University of Virginia Library

Section E. Political Science.

The political science material at the Virginia State
Library amounts to about 18,000 volumes. On the history and
theory of government (mostly in the United States) there are
1,000 volumes; on state government the number is approximately
2,000; and there are perhaps 250 on foreign governments.
Public finance, with about 3,000 volumes, and public health,
with about 1,500, are emphasized. Of periodicals there are
files, some being incomplete, of twenty-five varieties. On
international relations there is no extensive amount of book
material; but the library possesses ten periodicals which
deal with international relations.

The General Library and the Bureau of Public Administration
Library at the University of Virginia have a combined

total of 11,605 volumes and 34,870 pamphlets in political
science, this being exclusive of federal and state documents.
Stress is laid on such subjects as public administration, public
finance, and government, with some special relation to municipalities.
Current numbers of 145 serials are being received, the
majority being government and municipal journals which are on
the exchange lists of the Bureau of Public Administration. Contrary
to the usual condition in this and in many other Virginia
libraries, the pamphlet collection on public administration is
strong in European materials.

Several other libraries have fair sized working collections,
the emphasis varying considerably according to location. For
example, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute there are 2,229
volumes in political science with the emphasis on local government
and city planning. At the College of William and Mary
there are 1,925 volumes of which fully one quarter deal with
constitutional theory and history. At the University of Richmond
there are over 1,500 volumes, not including periodicals; and here
the stress is on such subjects as public finance and social work.
At the Randolph-Macon Woman's College there are 1,364 volumes
with additional pamphlet material, at Hampton Institute there are
1,272 volumes, and at Washington and Lee University there are approximately
1,200 volumes, no particular emphasis being recorded.
The collection of 1,034 volumes at Sweet Briar College includes
one of the most extensive files of League of Nations publications
in the State. Full sets of these publications seem surprisingly
hard to locate. At the Union Theological Seminary
there has been affort to collect material on `war and peace' and
5,170 items are reported on these and other political science
topics.