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Collection Development Manual > Libraries & Collections > Central Library > House and home

House and home

The House and Home collection covers several major subject areas, including gardening, animal husbandry and pets, home economics, cooking and entertaining, household furnishings, home repair and remodeling, sewing, furniture (including manufacture, construction, and repair), and landscape architecture. Materials discussing the collecting of household items such as kitchen implements, are part of this collection as well.

The materials on gardening and landscape architecture focus on general and beginning gardening, organic gardening, and the propagation of garden plants. The library is always looking to enrich its collection of gardening books that focus on the Pacific Northwest, as well as those on Japanese gardens, Chinese gardens, and specialized books on particular plants (trees, bulbs, bamboo, and so on).

Items about pets, domestic animals, and animal husbandry cover a wide range of animals and animal topics, but especially chickens, goats, pigs, pheasants, peacocks, rabbits, horses, cattle, sheep, llamas, ducks, pigeons, geese, dogs, cats, and rodents and birds as pets. Also included are materials on animal breeds, careers in livestock, and veterinary materials written for farmers, pet owners, or ranchers.

The House and Home collection contains a very well-developed collection of materials on cooking, food, and beverages. This subject area includes recipe books, histories of food and cuisine, information about specific chefs and restaurants, materials on wines, grapes, and wine regions of the world, and materials detailing or discussing regional and ethnic cuisines of the world.

Sewing, beauty and grooming, personal fashion and dress are part of this collection, including sewing methods, pattern making, sewing different kinds of fabrics, sewing for the home, sewing different garments, beauty instruction, hairdressing and hair cutting, and cosmetics.

The woodworking portion of the House and Home collection covers a wide range of topics, including upholstery, tools, workshops, hardware, furniture, cabinetry, furniture repair, toys, jigs, joinery, woodturning, routing, scroll saw work, and outdoor projects. Garden architecture is also part of this collection, and includes works on landscaping, garden design, garden structures, and the history of landscape and garden design.

In general, the House and Home collection is intended for general interest readers such as people who are looking for practical information on how to make furniture or the difference between the various breeds of horses. Teachers, parents, students, and anyone who is interested the various domestic, homemaking, and home keeping subjects use House and Home collection.

The library's collection of materials about dogs and dog breeds is quite in-depth, as are the collections of materials on cooking and food, landscape design, and garden architecture. Therefore, the House and Home collection is also used as a professional and vocational resource by chefs, cooking students, restaurateurs, architects, and garden designers.

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Further materials on the history of furniture, and on architecture can be found in the Art and Architecture collection, and some materials on architecture as it relates to urban planning are part of the Social Science collection.

Works on theatrical make up are part of the Performing Arts collection, and those on costume design and fashion are part of the Customs collection. Materials discussing clothing and textile manufacture are part of the Manufacturing collection.

Nutrition and other materials about the human diet are kept with the Medicine collection. Materials on wild and non-domesticated animals are part of the Natural Science collection. Farming, orchard culture, scientific information about tree crops and viticulture, and other related topics are with the agriculture materials in the Technology collection, as are materials on dairy science, beekeeping, and some domesticated animals not covered in the House and Home collection.

At Central Library, the Art and Architecture, Performing Arts, and Customs collections are kept in the Humanities rooms, and the Social Sciences, Manufacturing, Medicine, Natural Science, and Technology collections are kept in the Science & Business room.

In addition, the library has an extensive special collection of materials on roses, rose gardening, and the history of roses that is housed in the John Wilson Room at Central Library.