I would like to have chosen the broad discipline of American Studies for my collection development policy project, however, I understand that to much work would be involved because of the breadth of the subject. I have chosen to narrow my topic to American popular culture. I hope this will alleviate the problem of being bombarded with far to much material to sort through and process.
Those who have studied American popular culture believe that they are studying human culture at its best. One is best studied for her/his true spirit of nature when she/he is at leisure and not striving for existence while at work. Therefore culture is best studied when the individual is choosing what fills his time.
Karen L. Rood's Dictionary of Twentieth Century Culture states that it was not until after W.W.II that American thought and art began to gain respect. For example the music of the Harlem renaissance, jazz, although only appreciated by a small community at first; jazz has been recognized as an important musical genre.
Since W.W.II, abstract expressionist artists pulled away from the classical theory and practice of painting. Pop artists appropriated images of so called low culture for high-culture. Rock-n-roll musicians proclaimed themselves serious artists beginning in the fifties. The paperback book allowed publishers to market classic European literature right next to the new American western or young adult novel. Dance and Off-Broadway theater became aggressive forms of entertainment which gave Broadway's audience something different to experience.
There is another issue here, the issue of high culture vs. low culture. The myth being that if you had money to spend on culture one would spend it on high culture. Not so. The economic changes after the war which put money and opportunity in the hands and bank accounts of so many, afforded the masses money for comic books, rock concerts, LPs, and genre fiction. In fact the "high culture" classical music, opera, and Broadway started to suffer when the "low culture" became so popular. This was the point, between the sixties and the eighties, when most thinking was challenged. Now, the lines separating high and low culture were dismantled, and they merged as one. One was now free to choose the art of her liking rather than depend on the community to choose for him.
According to M. Thomas Inge, the editor and author of the
introduction to Handbook of American Popular Culture, the first formal
study of American popular culture began after Gilbert Seldes published The 7
Lively Arts in 1924. The development of popular culture as a separate and
valid academic field began with the establishment of the Journal of Popular
Culture in 1967. It continued with the founding of the Popular Culture
Association in 1969. Ray B. Brown is responsible for starting these and he
defines popular culture as "...all the experiences in life shared by people in
common, generally through not necessarily disseminated by the mass
media."(xxv) Perhaps a better definition is from Michael J. Bell,
"At it's simplest popular culture is the culture of mass appeal. A creation is popular when it is created to respond to the experiences and values of the majority, when it is produced in such a way that the majority have easy access to it, and when it can be understood and interpreted by the majority
without the aid of special knowledge or experience."(xxv)
I would like to discuss the differences between high culture and popular culture. The success of popular culture is based on sales charts, gross figures at the box-office, or best-seller lists. High culture appeals to the intellectual and it is to be cherished and protected (by those institutions set up for such purposes) through the aesthetic, economic and political changes our society undergoes. This is one theory.
Another idea is argued by Inge. Inge states that there is neither a high nor low culture. Their is simply American Culture. It is not only the President, doctors, lawyers and Royalty which attend the ballet, symphony and opera (high art.) The majority of the persons who support these cultural events are middle-class Americans. These middle-class Americans are also the same audiences of genre fiction, readers of comic strips, and many have even seen a rock concert. It is what we seek for enjoyment, release, beauty, meaning, and what we reach for in our spare time that is American culture.
The setting for this library is Hamilton Library, the University of Hawaii's Graduate Research Library. This library serves undergraduate as well as graduate students, faculty and staff. It is the largest library in the state which often serves the public as a reference/non-circulating library.
The department of American Studies offers BA, MA, or Ph.D. degrees. As of the Fall 1995 semester, there were 2,509 full-time students enrolled in the School of Arts and Humanities, the school which administers the American Studies department. The American Studies department offered a total of 35 classes (fall '95). 15 were lower division classes, 9 upper division, and 11 at the graduate level. There were 864 students registered in American Studies classes (Fall 1995.) 398 students were registered in lower division courses, 294 in upper division courses and 172 in graduate courses.
More specifically, there are several American Studies courses which would benefit from this hypothetical collection policy. Theses classes are AMST, 343 American Thought and Culture, 350 Culture & Art in America, 353 Television in American Life, 354 Music in Modern America, 451 Popular Culture, 452 The '20s & '30s, 453 Culture, Society & Literature, 454 History of Rock & Roll, 458 Film in American Culture, 459 Sports in America, and 643 As Others See Us. This list is to serve as an example of the setting for the kind of material which is needed.
It is critical for any institution to perform a thorough careful needs assessment for the community it will serve. The purpose of this is to understand who users are, what they need, how they get it, and they were successful or failed at getting what they needed. This can be done in four different ways. A key informant could serve to provide this information, a community forum is another option, social indicators are yet another way and finally field or user studies.
The first is by a key informant. A key informant is a person who is a public official, business and organization leaders, clergy or those other persons whom are regarded positively by citizens. These persons would meet with library officials to relay what they would believe as being the answers to the above named questions.
The community forum approach to needs assessment is something resembling a town meeting. The special aspect of community forums is anyone may participate and no one may be eliminated. There is no selection bias on the part of the assessors. Individuals can have an open forum to discuss their specific needs. This gives users a chance to ask for what they want and be heard by library administration who is listening.
Social indicators are statistics which serve as decision making factors for libraries. The statistics which are usually sought for social indicators are age, sex, education, occupation, race, marital status, level of mobility including health and means of transportation, and geography of home, work and social places. Having the community in the form of statistics helps planners target their audience and marketing strategies.
Field surveys usually are in the form of mailed surveys, questionnaires, or evaluation forms in the library for users to fill out. Personal interviews are another method of field surveys. The users output gets input to library decision makers.
Any one or more of these methods can be applied to determine the needs of the community being served. After the raw data is gathered the difficult steps of interpreting and applying are decided by the library director, the board of directors, and the professional librarians who make collection development decisions.