The Multicultural Collection (MCC) is a circulating and reference collection covering the political, social, cultural, economic, and intellectual history of African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans [1] in the southwestern United States from United States independence to the present, with emphasis on 20th century problems and progress. The collection is designed to support the needs of a number of departments within the university community and is not used exclusively by any one department or program. As library patrons are led to ask questions about how African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans have contributed to the United States in general and the Southwest in particular, they will find much needed information in the MCC. Most materials acquired for the Multicultural Collection will be monographs or serials, and the majority of new acquisitions will be current, in‑print materials chosen to build the collection. Items that do not fit the criteria listed below should be in the general collection.

With respect to collection management responsibilities, the Multicultural Librarian works under the direction and supervision of the Coordinator for Information Resources and works with the guidance of the members of the Multicultural Collection Advisory Committee. [2] Questions about inclusion of certain materials in the Multicultural Collection should be taken to these individuals. Day to day location decisions about specific titles will be made at the discretion of the Multicultural Librarian under the supervision of the above mentioned individuals. The individuals and the committee members mentioned above should suggest needed additions or deletions from the Multicultural Collection.

The Multicultural Collection is a "Study or Instructional Support Level" collection. The library will acquire, as broadly as possible, the significant current sources and supplement these with selective programs of retrospective purchasing. The American Library Association defines the "Study or Instructional Support Level" as:

A collection that is adequate to impart and maintain knowledge about a subject in a systematic way but at a level of less than research intensity. The collection includes a wide range of basic works in appropriate formats, a significant number of classic retrospective materials, complete collections of the works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals, access to appropriate machine-readable data files, and the reference tools and fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject.

At the study or instructional support level, a collection is adequate to support independent study and most learning needs of the clientele of public and special libraries, as well as undergraduate and some graduate instruction. The collection is systematically reviewed for currency of information and to assure that essential and significant information is retained. [3]

There is no doctoral program at the University of Texas at Arlington specifically designed for minority cultures research. Therefore, a higher level of collection development activity in this area is not warranted. The University does offer doctoral programs in the Humanities and in Social Work. The Humanities program is broad and includes doctoral level work in many areas: American Studies, Anthropology, History, Linguistics, Music History, Literature, and Sociology. Both the Humanities and the Social Work programs sometimes require support from the Multicultural Collection to carry out their mandates.

Doctoral research in the programs mentioned above is directly supported through the libraries' allocation formula which appropriates money based on doctoral hours being taught. Some of the titles bought with these departmentally allocated monies may be located in the MCC if the items are appropriate to the collecting scope of the MCC. The MCC will acquire traditional print materials relevant to its goal of supporting instructional level work. Manuscripts, archival collections, and similar research materials relevant to the four minority groups will be housed in the Special Collections division of the UT Arlington Library. The growth and development of the Multicultural Collection must parallel the growing strength of the rest of the UT Arlington University Libraries total collection.

The Multicultural Collection covers four readily distinguishable American minority groups. Therefore, the collection development policy takes into account different aspects of each group's history, demography, and geographic distribution. As the MCC is primarily a Southwestern collection, it does not include material specific to another region of the United States or another part of the World unless that material is directly relevant to the Southwest.

General Subject Group Guidelines:

a. Language: Most materials in the MCC will be in English, which is the primary language of the library patrons. Reference material which supports Spanish, Asian, and Native American language material may be purchased for the collection. However, most Spanish, Asian, and Native American language materials will be housed in the general collection.

b. Chronological Guidelines: Emphasis is on material of the 20th Century. Material about blacks prior to the arrival of Africans to the New World is excluded. Material about Southwestern peoples prior to European contact is also excluded.

c. Geographical Guidelines: Emphasis is on the modern Southwestern United States (i.e. Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas). Excluded is material dealing with issues or subjects of local emphasis to areas that lie beyond these five states. Works about nationally important issues and movements are included, as are works by and about nationally important African American, Asian American, Mexican American, and Native American writers and leaders.

d. Treatment of the Subject: Material by and about African Americans, Asian American, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans, their works and accomplishments, will be sought. Biographies of noteworthy Blacks, Asian Americans, Chicanos, and American Indians, literary works, literary criticisms, and historical material will be secured. Material covering the legal, sociological, political, and economic aspects of the minority status of these four groups will be chosen. Textbooks are not ordinarily purchased for the collection, and juvenile material (with the exception of juvenile folklore) will be excluded.

e. Type and Format of Material: All types of material will be acquired. Reference works, bibliographies, encyclopedias, indexes and abstracts, guides, directories, and handbooks will be selected. The circulating collection will largely be made up of literary and scholarly works in print format.

f. Date of Publication: Current, in print, publications are emphasized, but selective retrospective collection development is important to fill gaps in the collection and to replace lost or damaged material.

g. Other Considerations: It is impossible to avoid some overlap of the subject specializations within the collections of the UT Arlington Library. Special Collections, for example, may have material of interest to the user of the Multicultural Collection.

[1] Parenthetically, the terms "African Americans," "Afro‑Americans," and "Blacks" have been used interchangeably in this document although the term "African American" has been predominant. The same is true for the terms "Mexican Americans" and "Chicanos." The term "Mexican Americans" predominates. Also, the terms "Native Americans" and "American Indians" are used interchangeably; the term "Native Americans" is preferred. The term Asian American is used to encompass a number of groups: Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, Korean Americans, South Asian Americans, and Vietnamese Americans.

[2] The Multicultural Collection Advisory Committee advises the Director of Libraries and the supervisor of the Multicultural Collection on the establishment and implementation of policies and regulations governing the use, operation, and growth of the Multicultural Collection. In meeting this responsibility, the committee will advise the Director of University Libraries on: 1) the role and scope definitions for the Collection; 2) any regulations concerned with the use of materials in the Collection; 3) the purchase of library materials related to the four primary groups of minorities in the Southwest--Blacks, Asian Americans, Chicanos, and American Indians; and, 4) on the library's needs for instructional programs concerned with minorities. The committee will: 1) serve as a liaison between the library and campus organizations of minority students, and 2) assume primary responsibility in preparing requests for grants and gifts for the Collection from foundations, Federal agencies, and other sources. Such grant requests are to be channeled through the University Library and the Office of Sponsored Projects. The MCC Advisory Committee is an appointed committee responsible to the Vice-President for Academic Affairs and is composed of 7 or more faculty or staff and 5 or more students.

[3] For more information about collection development levels see the Guide for Written Collection Policy Statements edited by Bonita Bryant (Chicago: American Library Association, 1989).