Collection Development

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Collection Development

Subject Policy Statement - MUSIC

 

A. Purpose and Program Description

The Libraries seek to support research and teaching in music. The Collection supports the needs of undergraduate and postgraduate students, at both the M. Phil. and Ph. D. levels, the teaching faculty and research staff members. We also support the Bachelor of Music (Hons), certificate and diploma programmes in music offered by HKUSPACE in collaboration with Kingston University in the U.K. Broadening (general education) courses were first offered to non-music major students commencing 1998/99 and we also serve the university community.

Collecting activity has proceeded in two principal ways: in support of individual research projects undertaken by faculty of the Department of Music, and as general systematic broad collection development. Areas of established specialization are Western art music, particularly the romantic and classical periods. Since the mid ‘90s, new courses introduced include increased emphasis on other genres such as popular music, film music, ethnomusicology, computer and electronic music, Hong Kong and Chinese music which boasts The Lin Sheng Shih Collection, The Doming Lam Collection and The C. C. Liu Collection on New Music in China.

 

B. General Selection Guidelines (See Classed Analysis)

Overall, the Libraries' existing collection and acquisitions commitment, based upon available resources for Music, are at the study and teaching level. Its collecting goal, however, is at the research level.

 

C. Specific Delimitations

  1. Formats collected: We collect monographs, reference tools, scores including complete editions and historical monuments, monograph and score series, audio-visual materials, mainly in the CD and DVD formats, periodicals, microform materials, spare copies of dissertations and electronic resources including databases, e-journals, e-books and free web & PDA resources. Manuscripts, concert program notes and complete set of dissertations are housed at Special Collections.
  2. Imprint Dates Collected: We collect current and 20th century publications extensively and earlier materials selectively.
  3. Chronological Focus: We collect 17th century to current publications extensively and earlier materials selectively.
  4. Languages Collected: We collect English language materials extensively. Other Western European languages including German, Latin, Italian, French and Spanish as well as Chinese materials are collected selectively.
  5. Place of Publication: We collect UK and North American extensively and materials published in Western Europe, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and China selectively.