COLLECTIONS:

Special Collections

University Archives

Collection Preservation

Research Collections:
Economics Collection

Collection Overview
The collection supports the research and teaching needs of faculty and students in the Economics Department. Areas of economic concentration which are particularly strong in the Library's collection are microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, econometrics, economic development, monetary economics, industrial organization, international trade, public sector economics, labor, finance, and international economics. The management and economics collections overlap strongly in areas of finance, industrial organization and international trade. The Government Documents collection provides access to United States Massachusetts and United Nations materials. Collection strengths and weaknesses reflect changes in the research and instructional programs of the university.

Undergraduate Programs: The primary objective of the undergraduate program is to provide a critical examination and analytic foundation of the economic system in the United States and throughout the world. A wide range of fields may be studied: money and banking, fiscal policy, international trade, international finance, law and economics, public sector economics, economic development, American economic history, capital theory and finance, comparative economic systems, labor economics, statistics, econometrics, industrial organization, history of economic thought, modern political economy, regulations, transportation economics and urban economics. A Bachelor of Science degree is awarded to undergraduates.

Graduate Programs: The graduate program leads to a Ph.D. or M.A. and emphasizes a strong background in economic theory, quantitative research methods, and applied fields based on a standard mathematical approach.

The O'Neill Library also belongs to the Boston Library Consortium Cooperative Collection agreement for Asian Business. Per the agreement, the library contibutes economics materials in the geographic areas of India and Pakistan. 
 

Selected Resources

• Key Data Sets: DRI Basic Economics, International Monetary Fund: International Trade Statistics and Direction of Trade Statistics, Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), Compustat, Trade and Quote (TAQ), STAT-USA.

• Reference works:  Who's Who in Economics,  The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law.

• Data on CD-ROM: World Development Indicators , OECD Statistics: International Sectoral Databank. (ISDB)

On the Web (Restricted to the BC Community):

• Subject indexes to economic literature: EconLit, ERN, FEN, PCI Periodical Contents Index (includes historical business and economics journals)

• Statistical databases:  Statistical Universe, TableBase, Global Access.

• O'Neill Library workstation: Internet Securities, (Bloomberg).

• General  and full text indexes: Abi/Inform, General BusinessFile ASAP , Academic Universe,  PROMT,  PAIS, Dow Jones Interactive.

• Full text electronic journals: ECONbase, FEN, Journal of Economic Studies, International Journal of Social Economics, et al.  Other electronic journals in Economics may be found at the following e-journal gateways: JSTOR(pre-1990).

Research Guides
More information about available resources can be found in the following resource guides: Economics and Statistical Sources.

Interdisciplinary Elements of Subject Area
The subject areas of this collection are related to those of the management, history, political science, government documents, and sociology collections. The O'Neill Library is designated a United States government selective depository library, which greatly enhances the economics collection of print, microform, and electronic materials.

Formats and Types of Materials
The library collects research level monographs and serials in print and microformats. All major statistical and economic indexes and abstracts are in the collection in print format and by request may be searched on-line. The Library subscribes to various numeric databases from DRI/Basic Economics, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Bank, International Monetary Fund. Databases are frequently ordered at the request of the faculty or Ph.D. candidates. Occasionally, conference proceedings and working papers are collected.

The Library has standing orders for most publications from the following organizations: Brookings Institution, Conference Board, International Monetary Fund, National Bureau of Economic Research, OECD.  

Languages|
Most materials collected are in the English language.

Geographic Areas (Subject Approach)
Geographic considerations are secondary to subject areas. Comparative economic, industry, and organization studies and statistics are collected on a national or international basis, particularly for OECD member countries.

Time Periods (Subject Approach)
Acquisitions emphasize current research interests. The areas of historical interest are purchased by the history bibliographer.

Date of Publication
Current publications are acquired. A limited number of earlier titles, both book and serials, are purchased as needed for replacement purposes.

Subject Areas Collected by Library of Congress Classification Number
BCAT, the online catalog, can be searched by LC classification number to get a better idea of what specific titles the philosophy collection contains.  For example, the command c=HB100 will produce the beginning of a list of works on economic theory.  This list can be browsed by pressing the F8 key or typing f and pressing the Enter/Return key.