Collection Development Policy - Diaspora, Migration & Ethnic Minority Studies

SOAS Library
  • Context
  • Collection
  • Coverage
  • E-Resources
  • Future

Context

1. Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies

In 2003, the school began one of the first interdisciplinary MA programmes in Migration and Diaspora Studies in the country, and in 2007, the Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies was established in order to co-ordinate activities across the school and establish collaborative links with other institutions both nationally and internationally. From 2009 it offered a MSc in Migration, Mobility and Development.

The Centre aims to foster and promote a supportive research and teaching environment for scholars concerned with issues of migration and diaspora, drawing on the skills and expertise of academics situated in disciplines such as anthropology, history, development studies, politics, religion, music and art history. The Centre covers not only the traditional SOAS heartlands of Asia and Africa, but also issues of migration and diaspora in Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.

The centre offers Ma and MSc programmes and has 16 members and 32.4 FTE taught postgraduate students.

For more information see:

2. Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (CEMS)

The Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies focuses on the current issues in the study of ethnic minorities in Britain and elsewhere in the world. It has published a major series of books which has tackled a variety of issues such as the primary purpose rule in British immigration, immigration and adoption, refugees and carriers rights, and the effects of the return of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.

The centre has 5 members, 4 of whom are research students.

For more information see Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies

Collection

3. History

  • The Library has actively built up collections on Diaspora, Migration & Ethnic Minority Studies relating to Asia, Africa and the Middle East within its regional collections
  • The Library has supported course reading lists and selectively purchased material on general, cross-regional or global aspects and on the discipline Diaspora, Migration & Ethnic Minority Studies

4. Languages

The Library collects material in:

  • Some European languages, especially English, for general, cross-regional or global aspects and for the discipline
  • Also the languages of Asia, Africa and the Middle East for regional publications
  • For more details see the General Collection Development Policy

5. Classification

Print material on general, cross-regional or global aspects and on the discipline of Diaspora, Migration & Ethnic Minority Studies is classified using the Dewey Decimal Classification (prefixed “A”).

  • Print material relating to Asia, Africa and the Middle East is mostly classified using the Dewey Decimal Classification (with various letter prefixes), but in some regional collections alternative classification schemes are in use [see specific regions for details].
  • Additional prefixes are used for:
    • Large books ("L")
    • Reference books ("Ref ")
    • Large reference books ("L Ref")

Coverage

Within the School, the Library supports the teaching and research needs of:
Teaching

The Library aims to collect materials to a teaching level for all courses taught by the Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies. It will also collect teaching level material that falls within this discipline to support other courses taught at SOAS.

Research

The collection aims to collect material to a research level for all the subject areas detailed in section 8 below :

8. Detailed Structure

The main subject areas of collecting to support Diaspora, Migration & Ethnic Minority Studies in Africa, China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East are detailed below (based on the Conspectus Level). For details on the Conspectus Level see Collection Development Policy

  • Migration, Social Science aspects
  • Ethnic minorities
  • Ethnic relations
  • Ethnic groups
  • Immigration & emigration - political aspects
  • Colonisation, Political aspects
  • Refugees
  • Slavery and emancipation
  • Migrant and casual workers
  • Law pertaining to migration

For details on the following subject areas see the relevant Subject Statements:

E-Resources

9. Major Databases

General Databases
  • Access World News
  • Anthrosource
  • Cambridge Books Online (e-books)
  • Cambridge Journals Online
  • BBC Monitoring Library
  • Dawsonera (e-books)
  • EBSCOhost
  • InformaWorld
  • IngentaConnect
  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences(IBSS)
  • ISI Web of Science/Knowledge
  • JSTOR
  • OCLC FirstSearch
  • Oxford Journals Online
  • Oxford Reference Online
  • Periodicals Archive Online
  • Project MUSE
  • ScienceDirect
  • Wiley InterScience
  • Zetoc
Regional Databases
  • Africa Wide
  • allAfrica.com
  • Bibliography of Asian Studies
  • Brill Online (Encyclopaedia of Islam etc.)
  • China Academic Journals
  • Chinese Studies Online
  • Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996
  • Indiastat
  • Korean-studies Information Service System
  • Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies
  • Mideastwire.com
  • Nikkei Telecom 21
  • Oxford Islamic Studies
  • Taiwan Electronic Periodical Services

10. Online Subject Guide

For more information and online resources see Subject Guides

For regional specific databases see Subject Statements

For other databases SOAS subscribes to see A-Z databases list

Future

11. Trends for the Future

Move towards more online full-text resources where possible and appropriate:

  • As the national collection for Asian, African and Middle Eastern studies the Library  seeks to retain one print copy of selected scholarly titles and also provide electronic access to these materials (e-journals, databases, e-books etc.), where available
  • For subjects of a theoretical, general or non-regional nature the electronic version (e-journals, databases, e-books etc.) is favoured