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Library
Collection
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About
the Collection
The Library of the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has over eight million volumes,
making it first in size among state university libraries and
third among all university libraries in the nation.
Holdings in Slavic and East European languages now total about
560,000 volumes. In addition, there are over 112,000 volumes
on Russia and Eastern Europe in Western languages, bringing
the total to about 673,000 volumes, indicating that Illinois
has the second or third largest Slavic and East European collection
among American universities and the largest of any library
west of Washington, D.C.
The unique Slavic and East European
reading room houses basic reference works, including bibliographies,
serial indexes, library catalogs, archival guides, dictionaries,
and encyclopedias, as well as current issues of about 1,000
periodicals and 110 newspapers in Western and area languages.
It is the only library in the country in this subject area
to provide access to subject specialist library personnel
in the same location as its reference collection. As
a result, the Slavic and East European Library serves more
non-governmental researchers in the Slavic field than any
other institution in the country except for the Library of
Congress. The unique Slavic Reference Service is a free,
federally funded service that handles bibliographic and reference
questions in the humanities and social science from individuals
as well as libraries. The Reference Service is located
in the reading room for the convenience of users.
Since 1973, the Slavic and East
European Library has been the focal point of the University
of Illinois Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and East
Europe. More than 2,300 scholars from around the
world have taken advantage of this unique program.
The Slavic and East European Library's
collection is made up of more than 673,000 titles,
including some 92,000 microforms, and subscriptions to approximately
4,000 current periodicals, mostly in the vernacular, dealing
with all parts of the former Soviet Union as well as Poland,
the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, the former
Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, and Albania. Of this approximately
3 percent can be found in the Doris Duke Reading Room, which
contains basic reference works, bibliographies and serial
indexes, library catalogs, archival guides, dictionaries,
encyclopedias, periodicals and newspapers. The collection
focuses primarily on the humanities and social sciences; approximately
5 percent of the collection deals with the natural sciences.
The collection is particularly noted for its holdings in Russian
and Ukrainian history and culture. 
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Collection
Highlights
There are several collection highlights
of note. Along with the extensive periodical holdings
of nineteenth century titles, the library owns the 562 microfilm
reels of the opisi of the Communist
Party Archives, the catalog of the Russian
National Library (Saltykov-Shchedrin) on microfiche,
the Prague
Spring microform collection, the Polish
Independent Publications microform collection, the
GULAG Press, 1920-1937
microfiche collection, the Beloe
Dvizhenie: Katalog Kollektsii Listovok (1917-1920 gg.)
on microfilm, all the biographical archives published for
the countries in our area by K.G. Sauer, the microfilm collection
of 18th century Russian publications based on the Svodnyi
Katalog, as well as most of the archival guides
referenced in Patricia Grimsted's voluminous archival writings.
These specific items are representative of the richness of
the collections here at Illinois. If you are planning
a research trip abroad, your time there will be more productive
if you spend some time here scouting out which of your sources
already exist in the U.S. or determining from archival guides
which repositories will prove the most useful. General
descriptions of holdings in each of the countries of
the area follow.
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Russia
and the former Soviet Union. The Library holds approximately
190,700 volumes in the languages of the former Soviet Union,
plus another 58,465 or so volumes on Russia and the former
Soviet Union in other languages. Coverage is good in all areas
of the humanities and social sciences. Pre-Revolutionary publications
are well represented; Soviet imprints of the 1920s and 1930s
somewhat less so. The collection is most comprehensive for
the period from 1950 onward; standing orders, blanket orders,
and exchange programs with Russian and other republic libraries
have resulted in the acquisition of many provincial publications
not generally exported. There is a good collection of
books and journals published in Russian and Ukrainian outside
the Commonwealth of Independent States, including the imprints
of émigré publishing houses.
The Library has about 99,818
additional volumes of Russian and Ukrainian titles in microform,
including most serials of importance that are not available
in the original. There are also long runs on microfilm
of some 155 newspapers in Russian, Ukrainian, and Estonian,
including both pre-Revolutionary and Soviet titles.
The library has complete runs of the most important 19th and
20th century Russian periodicals and newspapers on microfilm,
microfiche, or in the original. Other significant holdings
include near-complete collections of Russian books from the
17th and 18th centuries from major Russian repositories, and
Russian book, periodical, and newspaper collections from the
Hoover Institution, Harvard University, Columbia University
and Library of Congress.
Since 1977, the Slavic and
East European Library has cooperated with the Slavic Department
of the Helsinki University Library by selecting and microfilming
scarce 19th and early 20th century book in the Helsinki collection
and making them available to the international scholarly community.
Other important personal collections include the Elias Czaykowsky
collection of Ukrainian Culture and the private scholarly
library of noted Russian historian George Vernadsky.
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Czech
and Slovak Republics.
Total holdings come to about
48,344 volumes. Illinois has nearly all of the major
Czech and Slovak scholarly periodicals in history, literature,
the social sciences, philosophy, and art, with good coverage
of religion as well. The literature collections, about
9,350 volumes, include complete editions of all important
authors and nearly all of the standard critical and bibliographical
works. There are more than 9,950 volumes on Czech and
Slovak history and politics, including many complete runs
of historical journals and collections of published documents,
in addition to standard monographs. The history of Czechoslovakia
to 1948 finds extensive coverage and includes good holdings
of the contemporary periodicals, as well as many complete
runs of historical, literary, political and philological journals
from the 19th century. The I. Perlstein Collection
of Czechoslovak Book Design contains approximately 750 volumes
of limited, signed bibliophile editions of Czech literature
from the 1920s and 1930s and is housed in the Rare Book Room.
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The
Former Yugoslavia. The
Yugoslav collections total about 41,425 volumes. They
include complete sets of nearly all of the publications of
the Yugoslav Academy and its various historical and literary
document series, and good coverage of the Serbian Academy.
Slovenian periodical holdings are strong. Altogether
there are more than 1,200 Yugoslav serial titles. Current
publications are received on blanket orders which are in effect
for all countries of Eastern Europe. Law is among the
subjects that have received particular emphasis.
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Poland.
The Polish collection has about 49,494 volumes.
There are about 11,425 volumes in Polish literature including
standard collected editions of the major authors and a fairly
complete selection of literary history and criticism. 10,175
volumes are in Polish history; holdings in Polish law are
substantial. Retrospective periodical holdings are extensive
in most fields, but there are fewer complete runs of journals
in the Polish collection than in the Czech and Slovak and
former Yugoslav collections.
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Hungary.
The Hungarian collection numbers approximately 23,990
volumes. It contains standard reference works and a
representative selection of works in most disciplines.
The monographic literature is strongest in the history of
Hungary up to 1918. The library also possesses an excellent
collection of official documents and law books. There
are, for example, the complete records of the Hungarian diet
and parliament from 1790 to 1944 and nearly 2,500 items on
all aspects of Hungarian law published before 1918.
The periodical and serial collections on history, literature,
and language are strong.
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Bulgaria.
Bulgaria is represented by extensive retrospective periodical
runs including most of the Academy and university publications.
Of the 13,755 volumes on Bulgaria, about 3,700 are devoted
to literature and 4,450 to history and related fields.
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Romania.
The Romanian collection numbers approximately 15,830 volumes.
Besides a basic collection of bibliographies and reference
aids, there are significant holdings in history, language,
literature, and law. For history there are numerous
general histories, monographs, and collections of sources,
especially for the period from about 1800 to 1945 and for
Transylvania. The periodical collection contains the
major publications of the Romanian Academy and its institutes
since 1914. In language and literature there are most
of the major histories and descriptive works and a comprehensive
collection of periodicals. The library currently receives
almost all significant national and provincial periodicals.
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