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THE CORE
LIST [2009]
SUPPLEMENTARY [2009]
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Core list of periodical titles for a first-degree-program in architecture (for architecture libraries in North America) Original description by Michael Leininger (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology) for the with additional comments over the years by AASL core list committee members While it is clear that every architecture school library needs a healthy assortment of periodicals, it is not always clear which titles are essential and which are not. Librarians are in an ideal position to make this assessment but they too have not always agreed. The need for a Corelist was first suggested several years ago by Pat Weisenburger (Kansas State University) at an annual meeting of the AASL. She proposed a list of titles "without which we cannot operate," and has held fast to that principle as, over succeeding years, members of the group wrangled over additions and deletions. Each year, it seemed, a new list was constructed, depending upon those involved with the project at the time. As new members saw the list for the first time they too suggested and fought for additional titles. A list of ninety was pruned one year and bulged the next. Eventually, a smaller committeee volunteered to "nail down" the list, hoping to achieve harmony with fewer voices. A method, however, remained elusive. Fortuitously, Jeanne Brown (University of Nevada-Las Vegas) and Judy Connorton (City College of New York) were about to conduct an extensive survey of architecture schools for the Art Libraries' Society of North America. They agreed to include a list of periodicals on which respondents could check off their holdings. The results of this survey, with responses from nearly half the schools, were tabulated by Michael Leininger and presented at the annual meeting in Seattle in 1995. Titles were grouped as to whether they were acquired by all, all but a few, half, and so on. It was then the task of the final reviewing group (Kay Logan-Peters (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Weisenburger, and Leininger) to use the survey data to construct a list of the titles which most clearly serve the needs of a first-degree program, while also reflecting a consensus of practice within the profession. Because the schools surveyed included a range of programs, from the undergraduate to the PhD levels, titles held by only half were deemed likely in support of higher level research and were dropped from consideration. Foreign language titles presented another problem. Schools with very small non-U.S. enrollments tend to limit foreign language materials while other schools seek global coverage regardless of language. A balance between the two is difficult to achieve. For this reason, a core group of titles is included in the main list while an optional but highly recommended group is added as an International Titles section. Planning journals included here are considered basic to an architecture program but do not contstitute those required for a planning program. And several titles from the fine arts are excluded since they are usually purchased in support of art curricula, but their coverage of architecture make them core candidates. Many libraries include periodicals and serials (reference sources, indexes, monographic series) within one budget. Therefore, a strict addition of the prices of the titles in this list does not constitute an ideal serials budget. Too, it is understood that enrollment patterns, geographic location within urban and regional contexts, programmatic concentrations, and budgetary factors, will account for unavoidable variations in a school's need for titles, many not included here. The factors that make each school unique contribute to the uniqueness of its library as well. The Association of Architecture School Librarians endorses this list as a basic "must have" group of titles, a starting point rather than an end. Update, 1998: Since 1995 a few changes to this list should be noted. Progressive Architecture and Design Quarterly have ceased publication. A call for nominations in the Spring of 1998 yielded one new addition, the German journal Detail, added to the optional international list. El Croquis, originally on the optional list, has been moved to the Core list, by general agreement. URL's to journals' websites are added when known but updated infrequently. Update, 2002: At the 2001 annual conference in Baltimore, Martin Aurand and Margaret Culbertson volunteered to coordinate a revision of the Core List. After several discussions on AASL-L and a discussion at the 2002 conference in New Orleans, a revised list of titles was agreed upon. It was also decided to include electronic titles, when appropriate, to expand the Supplemental List to include domestic titles, to add the parenthetical phrase "for architecture libraries in North America" to the title, and to add a note acknowledging the need for each library to include the regional, state, and local publications appropriate to their area. These changes were approved by the Executive Board in December 2002. . . . . . . . . . . The UK group ARCLIB offers a similar journals list for their members. |