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European Studies
Scope
This overview focuses on European items in the collections of the Library of Congress. The term "European" covers the whole continent of Europe, and, in the case of Russia, includes its Asian territories. European items include books, periodicals, prints and other library materials originating in Europe. The vast American literature dealing with, or influenced by, Europe, generally has not been considered in this overview.
Size
LC holdings of books and other materials from almost all European countries are larger than anywhere in the world except for the countries themselves. Western and Eastern Europe are equally well represented in the LC collections. The Russian collections amount to about 700,000 volumes in Russian, to which may be added about an equal number of volumes in other languages of the former Soviet Union and in Western languages about Russia. French items in the general collections are estimated at over one million volumes. Italian items number about 500,000 volumes, and of approximately equal size are the Spanish collections, which include 4,000 serial titles relating to Spain. The German collections comprise approximately 2,250,000 volumes, with an average annual increment of about 30,000 volumes. Poland is represented by about 130,000 books and bound serials.
Astonishingly rich and usually well-balanced are the collections of most of the smaller European countries. Works on Hungary and Hungarians or by Hungarian authors amount to about 130,000 items, including 2,700 journals and magazines and 120 newspapers. The Dutch and Flemish collections consist of about 180,000 items. The Czech and Slovak collections are estimated at more than 100,000 volumes, including ca. 2,000 periodical titles.
General Research Strengths
LC's well-balanced and rich European collections probably provide the best resources in the United States for study of European affairs in the area of social studies, humanities, and law. For most of the European countries the LC offers in-depth coverage of a great variety of subjects throughout all periods. For many decades the LC collected books and periodicals that were not available to researchers in Central and Eastern Europe under the communist régimes (Samizdat publications, émigré literatures, works of Western authors on Central and Eastern Europe); for this reason the LC's European collections are, in certain genres, even more inclusive than the domestic collections in some of the European countries themselves.
The European items are especially strongly represented in the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections. It is estimated that about 50 percent of the Library's 50,000 rare books are of European origin. The Library of Congress, housing such treasures as the Giant Bible of Mainz and Magna Carta cum Statutis Angliae, has one of the world's most valuable collections of preserved written and printed testimonies of European culture. In the Geography and Map Collections 25 to 30 percent of all maps are European.
Areas of Distinction
Otto Vellbehr Collections of 15th century incunabula, including one of three surviving copies on velum of the Gutenberg Bible produced in Mainz.
Yudin Collection, pre-1906, including 68,000 volumes in Russian, forming the basis of the Library's Russian collections.
Coutume Collection, 800 volumes of books and manuscripts pertaining to European customary law.
Sigmund Freud Collection. Papers (1856-1939) and early editions of Freud's writings.
Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation Collection. Manuscripts, letters, papers of major composers, and research materials relating to Paganini and Mendelssohn.
Raymond Toinet Collection of early (17th, 18th, and 19th- centuries) French literary works.
Soviet Independent Press Collection. Approximately 3,000 serial titles with ca. 15,000-20,000 issues.
German Captured Documents Collection. 350,00-piece collection of documents mostly from the interwar and World War II periods.
European materials of great value are included in such famous collections as the Thomas Jefferson Library, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Hauslab-Liechtenstein collection (map), John Hersholt Collection, Rochambeau Collection, and Johann Georg Kohl Collection (collection of maps of the New and Old Worlds).
Weaknesses/Exclusions
Apart from some spotty weaknesses (such as Russian newspapers, both current and retrospective, outside the capital cities, or Russian imprints from the pre-Petrine period) there is one across-the- board-weakness: compared with the European monographic collections, the LC's holdings of pre-1945 European newspapers and of the American ethnic European press are much less comprehensive, with gaps, even lacunae in many interesting serial titles.
Last Update - October 1993