to the areas of engineering, medicine, biology, applied mathematics, and cognitive science. In support of this research, the department runs following research centers: the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization, the Center for Geometric Computing, and the Brown Laboratory for Linguistic Information Processing. There are also research groups that focus on Artificial Intelligence, Computational Finance, Computational Geometry, Data Dissemination, Graphics, Programming Languages, Software Visualization, and Web Agents.



  • Overview of the Collection
    The Computer Science Collection is an integrated part of the Sciences Collection. Consisting of over 5800 computer science titles and 6100 electrical engineering and computer engineering titles, of which almost 300 are print and/or electronic seriels, the collection is very extensive in its coverage of all fields of computer science/computer engineering. The interdisciplinary nature of computer science allows it to benefit from many other science collections. Collections in mathematics and applied mathematics, and engineering all contribute support to meet the needs of the Department of Computer Science.

    There are three major electronic resources that support research in computer science that are available. MathSciNet is a comprehensive database covering the world's mathematical literature since 1940. It covers approximately 1700 current serials and journals in whole or in part. Zentralblatt MATH is the world's most complete and longest running abstracting and reviewing service in pure and applied mathematics. The database contains more than 1.8 million entries drawn from more than 2300 serials and journals. Inspec, for computing and information technology, provides coverage from over 3,500 journals, 1,500 conference proceedings as well as numerous books, dissertations and reports. In addition to these databases, Lecture Notes in Computer Science is also provided online.

    Other electronic resources that provide support the interdisciplary areas of computer science include Compendex for engineering, ACM Digital Library for computer science, and Medline for medicine.



  • General Collecting Guidelines
    The mathematics collection is one of the premiere collections held by the Brown University Libraries. It is a comprehensive collection that the library attempts to maintain at a RESEARCH level. The library attempts to maintain a RESEARCH level collection in support of applied mathematics as well. A RESEARCH level collection includes the major source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It also includes all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in this field.

    It is an important priority to acquire all important new publications in the field of applied mathematics. All primary publishers in the field of applied mathematics are to be reviewed in order to ensure that all works are evaluated. Except for lower level applied mathematics titles, all works are acquired from publishers such as SIAM, the American Mathematical Society, MIT Press, Cambridge University Press, Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, Yale University Press, Birkhauser, AK Peters, and Sage. Other publishers that should be heavilty evaluated include Springer-Verlag, Wiley, Academic Press, Clarendon/Oxford, Kluwer, World Scientific and other university presses. Consideration is given to works created by all noted authors and researchers in applied mathematics.

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: English, original or in translation.
    • Chronological Span: Primarily contemporary works.
    • Imprint Date: Current imprints. As needed retrospective materials in support of research needs, as well as to replace missing or damaged volumes, or to fill in identifiable gaps in the collection. Occasional acquisition of out of print material.
    • Geographical Range: Primarily United States, Europe, Asia, and India
    • Types of Material Included: Monographs, journals, proceedings, annuals, reference tools, web resources, and dissertations. Very limited purchase of audio-visual materials. Excluded: Textbooks, that focus on low level introductory computer science, and various software manuals that are repetitive reproduced with each new version of the popular software.


  • Areas of Distinction
    The very broad based collection serves to cover many of the fields of computer science with significant titles that cover many of the different programming languages. Brown has been acquiring materials to support pure and applied mathematics since its founding, making the retrospective collection quite strong. From very early works found in the Special Collections, to the most current works published, the whole collection serves as an area of distinction. Of significance is the coverage of titles published in Europe, especially those published during the late 1800's and the first half of the 1900's. The collection currently holds all of the major titles published in all fields of pure and applied mathematics.

  • Special Collections
    Lownes Collection of Significant Books in the History of Science contains over three-quarters of those texts recognized by scholars as the "great books" of science published since the middle of the 15th century. This collection is held at the John Hay Library

    John Hay Library History of Science Collection is a major source for the history of mathematics.

  • Related Collections
    Brown is a member of the Center for Research Libraries, which "operates a global cooperative collection development program that assists academic and research libraries in making otherwise inaccessible and important research materials permanently available to scholars and researchers." CRL holds collections of international journals, newspapers and dissertations. The resources of the Ivy League institution's libraries are also available to Brown faculty and students via the Borrow Direct service and the Virtual Catalog makes the resources of the participating members of the Boston Library Consortium available upon request. For further information, check with the Interlibrary Loan Office (Phone: (401) 863-2750; Email: sci-ill@brown.edu

  • Selected List of Key Internet Resources