MASTER OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

A Note Regarding the MPA Program at the University of Cincinnati
At the current time the MPA Program remains suspended.  Consequently, additions of library materials in the field of public administration are presently minimal.  If and when the MPA is reinstated the library will also reinstate purchasing resources for the collection, building on what has been collected in the past.

Sally Moffitt,
Bibliographer for Political Science

October 10, 2008

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Subjects covered :  The public administration collection supports teaching and research conducted by faculty affiliated with the Masters of Public Administration Program.  In addition to public administration and organizational theory, the collection includes materials relating to basic skills such as effective communication, program analysis, fund accounting, budgeting, human resource management, personnel administration, public sector decision-making, quantitative methods, planning, and organizational staffing.  The collection also includes material relating to personnel administration, labor relations and collective bargaining in the public sector, employee compensation and employee benefits.  Polling, statistics, and computer applications in the public sector are also part of the public administration collection, as are statutes and codes.

The Masters in Public Administration Program has as one of its focal points developing specializations in administrative occupations, especially health care administration.  Material that relates to this focus is also included in the public administration library collection.

Departments and users served :  The public administration program serves students and faculty in the Masters of Public Administration Program in the College of Arts and Sciences.  Through direct patron borrowing the collection also serves faculty and students of public administration in the OhioLINK system.

Within the University of Cincinnati's West Campus other users of the public administration collection include faculty and students in the College of Business Administration, the College Conservatory of Music's Arts Administration Division, the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning's School of Planning, and the School of Social Work.   Faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences departments of communications, political science, and economics also use the public administrative collection, as do students in the women's studies program.  In turn, faculty and students in the public administration program also make use of the collections developed to serve these other users.

On the East Campus, faculty and students in the College of Allied Health Sciences make occasional use of the MPA health care administration materials.

Quantitative information :  http://www.uc.edu/mpa/

The Faculty:  The MPA program has 2 full time faculty members who teach the program's core courses.  Nine faculty members are affiliated.  Drawn from the School of Planning, the Department of Political Science, and the Department of Economics, these faculty members teach the program's elective course requirements.  In addition to its teaching faculty the MPA Program includes a Program Council whose membership includes faculty from the College of Business and the School of  Social Work.

Degrees granted :  The MPA program grants the Master of Public Administration degree.

Special programs and accreditation requirements :  The MPA is an interdisciplinary program designed to meet the needs of traditional pre-career graduate students and the needs of working administrators in government agencies and non-profit organizations.  The program's four areas of concentration are public management, public affairs, economic development, and human resource management.  Students individualize their programs within this framework.

Grants and special funding :  The MPA Program currently has an operating budget and a separate gift budget.  The Murray and Agnes Seasongood Foundation is a major contributor to the MPA program.
 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location:   The MPA collection is located in Langsam Library.  Older, little circulated material is placed in the Southwest Ohio Regional Depository.

Other collections supporting the program

Internal:  The MPA program draws on library collections developed for business, economics, social work, communications, political science, government documents, and planning.

External:  The Government and Business Department of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County supports the MPA Program, as do the combined libraries in OhioLINK.

Collection history :  The MPA Program has been situated in the Department of Political Science for the past 40 years.  In 1997, following a Program Council review, steps began to be taken to reconstruct and revitalize the MPA Program.  With the support of the University and the Seasongood Good Government Foundation, in 1998 the MPA Program embarked on a process to stabilize the program and to transform it into an interdisciplinary academic unit with a redesigned curriculum and broader, multidisciplinary support.

The MPA Council issued a Development Plan for the new MPA Program in December 2000 that continues the MPA's reconstruction.  Chief among the Development Plan goals are the twin aims of arriving at a program development budget and a library budget separate from political science.  The Development Plan also calls for the identification of program space, the institution of a governance structure, and further articulation of the program's focus.

General level of collecting :  Because of its interdisciplinary nature and the support received from other areas of collection development in aspects of mutual interest, the library's MPA materials range in quality and quantity from basic through research level.
 

SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF THE COLLECTION

Call numbers :  As a discipline of study public administration concerns itself with processes for implementing government policies, including studying and making recommendations regarding policy issues.  Public Administration also concerns itself with the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of governmental operations.  While much of the discipline is results oriented, in its academic setting theory is also studied.

As practiced at the University of Cincinnati, these call number sections from the Library of Congress classification code represent the areas of public administration most generally collected:

HA...........Statistics

HB...........Demography, Vital Statistics, Economic Theory

HD...........Land Use, Labor, Collective Bargaining

HE...........Public Policy issues regarding Transportation and
                                                  Communications

HF...........Personnel Management

HJ............Public Finance

HN.............Public Policy issues relating to Social Problems and
                                                  Social Reform

HQ.............Public Policy issues relating to the Family

HT..............The City and Regional Planning; Public Policy issues 
                                                    Relating to economic and social classes and race

HV...........Public Policy issues relating to Social and Public
                                                  Welfare, including Protection, Assistance, and Relief

JF............Organs and Functions of Government; Public 
                                                  Administration; Civil Service

JS............Local Government

KF.............Laws of the United States

KFA-KFW.........State Laws and Codes

KFX..............Municipal Laws and Codes

TD..............Public Policy issues relating to Municipal and 
                                                   Environmental Sanitation

TH...........Public Buildings

Z5051-7999...........Subject Bibliographies

Current and retrospective collecting :  Although some retrospective collecting is practiced, emphasis is placed on the acquisition of current material.

Time period collected :  Emphasis is placed on the mid-20th century forward, although works are also collected from the beginnings of the Progressive Reform Movement in the United States.

Levels and treatments :  Graduate level material suitable for the master's degree is collected to support the MPA program.  Textbooks are infrequently purchased but works directed toward the practitioner are acquired.

Language :  English 

Geographical area:   The MPA program's library collection chiefly relates to public administration as practiced in the United States, although a limited number of works on comparative public administration are also collected.

Type of resources :  The public administration collection includes monographs, series, society publications, journals, indexes, abstracts, bibliographies, handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, government publications, and web sites.

Resource formats :  The public administration collection includes print, microform, video, and digital formats.

Endowed areas supported by restricted funds :  The Seasongood Library Endowment supports the public administration collection.
 

ACQUISITION PROCESS

Approval plans :  The public administration collection participates in the approval plan supplied by Yankee Book Peddler.

Firm orders :  Firm orders for the public administration collection are selected from a variety of sources including vendor notification slips, direct mail brochures, publisher's catalogs, and book reviewing publications.

Standing orders :  The public administration collection maintains standing orders for journal publications, monographic series, and internet resources.

Document suppliers :  The public administration collection relies on direct patron access through OhioLINK and the Library's Interlibrary Loan Department for access to items that are not in our collection, are in circulation, or are missing from our collection.

Special vendors :  The public administration collection relies on the Acquisition Department to determine if a special vendor is needed to acquire requested materials.

Sally Moffitt
Public Administration
March 11, 2001