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.

British Library for Development Studies

National UK collection funded by the government since 1966 to collect 'development studies' material, especially from Third World countries, which have supplied some 70% of holdings. The largest 'development' library in Europe. 90,000 documents in online catalogue and over 1,000 journals (300 of these indexed on site). Total holdings around 250,000 items, includes a further 5,000 current serials (reports, newsletters, monograph series etc) especially strong in grey, semi-published and unpublished, literature. Chinese newspapers, and others, on microfilm. UN depository library and holds most publications of the World Bank, IMF and all UN agencies (FAO, ILO, Unesco, UNDP etc) and other international organizations. Large collection of African and South Asian government publications.

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.

Latin American Collection

The Latin American Collection was demarcated in the 1960s as part of a failed attempt by Manchester to become a Parry Centre for Latin American studies. It comprises both Spanish/Portuguese and English material classified in the Dewey classes 460-469 and 860-869.

Latin America and the Caribbean Collection

Over 15,000 volumes. Collection includes all areas of the Caribbean, including non-Hispanic. Recent material on open access; store includes older and rare books, mostly still recorded only in card catalogue. Current acquisition mainly of English-language material to support teaching programmes. For further detail see Alan Biggins and Valerie Cooper, eds, Latin American and Caribbean library resources in the British Isles: a directory (2002).

Latin American Collection

One of the most important Latin American library collections in Europe. Holdings total c.80,000 monographs and over 1,600 journals of which about 100 are current. The collection is not housed separately but is integrated into the main stock of the University Library and dispersed throughout it on a subject basis. All items are recorded in the Library's online catalogue.