Global Studies Collection –
Description
Global Studies is an interdisciplinary and emergent field of study that focuses on issues related to cultural and economic globalization, global power structures, and transnational activities. There is ongoing debate regarding how to best define Global Studies with the general consensus that Global Studies represents a interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field of research and study that is dedicated to critical examination of the many dimensions of globalization and other transnational phenomena. Global Studies differs from International Relations and International Studies by taking a focus outside of the nation state as a natural unit of analysis. In doing so, the analytic unit of global studies often emphasizes transnationality with a focus on global processes rather than relations between and comparisons of nation states or national societies. The field thus revolves around the impacts of globalization and the growing interdependence of states, economies, societies, cultures, and peoples. As an interdisciplinary field, global studies draws upon fields such as but not limited to anthropology, ecology, geography, economics, political science, and sociology. As such, Global Studies does not have a collection in the traditional sense but rather serves to strengthen the library’s overall ability to support research, teaching, and engagement activities related to global processes, transnational phenomena, the critical examination of globalization, and global governance as a process that involves actors at the state and non-state levels. The Global Studies Librarian works within the International and Area Studies Library and is embedded in the Center for Global Studies, a unit of the Illinois Global Institute. With a modest collection budget funded primarily through US Department of Education Title VI NRC funding, global studies collections enrich the collections of related library units and provide access to serials and other works specifically related to global studies.
Version Date: January, 2025
Statements
Collection Description
Purpose:
The primary purpose of Global Studies collection development efforts is to support the following degree programs:
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS)
- Global Studies Undergraduate Major and Minors
- Global Studies, Master of Science
- Global Studies Graduate Minor
College of Education
- Global Studies Education M.ED, EDD, and PhD
Additionally, the collections support the research and teaching in Global Studies related programs that enroll over 2,500 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students across campus degree programs. In total, these programs support transformative research, learning, and engagement in Global Studies at all levels through the work of the over 300 faculty affiliates of the Center for Global Studies within the Illinois Global Institute.
History of Collection:
Global Studies collections began at the University of Illinois in 2003 with the establishment of the Center for Global Studies as a US Department of Education designated National Resource Center in International Studies. Early collection development in global studies sought to build upon the already strong area studies collections in the library to include emerging scholarship focused on issues of globalization, transnationalism, the resolution of global problems, and the emergence of new research methodologies that seek to de-center the nation state as a unit of analysis. At this time, only Title VI NRC grant funds from the Center for Global Studies contributed to these collections. As the field has grown to include permanent degree programs and core journals in the field have emerged, a small state budget allocation was created to support serials and monographic Global Studies. Support for collections, however, is largely contingent upon grant funding.
- Estimate Holdings:
Because of its interdisciplinary nature, it is difficult to assess the holdings associated with Global Studies. Within broad subject categories the library has over 30,000 titles within the topic of globalization.
- State, Regional, and National Importance:
This is one of the most comprehensive Global Studies focused collections in the state and region. The strength of the collection includes books, journals, and a growing collection of digital gray literature gather through web-archiving activities that focus on non-governmental organizations. The collections attract visiting scholars from institutions across the country who come to the campus as a part of the International and Area Studies Research Lab.
Unit Responsible for Collecting: International and Area Studies Library.
- Location of Materials:
The collection is located throughout the library system with a preponderance of the materials in the stacks.
- Citation of Works Describing the Collection:
Rudasill, L. M. (2009). International or Global—The Expanding Universe of Librarianship. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 9(4), 511-515.
Witt, S. W., Lenkart, J., & Rudasill, L. M. (2015). Shifting Borders: Changes in the Scholarly Landscape and Integration of Area Studies Libraries to Accomplish New Service Goals in an Academic Library.
- General Collection Guidelines
- LanguagesEnglish is the dominant language of the collection with over 50% of holdings. In the past several years, there is a growing emphasis on building Global Studies collections in a manner that is inclusive of non-English materials through collaboration within the International and Area Studies Library. To this end, the collection also has significant holdings in Russian, Spanish, German, Chinese, French, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Italian, and Portuguese.
- Chronological Guidelines:
No exclusions or restrictions
- Geographical Guidelines:
Worldwide with no exclusions or restrictions
Treatment of Subject:
The Global Studies Librarian selects and acquires materials with a primary focus on global challenges and processes, transnational phenomena, the critical examination of globalization, and global governance as a process that involves actors at the state and non-state levels. More specifically, the collection seeks to build upon collections with a focus on the following themes reflected in the Global Studies academic programs:
- Wealth and poverty – Scope: the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality in the world, the challenges to development faced by the global south and how globalization improves and worsens conditions;
- Cultures in contact and mobility – Scope: impacts of globalized world on the culture, traditions, religion, social interactions and assimilation of different population groups. The medium of this cultural exchange can be migration of people and diaspora groups, international trade in goods and services, globalization of business strategies and pervasive presence of media and advertising.
- Global health – Scope: causes and consequences of disparities in health conditions, health practices and health care systems globally; the consequences of the globalization of health related crises.
- Environment, sustainability, social responsibility – Scope: global approaches to and globalized impacts of the scientific and human aspects of environment and sustainability: include land restoration, strategies to control pollution, efficient use of energy resources and discovering sustainable ways of living in a world facing climate change and disparate population growth.
- Governance, conflict and resolution – Scope: interdisciplinary perspectives on international relations, conflict and security, diplomacy and conflict resolution and global peace; with emphasis on actors at the non-state and state levels.
- Knowledge, communication, and information systems – Scope: information and communication networks and global information and knowledge production systems; global political economy of information and knowledge creation including the role of language, education and information technology as actors in influencing social, economic and political changes around the world.
- Human rights – Scope: research on inequalities in the world and in different social settings, the root of these disparities and work towards the elimination of such discrimination.
- Globalization of education – Scope: the ways in which globalization, global challenges, and global governance regimes intersect with educational systems, policies, and learning outcomes.
Also, the collection will reflect works on the history of globalization; global and transnational research methodology; and social, political, and philosophical critiques of globalization. In addition to secondary works, primary sources such as print and digital ephemera will be strategically collected to help preserve the documentary history of the roles and activities of non-governmental organizations and civil society groups working to address global issues and working globally within the themes noted above. Finally, the collection is concerned with documenting the history of global and transnational studies as academic fields and thus will collect university level textbooks and educational materials related to the topic and themes described below as they relate to global studies.
- Types of Materials:
Standard statement.
- Date of Publication:
Standard Statement.
- Place of Publication:
Most material acquired is from major publishing centers.
- Collection Responsibility.The International and Area Studies Library has primary selection responsibility for materials focused on the field of Global Studies and related to topics such as globalization, transnationalism, and global governance. As an inherently interdisciplinary field of study and academic inquiry, building collections to support Global Studies research and teaching requires collaboration and coordination with selectors across the International and Area Studies Library and in other disciplines that grapple with research questions and phenomenon of a global or globalized scope and scale.