The Libraries seek to support research in the History of the United States and Western Europe—Canadian History is supported at a minimal level. All periods—ancient, medieval, early-modern and modern are supported. United States local history of the Northeast-and the Southeast is supported, but other areas are not. Economic and social history, gender history and other subfields of the discipline are supported. The Collection supports the needs of undergraduate, MA students and Ph.D. students, the teaching faculty, post-docs, and research staff members.

During the first half of the 1990’s, a new tenured faculty has been hired in Medieval History, ancient Roman history, modern English history, modern European, American social/economic history and African-American history. Also, graduate student populations in all these areas have increased, though a gradual reduction in overall graduate student numbers is anticipated for the future.

New courses of study include woman and gender studies, gay & lesbian studies and an increased move toward social history on the personal level have all worked to alter the field and greatly expand both the range of literature & the breadth of subjects of concern to researchers in the field. African-American history is growing rapidly, with the concurrent interest in the pan-African experience.

Areas of established specialization for the majors in the department include ancient history, medieval history, history of Europe 1350-1750, history of Western Europe since 1750, modern history of Eastern Europe, history of Russia, American history, Latin American history, East Asian history, American-East Asian relations, Jewish history, Byzantine history, African history, Middle Eastern and Central Asian history, Southern Asian history.

Overall, the Libraries’ existing collection, its current acquisitions commitment, based upon available resources, and its collecting goal for History are all at the research level.

1. Formats collected: We collect annuals, CD-Roms, monographs, other electronic tools, periodicals, reference tools and scholarly series extensively and audio-visual materials, dissertations, newspapers, maps and textbooks selectively.
2. Imprint Dates Collected: We collect current and 20th century publications extensively and 19th century and earlier materials selectively.
3. Chronological Focus: We collect materials focusing on research topics from all time periods extensively.
4. Languages Collected: We collect English and Western European, where appropriate (e.g., Italian history in Italian but not German history in Italian) language materials extensively and Non-English, where inappropriate (e.g., German history in Italian) selectively. Non-Western European languages are excluded.
5. Place of Publication: We collect American, Canadian, Western European materials, where appropriate (e.g., France for French history but not for American) extensively. Western European materials, where inappropriate for extensive collection, as above (e.g. France for American history) are collected selectively. Non-Western European materials are excluded.