Agricultural economics

Statement of programs and library needs

The Agricultural Economics Department of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers programs leading to the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees.

The department's B.S. program offers options for concentration in the following areas: entrepreneurship and business management, farm business management, market and price analysis, resource and environment, and international agricultural economics.

Graduate programs in agricultural economics lead to the degrees of M.S. (thesis and non-thesis) and the Ph.D. Areas of concentration are natural resource and environmental economics; economic development; marketing and price analysis; agricultural policy and international trade, and econometrics and quantitative methods.

The department has strong interdisciplinary interests. Urban affairs and planning, civil and agricultural engineering, forestry and wildlife, and statistics are examples of other areas of contact and interest.

I. Collection areas

A. Area: Agricultural Economics

 

B. Classes and Levels

HC              Economics of Natural Resources            Study
HD 101-1339     Land Use          			  Study
HD 1401-2210    Agricultural Economics                    Research
HD 9000-9490    Special Industries and Trades (Agric.)    Study
K 3870-3884     Agricultural Law and Regulation           Study
S               Agriculture       			  Research

C. Chronology

Emphasis is on current materials. Retrospective materials are acquired selectively as needed.

D. Geographic Guidelines

Primary emphasis is on materials relating to the United States, although materials dealing with other countries are also acquired.

E. Languages

English language materials are of primary interest. Works in European languages are acquired occasionally, with translations into English being purchased whenever possible.

F. Treatment

Emphasis is on scholarly serials, monographs, reference materials, and conference proceedings.

G. Formats

Primarily print for monographs and most journals, though electronic full-text is also of growing importance for journals. Bibliographic databases are available through the Internet. Some microform materials are acquired, particularly statistical series in the microfiche sets accompanying the American Statistics Index and the Statistical Reference Index. Magnetic tapes and on-line services, especially of a business and economics orientation are of interest also.

H. Multiple copies

Multiple copies are purchased for heavily used titles. Some high use titles are duplicated on microform.

II. Acquisition Strategy

The agricultural economics bibliographer selects materials for purchase, with priority being given to faculty requests. The library subscribes to a large number of the English language periodicals indexed in the Journal of Economic Literature, Bibliography of Agriculture, and World Agricultural and Rural Sociology Abstracts. The University Libraries maintain an approval plan for books from many university press and significant trade publishers and standing orders for many important serials.

State, federal, and international documents, both purchased and depository items, comprise an important part of the collection. Especially significant are publications of state agricultural research and extension services, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

III. Collection Notes

Lower division textbooks are not collected. Upper division textbooks and books written on a popular level are purchased selectively. Theses and dissertations from other universities are generally not collected.

Because agricultural economics is largely interdisciplinary, the agricultural economics faculty and staff draw very heavily on resources which support other areas, such as agriculture, business, economics, law, management, political science, sociology, and statistics.

Revised 10/1995