Collection Development Policy for Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences

Subject Specialist: Deborah Lenares (x3596)
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The collection development policy for Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences guides the development and management of this multidisciplinary collection. This policy is for the use of the selector(s) for this collection, namely those who select in: philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and computer science. The policy will be updated as needed. Faculty and students are encouraged to provide recommendations for library materials.

GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE COLLECTION
The Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences collection primarily supports the undergraduate curriculum for the Cognitive and Linguistic Science major. The Collection serves as both a reference and basic research resource for students and faculty. The Collection is relatively strong in psychology texts on: cognition, perception, personality, and ability and cognition in children. It is also relatively strong in philosophy of mind, causation, and linguistics. Collecting in artificial intelligence is selective. Current collecting interests reflect curricular offerings which emphasize: language development, structure, and acquisition; brain and behavior, developmental and evolutionary psychology, memory, cognition; logic, scientific reasoning, speech acts; machine languages, bioinformatics, and visual processing. Particular emphases of this interdepartmental major reflect faculty strengths and include: decision-making, language processing, memory, perception, speech production and speech act theory, the nature of rationality, and language universals.

LC # areas - Subject Headings/Areas
B - Agent/act (philosophy), causation; Naturalization, phenomenology
BC - Belief & doubt, conditionals, aesthetics
BD - Philosophy of mind, mind and body
BF - Cognition, perception, consciousness, personality, theory of knowledge, mental representation, attitude, social perception, psychological tests, memory, human information processing, problem solving, ability/cognition/aggressiveness in children
BJ - Ethics and psychology
GN - Cognition and culture, navigation
LB - Learning, psychology of
P - Philology, linguistics
Q - Artificial intelligence

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION
Types of Materials: Materials are bought in all formats (paper, electronic, DVD) but this is still primarily a paper collection. Conference proceedings are rarely acquired unless their topics overlap with current curricular offerings and are of a level appropriate to undergraduate scholarship. Materials supporting specific coursework such as audio-visual materials, and textbooks are evaluated with faculty consultation, and purchased as needed.

Readership Level: Material is bought at all levels, with emphasis on upper undergraduate, early graduate levels for the general collection. Textbooks are acquired for course reserve only.

Languages Collected: The primary language of the collection is English. Some works on linguistics are available in French and were purchased by the French selector.

Geographical Areas Covered (intellectual content or publication source): Most materials are published in and purchased from the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. Intellectual content tends to be international in focus.

Chronological Periods Covered (intellectual content): Intellectual content of the collection is strongest in later twentieth and twenty-first century works.

Chronological Period Covered (publication dates): Current materials are the focus of almost all purchasing, but a retrospective collection is maintained particularly as it supports current course offerings and student research.

Shelving Locations: The Psychology and Computer Science part of this collection is housed at the Science Library, but patrons will find works on linguistics and philosophy in the Clapp Library. Electronic access to an ever growing number of relevant electronic materials (MIT Cognet) is now available

Reference: Reference materials for Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences are housed primarily at the Science Library, with the reference works for linguistics and philosophy at Clapp. Selection follows the general subject parameters of the Cognitive and Linguistics collections policy. The scope includes, but is not limited to, a variety of encyclopedias and dictionaries, concise histories, and bibliographies.

RELATED SUBJECTS & INTERDISCIPLINARY RELATIONSHIPS
Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences materials are purchased to support the curriculum, but are used by a variety of disciplines. Following are a few useful distinctions which may assist in the delineation of collecting responsibilities shared by a variety of collection managers.

Women's Studies: The Cognitive Sciences selector may purchase materials and studies concerned with gender differences in language use, learning, and in the cognitive development of women.

Philosophy: The Cognitive Sciences selector may collaborate with the Philosophy selector to purchase materials on the philosophy of mind, logic, speech act theory, nature of rationality, and related materials on the philosophy of language and science.

Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math, Computer Science): The Cognitive Sciences selector may collaborate with science selectors to acquire books in brain behavior, bioinformatics, scientific reasoning, machine languages, visual processing, and artificial intelligence to support the needs of the Cognitive Science curriculum.

Anthropology: The Cognitive Sciences selector, in collaboration with the Anthropology selector, may acquire materials on cognition and culture.

Linguistics: The Cognitive and Linguistics Sciences selector is responsible for the acquisition of all materials in the area of speech acts, language processing, language development, structure, and acquisition, speech production, speech act theory, and language universals. Other selectors for foreign languages may be consulted when foreign language materials are being acquired.

French: The Cognitive Sciences Selector mostly acquires materials in English to support the Linguistics curriculum. Linguistics materials acquired in French are selected by the French selector.

Education: The Cognitive Sciences selector will collaborate with the Education selector to acquire materials on the psychology of learning.

Economics: The Cognitive Sciences selector will collaborate with the Economics selector to acquire materials in Game Theory and Behavioral Economics.

Psychology: The Cognitive Sciences selector will collaborate closely with the Psychology selector to acquire materials in cognition, perception, personality, cognition in children, brain and behavior, developmental and evolutionary psychology, memory, decision-making, and evolutionary psychology.

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Page Created: November 2005
Last Modified: March 7, 2008
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