Guide to the Modern Literature Collection - Preface

This encyclopedic guide to the Modern Literature Collection at Washington University reformats, revises, and expands the first edition of this work, originally printed in 1985. While the history outlined by Timothy Murray’s earlier preface offers a wonderful summary up to 1985, much has changed in the intervening years. The collecting list has evolved significantly. Many groups of papers in the collection have grown, a few groups of papers have changed profile, and new groups have been acquired. Since Murray’s time, greater staff resources have been made available for the Modern Literature Collection.

While issues involving financial resources for collection development remain a concern, there are significantly more resources available for acquisitions in 2003 than 1985, and the library has refocused on careful selection with the assistance of grant funding and donor support. With the recent library renovation, new state-of-the-art facilities now house the collection. With the completion of this grant project (sponsored by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation), we now have both a revised guide and new, standards based, online tools for accessing information about the collection. In short, the ground has been cleared for the Modern Literature Collection to continue to grow within the challenging environment of the next century.