LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Mapping the World: collaborative support for research on overseas mapping

The aim of this project is to open up a major under-used resource for research in a wide range of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences by targeted series-level cataloguing of post-1850 overseas mapping. This will facilitate remote access to key materials by converting map library catalogue records, which at present are held on cards and accessible only to researchers visiting the libraries in person. The areas of coverage include Africa, North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand as well as much of Asia and the Middle East. The individual countries covered range from the tiniest Pacific islands to the vast areas of British Antarctica, from Mediterranean islands such as Cyprus and Malta to countries the size of Nigeria and Canada. Initially, different areas of the world were allocated to each partner but now each institution can also derive CURL records for areas already covered. For example, six libraries have completed work on Australia, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

DOMIC: Documentaries on modern international conflict

DOMIC is a two-year project launched to improve cross disciplinary access to television documentary archives held in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London. The project supported by Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) began in January 2000. The archival collections to be covered relate to the Vietnam, Falklands and Gulf Wars, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli Wars, conflict in the former Yugoslavia, chemical and biological testing and the development of nuclear technology and its impact on international relations and defence policies. Summary guides and detailed catalogues covering some 92,000 items are available on line.

Spencer Collection

Presented in 1931 by John James Spencer of Glasgow. The collection contains over hundred items, mainly contemporary pamphlets, broadsides, maps, together with a few manuscripts, relating to the Darien Scheme, an attempt to found a Scots trading colony at Darien in the isthmus of Panama at the end of the 17th century.

Cuban Women Writers Collection

The collection was donated in late 2001 by Professor Catherine Davies of the University of Manchester. It consists of literary works by Cuban women writers of the 20th century.

Caribbean Collection

Covers all aspects of the modern experience in the Caribbean and the diaspora (particularly the United Kingdom). The focus is on the Anglophone and Hispanic islands, but the Francophone and Dutch are also covered. The collection consists of approx. 2700 textbooks, monographs, official reports and pamphlets which principally supports an undergraduate half degree, but also some research. In addition there are about 150 videocassettes which are a mixture of off-air recordings and commercial purchases.