The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress

Foreign Language Resources

Presented By

The African & Middle Eastern, Asian, European and Hispanic Reading Room and The Federal Research

Division

January 13, 2017

History

» The Library of Congress was established by an act of Congress in 1800 when President John Adams signed a bill providing for the transfer of the seat of government from Philadelphia to the new capital city of Washington.

» Established with $5,000 appropriated by the legislation, the original library was housed in the new Capitol until August 1814, when invading British troops set fire to the Capitol Building, burning and pillaging the contents of the small library.

» In January 1815, Congress accepted Jefferson's offer, appropriating $23,950 for his 6,487 books, and the foundation was laid for a great national library.

Today

» The Library of Congress acquires materials in all formats--books, periodicals, maps, music, prints, photographs, recorded sound, videos, electronic, etc.--and in all subjects, except technical agriculture and clinical medicine, from all over the world.

» The Library has six methods to acquire materials--Cataloging in Publication, Copyright, Exchange, Gift, Federal Transfer, and Purchase. The collection is shaped by the Library's Collection Policy Statements and totals over 138,000,000 items.

Future » Dr. Carla Hayden, sworn in by Congress on

September 14, 2016, is the 14th Librarian in history and the first woman and first African American to lead the Library. Dr. Hayden was nominated to the position by President Obama, and her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

» She has a Ph.D. in librarianship from the University of Chicago, and has led a stellar career that includes serving as chief librarian at the Chicago Public Library in the early 1990s, and serving in 2003 and 2004 as president of the American Library Association. From 1993 until recently she served as CEO of Baltimore’s public library system.

Holdings » Largest research library in the world including over 158

million items:

o 36 million cataloged books/print materials

o 69 million manuscripts

o 14 million visual items

o 6 million technical reports

o 5 million maps

» Over 50% of holdings encompass 460 foreign languages.

» 300+ electronic databases on economics, education, humanities, law, social science and technology.

» 66,000+ electronic journals on economics, education, humanities, law, social science and technology.

Overseas Offices

Since 1962 the Library of Congress has maintained offices abroad, staffed by local nationals, to acquire, catalog, preserve, and distribute library and research materials from countries where conventional acquisitions methods are not well established.

» Cairo

» Islamabad

» Jakarta

» Nairobi

» New Delhi

» Rio de Janeiro

Overseas Offices

West Africa Project

The Library of Congress is developing an acquisitions pilot with the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), the West African Research Association (WARA), and the West African Research Center (WARC) in Dakar, Senegal.

This collaborative effort with the U.S. research community will attempt to survey publishing output in the region and to collect materials that are available either through purchase, exchange or gift sources.

The work is experimental and no long-term commitment or decisions about the future of the Library's acquisitions in West Africa have been made. The project is limited at this time to acquisitions for the Library of Congress.

The Federal Research Division » The Federal Research Division (FRD), a cost-recovery unit

within the Library of Congress, began in 1948 and offers domestic and international research, analysis and translation services to Federal Agencies, the DC Government and authorized contractors.

» As expert users of the vast English and foreign-language collections of the Library of Congress, the Division’s area and subject specialists employ the resources of the world’s largest library and other information sources worldwide to produce impartial and comprehensive studies.

» FRD is organizationally part of the National Enterprises Directorate (NE), National and International Outreach (NIO). NIO combines many of the Library’s public-facing programs and activities.

HISPANIC READING ROOM

Reference Specialist

Tracy North

Hispanic Reading Room

SPANISH, PORTUGESE, LATIN AMERICAN, CARIBBEAN AND LATINO COLLECTION

»Reference collection (~6,000 items)

»Access to LC’s General collections

»Specialized reference assistance: www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic

»Help locating related materials in other LC reading rooms

»Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape (AHLOT)

»Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS): www.loc.gov/hlas

Hispanic Reading Room

E-RESOURCES

»Electronic Resources Online Catalog

Hispanic Reading Room curated list

Open Access Journals: REDALyC, SciELO, etc.

Brazil’s Popular Groups (ongoing project @ LC’s Overseas Office in Rio de Janeiro)

• Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera (Princeton University)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Blog: 4 Corners of the World: International Collections

Facebook: Library of Congress International Collections

Hispanic Reading Room

Hispanic Reading Room

Hispanic Reading Room

ASIAN READING ROOM

Head, Scholarly Services

Qi Qiu

Asian Reading Room

» Provides public access to more than 4 million items in over 130 Asian languages

» 6 collections: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian-Tibetan, South Asian, Southeast Asian Western language materials on Asia in other divisions

» Asian Division is the custodial division managing Asian collections and Asian reading room services

www.loc.gov/rr/asian

Size of Asian Collections (as of September 30, 2015)

The Chinese Collections

» LC started the Chinese collections in the 1860s

» The collection has since then grown to over 1,100,000 volumes as of 2016.

» Special Collections

Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing Editions (4,000 + titles)

• Rare books

• Local histories

• Buddhist Sutras

Manchu, Naxi language Materials

South Manchurian Railway Company Collections

Gamble Collection

Pre-1958 Collections (40,000 + titles)

The Chinese Herbal and Materia Medica (A 1655

edition)

Gamble Collection

Special Collections

Greetings of the Chinese to the Americans

Databases China Studies

Databases Pre-1949 Chinese History Studies ‎

» Chinese Classic Ancient Books (中国基本古籍库)

» Dacheng Pre-1949 Periodical Full-Text Database (大成老旧刊全文数据)

» Late Qing Periodical Full-text Database 晚清期刊全文数据库 (1833-1911):

» National Central Library Rare Books & Special Collections Database 國家圖書館古籍與特藏文獻資源

http://www.loc.gov/rr/asian/ChineseDB2.html

Databases Contemporary China Studies

» Duxiu

» China Academic Journal (CAJ) and China Core Newspapers Database (CCND)‎

» China Economy, Public Policy, and Security Database (Pishu) ‎

» China Infobank

» China Yearbook Full-text Database: (Politics/Military Affairs/Law) ‎

» Database for the History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements

LC’s South Asia Collection

» 1904 = Start of collection with purchase of German Indologist Albrecht Weber’s library

Mostly Sanskrit manuscripts and literature

» Establishment of overseas offices in India (1962) and Pakistan (1965)

Beginning of major acquisition in vernacular languages

» 2017 = Coverage of 6 countries and over 100 modern languages

Some Hindi Materials

» LC’s South Asia acquisition is most robust in Hindi

Approx. 20% of collection is in Hindi

FY 2015: 1700 new bib records for Hindi titles

Monographs, serials, journals, magazines, short pamphlets

» 3 current newspapers (microfilm): Dainik Jagaran, Rajasthan Patrika, and Aj

» MBRS Reading Room: Hindi films

http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/findaid/india.html

E-Resources with Hindi Material

» CRL’s South Asia Microform Project (on-site)

LC has free, unlimited use of CRL collections via ILL

Downloadable digital content includes 19th and 20th c. Hindi books, pamphlets, etc.

» LC’s South Asia Literary Recordings Project (free)

More than 50 recordings from 6 different Hindi authors

https://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/

South Asia E-Resources

1. JSTOR

2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers and Periodicals

3. Bibliography of Asian Studies

4. British Online Archives

5. Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan 1947-1980

6. Empire Online

7. South Asian Newspapers

8. South Asian Archive

9. 1947 Partition Archive

EUROPEAN READING ROOM

Head

Grant Harris

European Reading Room

» Includes 30 languages and 40 countries, excluding Spain, Portugal, and the British Isles.

» Provides contact information, a collection description for nearly every country, as well as research guides to newspapers, European telephone directories, and digital collections.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/european/

European Reading Room

FRENCH COLLECTION

»The Library holds over 1.2 million monographs from or about France. Each year LC receives about 2,500 monographs from France. We currently receive over 800 French periodicals in print, and many French-language newspapers and periodicals electronically through vendors such as Eureka.cc.

»French Reference Specialist

Erika Spencer, espencer@loc.gov 202 707 4371

»The French Collections at LC: https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/coll/fren.html

»French Resources at LC: https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/resources/res-fr.html

European Reading Room RUSSIAN COLLECTION

»The Library holds over 1.5 million volumes from or about Russia. Each year LC receives over 3,000 monographs from Russia. We currently receive over 1,000 periodicals in print, and several hundred Russian newspapers and periodicals electronically, primarily through EastView. Recent additions to Russian e-serials include Interfax News Bulletins, (general newswires and bulletins on governmental, military, and foreign affairs); Russian Economics and Finance Periodicals; and Russian Islamic Studies.

»LC recently completed its collection of over 11,000 microfilm reels of Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State (documents from 1903-92).

European Reading Room RUSSIAN COLLECTION

»Russian Area Specialist

Harold Leich, hlei@loc.gov 202 707 2224

»The Russian Collections at LC: https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/coll/russ.html

»Russian Newspapers at LC: https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/newspapers/ru/runews1.html

European Reading Room SERBO-CROATIAN COLLECTION

»South Slavic Reference Specialist

Angela Cannon, acannon@loc.gov 202 707 8490

»The South Slavic Collections at LC: https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/coll/slav.html

»Croatian Newspapers at LC: https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/newspapers/yu/hrnews.html

»Serbian Newspapers at LC: https://www.loc.gov/rr/european/newspapers/yu/rsnews.html

European Reading Room SERBO-CROATIAN COLLECTION

LC receives annually about 1,000 monographs from Serbia and currently receive about 360 periodicals in print from Serbia and 220 from Croatia.

We receive a number of Serbian newspapers and periodicals electronically through e-resources

European Reading Room SERBO-CROATIAN E-RESOURCES

»Ebart Newspaper Archive (Novinski arhiv) of 27 daily and weekly newspapers from Serbia, from 2003 to present. 2,000,000 full indexed articles that can be searched in full-text.

»Balkan Insight contains current information from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia.

»Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL) provides access to full text articles from more than 200 humanities and social science journals, electronic books and documents, primarily from East European countries other than Russia. Includes partial runs of about 50 Serbian periodicals.

»Slavic Humanities Index , a bibliographic database covering scholarly and cultural periodicals from Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

European Reading Room WEB ARCHIVING PROJECTS

The Library is currently web archiving the sites of the ministries for Agriculture; Culture; Finance; Economics; Foreign Affairs and other ministries, depending on the country, from Albania, Bosnia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Serbia.

AFRICAN & MIDDLE EASTERN READING ROOM

Chief

Mary-Jane Deeb

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room Researching the Jasmine Revolution and Its Aftermath

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room

» The African and Middle Eastern Division builds and serves the collections from over 78 countries and in more than 30 languages.

» The African Section includes countries in all of sub-Saharan Africa and, although not custodial, houses over 30,000 pamphlets and 2000 Macedo collection items, as well as 6,000 lesser known African language materials and 2000 photographs and postcards.

» The Hebraic Section covers Hebraic a worldwide and houses over 250, 000 items, including Ethiopian materials.

» The Near East Section covers all of the Arab countries including North Africa, Turkey, Turkic Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, the Muslims in Western China, Russia and the Balkans, and, the peoples of the Caucasus and is home to 400,000 Arabic items and 200,000 Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Turkish, Central Asian and Armenian items. In addition, there are 95,000 photographs from the Afghan Media Resource Center.

» There are 12,000 reference volumes in the reading room and 46,000 microfilm reels of primarily newspapers covered by the division.

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room

al-Maghrib. Uniform title •Maghrib (Tunis, Tunisia) Main title •al-Maghrib.المغرب. Published/Produced •Tu nis : al-Maghrib al-Kabi r Midya, 2011- • المغرب الكبير ميديا، :‎تونس -

La presse de Tunisie. Full Record MARC Tags Main title La presse de Tunisie. Published/Created Tunis [Tunisia] : [publisher not identified] Request this Item LC Find It

Le temps. Uniform title •Temps (Tunis, Tunisia) Main title •Le temps. Published/Created •Tunis [Tunisia] : [publisher not identified] Request this Item LC Find It Where to Request

al-Saba h. Uniform title •Saba h (Tunis, Tunisia) •(Tunis, Tunisia) .صباح

Main title •al-Saba h. • .الصباح

Published/Created •Tu nis : Da r al-Saba h • دار الصباح:‎تونس

NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room December 23, 2011: Tunisians calling for the fall of the regime

Questions??

Speaker Information

African & Middle Eastern Division Mary-Jane Deeb Chief mdee@loc.gov Asian Reading Room Qi Qiu Head, Scholarly Services qqiu@loc.gov

European Reading Room Grant Harris Head grha@loc.gov Hispanic Reading Room Tracy North Reference Specialist tnor@loc.gov

The Federal Research Division Ann Marsteller Outreach

amar@loc.gov