Education
Statement of programs and library needs
The Departments of Teaching and Learning and Educational Leadership & Policy Studies offer programs leading to M.A. and M.S. and Ed.D degrees, a Ph.D. in Research and Evaluation, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies.
The Department of Teaching and Learning offers programs and services to improve instruction. Their broad mission is to understand and to help learners and teachers to be more successful in all education settings. They are interested in teaching/learning relationships everywhere they occur including K-12 public and private schools, higher education, the workplace, and social organizations. The Department of Teaching and Learning offers undergraduate and graduate programs that meet state and national accreditation standards. Undergraduate programs are offered in the areas of middle and secondary education, health and physical education, and vocational and technical education. The programs provide opportunities for specialization both by content and level of instruction. Graduate study at the master's and doctoral levels is also available; educational issues in research programs include disciplinary foundations of education (anthropology, history, philosophy, and psychology), reading, media, educational computing, industrial and occupational education, instructional design and technology, learning disabilities, curriculum development, evaluation, and direction of instruction. In addition to traditional on-campus programs, the department offers online MA programs in health and physical education and instructional technology and several distance courses to nontraditonal students.
The Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies offers exclusively graduate level programs leading to advanced degrees in counselor education, educational research and evaluation, administration and supervision of special education, and educational leadership, which includes two areas of concentration: elementary and secondary education and higher education and student personnel services. Programs are designed to prepare education professionals for positions in educational institutions, government, and education-related agencies. Off-campus graduate programs are offered in many locations around the state concentrated at graduate centers located in Falls Church, serving Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Virginia Beach.
Because of the continuing growth of online courses and programs offered to nontraditional students off campus in both education departments, the library has concentrated on keeping pace with distance education collection resources by acquiring quality full-text networked resources in aggregator services like Infotrac, Dow Jones Intereactive, ingenta, and the EDRS Reproduction Service which offers current ERIC documents online.
I. Collection areas
A. Area: Education
B. Classes and Levels
BF 431-437 Mental Tests and Testing Research
BF 717 Psychology of Play Research
BF 721-725 Child Psychology Research
GV 1-GV200 Recreation Study
GV 201-GV555 Physical Training Study
GV 557-GV1198 Sports Basic
GV 1199-1570 Games and Amusements Basic
GV 1580-1799 Dancing Basic
HF 1101-1199 Business Education Research
KF 4101-4258 Education and Law Study
L Education--General Research
LA History of Education Study
LB Theory and Practice of Education Research
LC Special Aspects of Education Research
LD-LG Education: IndividualInstitutions
U.S. and Foreign Study
LH College and School Magazines
and Papers Basic
LJ Student Fraternities and
Societies Minimal
LT Textbooks Minimal
QP 301-348 Physiology of Exercise Study
RA 773-790 Health and Hygiene Research
RC 569.7-580 Mental Retardation Research
RC 1200-1245 Sports Medicine Basic
RJ 480-507 Diseases of Children,
Musculoskeletal and Nervous Study
RM 930-931 Rehabilitation Therapy Study
RM 719-727 Exercise Therapy Study
Z 5811-5819 Education--Bibliography Study
Z 6121 Gymnastics and Physical
Education--Bibliography Study
C. Chronology
Emphasis is on education in the twentieth century, but significant works about education in all periods of history are acquired. Serials backsets for the major periodicals in education are complete.
D. Geographic Guidelines
Works about education in the United States are emphasized. Works from other areas are acquired when their content can generalize to the American educational system.
E. Languages
English is the primary language of the collection, and where possible, foreign materials are acquired in translation.
F. Treatment
Serial publications, especially journals both in print and available online, are kept strong. Monographs about educational theory, including learning theory, or reports of empirical studies are important to our collections. Descriptive accounts of various educational programs, works prescribing or exemplifying teaching techniques, and other more popular treatments can also be important, but are acquired more selectively. Books of readings are acquired selectively. Almost no book-length bibliographies are acquired, but indexes in electronic formats are kept strong and ERIC is widely available, including full-text documents from 1996 forward. Materials about school finance and governance, education for various special populations including the disabled, multicultural education, multiple intelligences, the standards movement, teacher certification, or the legal environment of public education are heavily acquired.
G. Format
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. Most faculty requests for videos are honored. A standing order is maintained for the entire ERIC microfiche collection, though current ERIC documents are also available online.
H. Multiple copies
Multiple copies of heavily used works of a serious nature are acquired.
II. Acquisition Strategy
Materials are selected for purchase by the College Librarian for Education, with priority being given to faculty requests. The libraries maintain an approval plan for university press books as well as those published by outstanding trade publishers including Lawrence Erlbaum, Jossey-Bass, and Allyn and Bacon. Publications of the major educational associations are acquired almost comprehensively. The libraries receive on subscription a substantial share of the English language journals indexed in ERIC. Gifts occasionally provide duplicate copies of heavily used titles but have not served as a major source of collections in education. Retrospective purchases are limited to filling in journal holdings or adding seminal older titles.
III. Collection Notes
Lower division college textbooks in education are not ordinarily selected. Upper-level textbooks are acquired selectively, as are works written on a popular level. Theses and dissertations from other universities are acquired only upon demand.
Materials in education are of some interest to faculty and students in other disciplines, including psychology and family and child development, as well as to those responsible for various aspects of managing Virginia Tech as an institution of higher education.
Education students draw heavily on resources which support other disciplines, such as psychology, philosophy, medicine, anthropology, political science, economics, history, business administration, as well as materials in subject areas in which students are preparing to teach. The law collection also supports the curriculum and research interests of the College of Education. Research methodology in all aspects, including the use of computer techniques, is a strong collection interest. The juvenile literature collection is of significant interest (see policy on children and young adult literature).
Revised 9/2000
