Collection Development Policy: Political Science
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Michael Jackson

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Alan Zuckerman

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The political science concentration offers opportunities for learning in a number of different subject areas. Students completing the program of study will be prepared for jobs in government, private corporations, and nonprofit organizations as well as for more advanced study in law, business, or graduate school. The political science concentration is the fifth largest academic unit in undergraduate enrollment at Brown University. The political science department offers a range of courses that are intended to provide concentrators with a substantive background in the following areas:

    • American Politics
    • Comparative Politics
    • International Relations
    • Political Economy
    • Political Theory

    Many Brown University political science concentrators also choose to complete honor’s projects in their senior year.

    For graduate students, the Ph.D. program in political science at Brown University offers opportunities for creative and informed individuals to pursue advanced academic or professional careers. Students may specialize in any of four important areas:

    • American Politics
    • Comparative Politics
    • International Relations
    • Political Theory

    Students must finish twelve courses, pass their preliminary examinations, and successfully complete and defend their doctoral dissertations. Those who complete the program will be prepared not only to teach and to conduct research within universities, but to apply their special skills of analysis and communication in government agencies, private corporations, nonprofit foundations, and other institutions that need persons who combine trained political backgrounds with specialized knowledge.



  • Overview of the Collection
    In the field of political science and law, our collections consist of sources in American politics, political theory, public policy, international politics, area studies, quantitative political research, comparative politics, international law/institutions, and international political economy. The library collections for political science include approximately 60,000 titles and over 435 currently received serials, both print and electronic. These sources are mostly available at the Rockefeller Library. Students and faculty of political science also benefit from other interdisciplinary sources in the fields of history, sociology, economics, development studies, area studies, and psychology. The library is also committed to purchasing and subscribing to electronic databases and materials in political science, both full-text sources and numerous indexing/abstracting tools. Databases include PAIS International, International Political Science Abstracts, Academic Search Premier, Policy File, Congressional Weekly & Researcher, National Journal databases, Colombia International Affairs Online (CIAO), Digital National Security Archive, Social Sciences Citation Index, Lexis Nexis databases for congressional, news, legal, business, and statistical sources, and Declassified Documents Reference System. The Brown University library is also a selective depository for U.S. Government documents, UN documents, and some State of Rhode Island documents. Over 12,000 electronic full-text journals in the social sciences, humanities, and sciences can be accessed by members of the Brown community. Many of these titles are relevant to researchers in the field of political science. Brown University Libraries offers full interlibrary loan and document delivery services, which allows students and faculty in the political science department access to materials not found at Brown. The Library also lets political science students and faculty directly borrow books electronically from the major Ivy League libraries (Borrow Direct), key Boston area libraries (Virtual Catalog), and libraries within Rhode Island (InRhode). Books can be delivered to Brown in a matter of only 2 to 3 days, greatly expanding the ability of the Library to meet our students research needs.



  • General Collecting Guidelines
    Political science and law materials can be acquired at the Research, Study, Basic, or Minimum levels. Research level is a collection which includes the major source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing current research, new findings, the latest surveys, primary source materials (U.S. government documents, law materials, UN depository material) and other information useful to researchers. It also includes all important reference works, a wide selection of specialized monographs, a very extensive collection of journals (both print and electronic) and access to major indexing/abstracting tools in the fields of political science and law. Study level is defined as a collection which is adequate to support undergraduate or graduate course work, or sustained independent study; that is, which is adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes, of less than research intensity. It includes a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of the works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals and important reference tools and fundamental bibliographic apparatus pertaining to the subject. Basic level is a highly selective collection which serves to introduce and define the subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere. It includes major dictionaries/encyclopedias, selected editions of important works, surveys, bibliographies, and key periodicals in the field. Minimum level is defined as a subject area which is out of the scope of the library’s collections, and in which few selections are made beyond the very basic reference tools.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: English Mostly English language materials will be acquired.
    • Chronological Span: 19th century, 20th century, and 21st century primarily. For earlier materials about political science or law, occasional selections will be made on a case by case basis.
    • Geographical Range: Primarily from publishers in the United States and Western Europe, with some selective area study acquisitions and cross-cultural additions.
    • Types of Material Included: Books (both print and electronic), monographs (both print and electronic), journals (both print and electronic), microforms, internet resources, audiovisual (VHS and DVDs), digitized texts, electronic databases, U.S. government documents (both print, microform, and internet access), UN depository materials (both print, microform, and internet access), proceedings, data sets. Excluded: Textbooks and juvenile materials.


  • Special Collections
    There are several special collections in the John Hay Library which are related to political science research. They are: Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Church Collection, Dorr Papers, Grotius Collection, George Orwell Papers, Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, John Birch Society Archive, Machiavelli Collection, Metcalf Peacena Collection, Sergei Khruschev Papers, Schirmer Collection on Anti-Imperialism

  • Related Collections
    Affiliated Brown faculty from the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy, the Watson Institute for International Studies, and Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences work closely with the Political Science department.

  • Selected List of Key Internet Resources