University of Michigan - Flint

The Political Science division supports an undergraduate program in political science, and partly supports a Master's program in public administration. The rating should therefore be between 3b and 3c (not fully 3c, because support for the MPA program is shared with the Education and Medicine divisions).

Monographs. There were 6073 monographs in this division, which is acceptable under the modified ACRL standards. However, under the modified WLN standards, this amounts to a rating of only 2b. For a 3b/3c rating, more than 9216 monographs would be necessary.

The median age of the monographs is 22 years old; more than 10% were published in the last decade.

The government documents collection greatly enhances the Political Science division.

Acquisitions. The 1997/1998 monographs allocation for the Political Science Department is $4964. Taking a proportional share of librarians' budgets, plus the reference allocation, yields a weighted total of $6016. This is sufficient to buy approximately 143 books at a discounted average price of $41.96 apiece. This amounts to about 7% of the total domestic publishing output for political science, for an AC rating of 2b. Acquiring 10% of the publishing output per year would require a monographs allocation of $8266; a 15% acquisition rate would require an allocation of $12,378.

Periodicals. Of 60 Wilson-indexed titles, 32 (or 53%) were available on paper or microfilm, and an additional 9 were available through the Web, raising the total to 68%. This is consistent with a 3a rating.

Sources consulted: SISS, ELIS, BTCS.

Prepared by Paul G. Streby, in consultation with Prof. Margaret Kahn, Prof. Neil O. Leighton, and Prof. Albert C. Price.

Ratings for Political Science CL=Current collection level; AC=Acquisitions commitment; GL=Goal level
LC class	Line no.	Category	CL	AC	GL	Comments
J	POL 001	Official Documents	3b		3c	Few titles (8) in main & reference collections; greatly enhanced by govt. docs
JA	POL 002	Collections & General Works - Treatises	3a		3c	Subscriptions to 17 of 26 Wilson-indexed periodicals (65%=3a), Web access to 3 more (77% total=3b)
JC	POL 003	Political Theory, Theory of the State	3b		3b
JF	POL 007	Constitutional History & Administration	3b		3c	Includes public administration
JK	POL 016	Constitutional History & Administration - United States	3b		3c	Includes public administration
JL - JQ	POL 017 - 019	Constitutional History & Administration - Foreign	3a		3a	Includes public administration
JS	POL 019.5	Local Government	3a		3c
JV 1 - 5999	POL 021.5	Colonies & Colonization	3a		3b
JV 6000 - 9500	POL 023	Immigration & Emigration	3a		3b
CD 1 - 392	POL 023.5	Diplomatics	1a		3a	One monograph.
JX	POL 024	International Law, International Relations	3a		3b	International law is weak; IR is stronger. Govt. docs collection helps.
U - VG	POL 053 - 069	Military & Naval Sciences	2a		2a
DIVISION AS A WHOLE			3a	2b	3b/ 3c	6073 monographs; govt. docs collection helps; 68% of Wilson-indexed periodicals held (53% in paper)

Ratings for Political Science, Non-WLN categories CL=Current collection level; GL=Goal level
Category	CL	GL	Comments
Class	3b	3b
Gender	3b	3b	High acquisition rate (32%) of titles in Cumulative Book Index
Race	3b	3b	High acquisition rate (33%) of titles in Cumulative Book Index (CBI)
Comparative Politics	3a	3b	Good core collection but sluggish (4%) acquisition rate from CBI.

0 -- Out of scope

1 -- Minimal level
1a ---- Minimal level, uneven coverage
1b ---- Minimal level, even coverage

2 -- Basic information level
2a ---- Basic information level, Introductory
2b ---- Basic information level, Advanced (Appropriate for community college students)

3 -- Study or instructional support level
3a ---- Basic study or instructional support level (Adequate to support lower division undergraduate courses)
3b ---- Intermediate study or instructional support level (Adequate to support upper division undergraduate courses; not adequate for master's degree programs)
3c ---- Advanced study or instructional support level (Adequate to support master's degree programs)

4 -- Research level (Adequate to support doctoral research)

5 -- Comprehensive level