Economics

Collection Development Statement

Last updated July 2020

Overview 

Economics collections at Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries broadly support the research and teaching needs of the Krieger School’s Department of Economics, the Carey Business School, and the international economics programs at the School of Advanced International Studies.

Departments/disciplines/programs subject areas supported

Awarding its first PhD degree in 1878, the Economics Department “faculty and graduate students engage in the exploration of five economic disciplines: applied microeconomics, economic theory, macroeconomics, econometrics and finance”.  For undergraduates the program encompasses a deep understanding of markets and economies and the ability to apply economic problem solving to business and public policy issues.

The department offers a BA and PhD.  It does not admit students who intend to only work for an MA.  However, it does offer that degree to accelerated BA students and those that decide to not complete their PhD.

In 2007 the Economics Department founded the Center for Financial Economics (CFE) “with a mission to build a bridge between economics and finance, theory and practice, quantitative analysis and social understanding – all within an expansive liberal arts framework”.

A significant number of Economics Department faculty have joint appointments with the Carey School of Business, Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the School of Advanced International Studies.

General

Historically the library’s collections have focused on Library of Congress classification HA  – HJ.    Collecting activity is intended to support both scholarly research and undergraduate and graduate instruction.  Over the last fifteen years concerted attention has been devoted to building collections with licensed access to economics information via electronic databases and datasets. These electronic resources often provide comprehensive levels of information with both extensive geographic and time series data.  Furthermore, these database also offer navigation tools to parse, manipulate and export data customized to the needs of the individual student or faculty member.

Formats Selected

• E-books and e-journals
• Selective print monographs
• Full-text and statistical databases
• Datasets

Languages Collected

• English preferred

Chronological or geographical focus

• Geographic focus on the United States, Europe, Asia, with more limited coverage for Africa and Latin American.
• 21st and 20th centuries emphasized. Although for history of economic thought there are no restrictions.

Collaborations

The selector closely coordinates collection development with the business librarians as many of the databases and dataset are heavily used by both the Economics Department and Carey Business School students and faculty.

Collection development for the Hutzler Collection of Economic Classics is coordinated with the Library’s Special Collections Department. As the SAIS Library collects in the areas of international economics, foreign trade and development, coordination with SAIS is also important. The selector serves as a member of the Johns Hopkins Libraries Social Science Group.