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Collection Development Manual > Libraries & Collections > Central Library > Literature and writing

Literature and writing

The Literature collection consists of a wide array of poetry, plays, essays, literary criticism, and works on journalism. The collection also includes practical works on writing and journalism (creative writing, business and technical writing, style guides, guides to the publishing industry), books of quotations, and a collection of materials on rare books and book collecting, including auction guides, works on the history of books and printing, and collector's guides.

In general, the works of poetry, plays, essays, and literary criticism in the collection support local interest and study by high school and college students. Works of major American and Pacific Northwest poets, plays that are performed in the Portland area or at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, monologue collections and audition pieces, literary criticism focusing on authors studied by high school students or focusing on one author or literary period, and essay collections by major writers are important parts of the collection.

Students, theater professionals, writers, journalists, book collectors, and general readers all use this collection. Many theatergoers read plays before attending performances of them, and both high school and college students make extensive use of the reference collection of literary criticism.

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Dictionaries, materials on grammar and materials designed to support language learning are located in the Language collection. At Central Library, this collection is housed in the Humanities rooms. Most copies of works of fiction, including short stories and genre writing are part of the Fiction collection, and audio versions of works of literature are part of the Audio collection. At Central Library, both the Fiction and Audio collections are kept in the Popular Library.