Theatre Collection Development Policy
Fund: THART
Subject Specialist: Paterno Family Librarian for Literature
Programs supported: The Theatre fund provides primary support for the performance,
curricular and research needs of students and faculty in the School of Theatre. The
School offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Master of Fine Arts degrees.
The Musical Theatre program is considered to be among the most outstanding in the
country. The Theatre fund supports research and teaching in related disciplines such as
English and other programs in language and literature.
Related collections: The Paterno Family Librarian for Literature communicates regularly
with the Music Librarian, who is responsible for support of the School of Theatre’s
collection in Musical Theatre and Dance, and cooperates with the Music Librarian and
the Arts and Architecture Librarian to provide support for the Department of Integrative
Arts. English literature funds are devoted to acquisition of material on theatre predating
the twentieth century and to plays as literary works. The School of Theatre maintains a
small reading room, consisting of texts of plays and basic reference works.
Geographic areas covered: North American and European theatre is emphasized, but
the program supports costume and set design related to all historical periods and
geographic areas. Play scripts are collected in English, though may be translated from
other languages; plays originally published in other languages are collected in the
vernacular by subject specialists for those areas in conjunction with development of
literature collections.
Types of materials collected:
 Plays by English language playwrights, especially those by trade presses such as
Hern and Theatre Communications Group. Acting editions, such as those
published by Samuel French and Dramatists’ Play Service, are not collected.
English translations of plays by prominent foreign-language playwrights are
collected selectively.
 Collections of monologues, excerpts, etc.
 Works on aspects of performance, including acting, set design and costume,
lighting.
 Works on theatre and drama history.
 Journals on theatrical production, drama, and technical theatre.
 Biographical and historical reference works in print or digital formats.
Language: Materials in the English language are favored. Important reference works,
histories, biographies of actors and actresses in Western European languages are
collected selectively.
Chronological restrictions: The focus of collecting is on recent in-print publications.
Out-of-print collections of plays, biographies of actors and actresses, or important
historical titles may be acquired as needed.
Location of collections: Theatre funds (THART) are used to purchase materials for the
University Park campus. The Annexes hold older, lesser-used, or superseded monographs
and reference works, and some retrospective runs of periodicals. Materials in the stacks
may be transferred to the Annexes if they meet these criteria, and especially if they are
accessible in reliable digital form (e.g. JSTOR journals).
WB June 2007