Q:  What is your current position and tell us a little about your responsibilities.

A:  I am the Librarian for Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University. As part of the Reference Department and as the library’s liaison to “my” two academic departments, I select and manage the collections, answer reference questions, and offer library instruction to classes. The most rewarding aspect is working daily with faculty and students on their research concerns.

Q:  As the Political Science subject editor for the new Resources for College Libraries, what aspect of the Political Science field do you feel has changed the most since 1988?

A:  Although I was not in this field until 1996, it seems clear to me that Political Science, like many, has become far more interdisciplinary. Researchers now seek information that may cut across the fields of public policy, economics, health, sociology, and environmental science; as well as fields that overlapped in the past, such as law, international relations, area studies, ethics, and psychology.

Q:  There have been so many technology advances since 1988, how has this impacted the material published on Political Science?

A:  We all know there has been an explosion of material published simultaneously in print and online. Now, increasingly, journals are born online and available only in that format. In addition, the Web has enabled an expansion of scholarly communication through repositories such as PROL for pre-prints and working papers.

Q:  How many new subject categories, would you guess, have evolved under the heading of Political Science since 1988?

A:  Wow, I can only guess. In terms of Library of Congress Subject Headings, the growth may have been restrained. But the study of Political Science has evolved to encompass many subjects, as I said above.

Q:  What are the challenges that you face tackling such a popular segment of academic literature?

A:  Keeping up is the main challenge--with current events; with the proliferation of new books, journals, and databases; and with evolving methods of scholarly communication.

Q:  Can you give us 3 must-have titles that you feel every library should carry in this subject?

A:  It is so difficult to narrow it down, but like a good reference librarian I will try to give you some starting points:

1. Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (McLean and McMillan, Oxford University Press)
2. Encyclopedia of Government and Politics (Kogan and Hawksworth, eds., Routledge)
3. Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences (Agresti and Finlay, Prentice Hall)

Q:  Did you learn anything new or anything that surprised you about your subject area while working on this project?

My academic background is in librarianship, not Political Science, so I welcomed the opportunity to spend more time delving into the literature.

Q:  What has this project brought to you, personally and/or professionally, that you did not anticipate?

A:  It was such an enriching experience to work with a team of colleagues nationwide. The Political Science contributors really came through in the crunch and devoted themselves to the project. I enjoyed the flexibility given us by the Choice editors, to create a new taxonomy and rethink how to make RCL most useful to our readers.

Q:  What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Rocky Road (not intended as a reflection on the RCL process!)

Q: Where did you go to library school?

University of North Texas, through their off-campus Saturday program at the University of Houston. They sent full professors to teach all-day classes every Saturday; at that rate I was able to complete 2 courses per semester.

Q:  How many titles have been selected for your subject area?

Title information provided by Bowker's BooksInPrint.com™

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