LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Early English Books online

From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this incomparable collection now contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Libraries possessing this collection find they are able to fulfill the most exhaustive research requirements of graduate scholars subject areas, including: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science.

Glasgow Digital Library (GDL)

Glasgow Digital Library (GDL)has produced a series of freely available e-books relating to Glasgow and Scotland. These books have been digitised and converted toweb format at the Centre for Digital Library Research from a variety of special collections.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)

ECCO is an on-line multi-disciplinary research database which consists of a library of nearly 140,000 digitised titles and editions, published in the United Kingdom between 1701 and 1800. Full-text searching of more than 32 million pages takes the user directly to primary source material in facsimile copy of its original. ECCO is of universal appeal to Classicists, Medievalists, Renaissance scholars and students of the early modern period, as well as the later period of the Enlightenment. The project is based on Thomson Gale's microfilm library. Registration required for trial access.

St Andrews University Library photographic collection: The photographic presentation of landscape and people

St Andrews' holds one of the largest and most important collections of historic photography in Scotland. Includes the Valentine collection (the surviving image archive of the 19th century company which later became one of the largest publishers of picture postcards in the world), the Robert Moyes Adam collection (which concentrates largely on rural Scotland - its landscape and people, c.1900-1950), and the George Cowie collection (the work of a freelance journalist based in St Andrews c.1930-1980 whose c.60,000 negatives document all aspects of life in north-east Fife and its role in national events during a highly significant fifty-year period, and also contains an astounding golfing archive). St Andrews has many other smaller collections (both historic and modern) of local, national and international range. The collection of very early photography (1840-c.1870) is one of the finest in the world.

Michael Peto photographic collection

Michael Peto came to Britain from Hungary in 1939. He was a freelance journalist with the Observer newspaper, and travelled extensively, covering the work of the Save the Children Fund around the world. Other aspects of his work involved the arts, especially the London ballet scene. Major topics covered by the collection (which consists of some 130,000 items) thus include Eastern Europe, Israel, India, ballet and theatre and Scotland, as well as leading political, literary and entertainment figures.

George Washington Wilson collection

The George Washington Wilson collection comprises 40,000 negatives spanning the period 1859-1908, which offer a topographical record of the UK (but also include material relating to colonial Australia and South Africa, and the western Mediterranean coast). It is also a rich record of urban and rural growth, industrialisation, transportation and many elements of social history. Further collections held by the University complement the GWW archive with many more photographs of Scotland, and particularly north-east Scotland - its landscape, buildings and archaeology.

Genesis: Developing access to women's history sources in the British Isles

The Genesis project is a mapping initiative, funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) and based at The Women's Library in London, to identify and develop access to women's history sources in the British Isles. Researchers can access over 2,000 collection descriptions which will cover a wide range of subjects relating to women's history via the project website.

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.

UK union catalogue of Chinese books

The main aim of the project is to provide a single access point to all research material in Chinese in the UK, and to give a boost to this initiative by a focused programme of substantial retrospective record conversion, concentrating on the most recent (post-Cultural Revolution) scholarship in all fields. Will provide a single access point to all major Chinese language collections in the UK, namely the British Library, and the university libraries of Oxford (Bodleian Library), Cambridge, London (SOAS Library), Leeds (Brotherton Library), Edinburgh and Durham. Database currently contains approximately 190,000 records (probably representing at least 130,000 different titles) from Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, the British Library, and Durham. Records from SOAS and Edinburgh will be added in the near future.

Middle Eastern Studies research materials in Arabic and Persian

The aim of this project is to assist researchers to locate, in UK university libraries, works written in Arabic and Persian. At present tracing such material can be difficult, particularly as much of it is still only represented in local manual catalogues. Under this project, the participants will add records for around 60,000 Arabic and Persian items to local, national and international catalogues. The records will be created on RLIN, the bibliographic database of the U.S.-based Research Libraries Group, with the bibliographic description entered in both romanised (transliterated) script and in the original Arabic script. Not all libraries are currently able to make use of the Arabic script in their local system, but the aim is to 'future proof' the conversion work at a time of rapid change in the area of computer handling of non-Roman script. Records for over 38,000 Arabic and Persian items had been added to local catalogues. Two of the partner libraries, Durham and SOAS, have recently implemented the Innopac Arabic script module, and so are able to display records in the original script.

Wales 1801-1919: The final piece in the UK/Ireland NSTC geographical jigsaw

The project attempts to fill two major gaps in the bibliography of Wales. Firstly, the dates 1801 and 1919 have been chosen to fill a geographical and linguistic gap in the Nineteenth-century short title catalogue (NSTC) which is believed to have excluded much Welsh language material. Secondly, it will fill a gap between Libri Walliae: a catalogue of Welsh books and books printed in Wales 1546-1820, and Bibliotheca Celtica and its successor Llyfryddiaeth Cymru/Bibliography of Wales which cover the period from 1909 to date.

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.

AIM25 - Archives in London and the M25 area

AIM25 (Archives in London and the M25 area) commenced in January 2000 and is supported by two rounds of funding from the Research Support Libraries Programme. The principal objective of AIM25 is to prove a single point of networked access to descriptions of the archives of AIM25 consortial partners. These comprise more than fifty institutions, consisting of the principal colleges and schools of the University of London, other universities and Higher Education institutes in the area, and some of the most important royal colleges and societies of medicine and science based in London. The website allows researchers to browse ISAD(G) descriptions by repository and to conduct searches using two types of text search engine or the indexes of personal, corporate and place names and a subject thesaurus based on the UNESCO Thesaurus.

Retrospective conversion of Asian and African collections 1978-1989

Based at the School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) project will facilitate the exploration of this research material by researchers and enable them to plan research visits to London more efficiently. It will facilitate the inter-library lending of material which is eligible for such use. It will reveal the wealth of resources that are held on closed access, such as microform and pamphlet literature. It will enable greater work on collaboration with other Libraries collecting in the same subject fields. Searchable through the SOAS web catalogue.

Charting the Nation: widening access to maps of Scotland and associated archives 1550-1740

Charting the Nation is a collaborative digital imaging and cataloguing project funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP), with additional support from the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network (SCRAN) and the National Library of Scotland. The primary aim of the project is to provide on-line access to maps of Scotland and their associated archives dating from 1550 to 1740.

Francophone Africa (including North and Sub-Saharan Africa)

The University of Portsmouth has a large up-to-date interdisciplinary collection of books and journals covering all aspects of Francophone Africa.

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.

Trotsky Collection

An extensive collection of Trotskiana. The originalgift comprised some 1800 editions of Trotsky’s works in 40 languages, together with numerous secondary items and several hundred periodical and newspaper issues containing pieces by Trotsky. The collection hassubsequently been augmented with a small group of papers and published material presented by the widow of Isaac Deutscher (Trotsky’s biographer). Other significant additions include the first Russian edition ofWhere is Britain Going? (1925); copies of two films of Trotsky in Mexico, purchased from the cameraman who shot them; a recording of the speech made on the occasion of the founding of the Fourth International and numerous copies of original Trotsky correspondenceheld in North American libraries. Donated to Glasgow University Library in 1983 by Louis Sinclair, Trotsky’s bibliographer.

ILP Russian Tour Material

The Independent Labour Party Russian Tour Material relates to a tour of the Soviet Union organised by the Independent Labour Party in 1932. Delegates visited Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. An un-named I.L.P. member produced this notebook, which contains notes about the tour, a brief history of the country, and comments and descriptions of conditions under the Five Year Plan. The notebook is illustrated with photographs and postcards.

Kennedy Papers

The Kennedy Papers of Captain Malcolm Duncan Kennedy cover the period from 1917 to 1965, relating to Japanese economic, military and political matters.

H.G. Alexander Minorities Archive

Horace G. Alexander was lecturer in International Politics at Woodbrook (a training college in Birmingham). The H.G. Alexander Minorities Archive consists of material he collected on the problem of the German minorities in Poland after 1919, where the intermingling of Polish and German communities made the partition of Upper Silesia difficult. The archive includes the typescript of a lecture by Alexander; books and pamphlets by German and Polish authors on the German-Polish partition and on Polish claims to the town of Danzig; publications of the International Federation of League of Nations Societies.

West Indies Papers

This is a group of diverse small collections of mainly legal papers relating to estate management in the West Indies. They cover the entire geographical area of the West Indies, and the period C16th-C20th. The majority relate to estate management, but they also include family affairs.

Pinney Family Papers

This large collection has been deposited by the Pinney Family. The papers include family affairs, estate management, farming, trade, slave ownership. It covers all aspects of their life from the C16-C20th, both on the island of Nevis in the West Indies, and in the West Country of England. Of particular interest are a fine series of letterbooks and accountbooks which give a picture of the trade of the family. There are also personal papers of individual members of the family, and legal papers relating to their estates both in Nevis and Britain. There is a small amount of material relating to other West Indies islands, and America, particularly relating to trade.

Potter Manuscripts

The Potter Manuscripts consist of notebooks relating chiefly to preliminary work on Potter's publications on the history of Switzerland, Zwingli, Calvin etc.

Scarfe-La Trobe Collection of Spanish Plays

The collection comprises nearly 2,000 items consisting of 1,068 plays (with 904 duplicates), ranging in date from the Seventeenth to the end of the Nineteenth Centuries. Representing a wide range of dramatic genres, a large proportion are comedias sueltas, that is, plays that were printed separately for sale in pamphlet form; a smaller number are desglosadas - plays printed to form part of (mainly) seventeenth century volumes; such volumes normally contained 12 plays, but they were also made available ‘disbound’ for sale as single items. In all, the work of more than 200 different dramatists is represented. Purchased from Bruno Scarfe, formerly of La Trobe University, in 2003 with help from the National Fund for Acquisitions, Glasgow University Chancellor’s Fund, the Friends of Glasgow University Library, the Faculty of Arts Library Discretionary Fund and the Principal’s Strategic Development Fund.

Gallacher Memorial Library

The Gallacher Memorial Library is based on the library of William Gallacher, it has grown by further donations since his death in 1965. It is a diverse collection of material on Spain donated from the collections of persons such as G. McCarty, past secretary of the IBA. It also includes material from the Gallacher Memorial Library's Guy Aldred collection.

Spanish Civil War Collection

Most of the material was donated by Janey Buchan and has been supplemented by further acquisitions and donations. The collection represents a continuing record of publication from 1936 to the present day. Most of the material is pro-Republicans but there are also significant items that reflect a Nationalist bias.

Ronald Fraser Oral History Collection

The Ronald Fraser Oral History Collection consists of research materials gathered by Ronald Fraser, the leading oral historian in the field of modern Spanish history, for his books In Hiding: the life of Manuel Cortes and The Pueblo: a mountain village on the Costa del Sol, which record first-hand accounts of the experience of living in post-War Spain. It includes tapes of interviews (in Spanish with English transcripts) with Manuel Cortes, the last republican Mayor of a small Spanish village, who lived in hiding from Franco's regime for 30 years.

Laredo South African Archive

John Laredo (1932-2000) was a South African-born academic, who undertook anthropological fieldwork among Zulu-speaking Nguni in the Shongweni, Ndwedwe and Inanda areas. He acted against the apartheid regime, as a result of which he was jailed and the subject of a banning order. This meant he could not publish or submit his thesis in South Africa. Laredo moved to England in 1969 on his release from prison, and in 1972 joined the teaching staff at the University of Bradford, where he remained until his retirement. The Laredo South African Archive includes his field research, his thesis, material relating to his academic career and also forms a resource for the study of South African history.

George H. Johannes Collection

An extensive collection donated by George Johannes. Most of the works were published in the 1970s, 80s and 90s but there are also some earlier works. Johannes joined the ANC in 1970 and worked as a full-time political activist from 1976. He subsequently became Political Counsellor with the South African High Commission in London.

Centre for Research into Economics and Finance in Southern Africa (CREFSA) Library

The CREFSA Library is a collection of materials on South Africa and Southern Africa. It has been built up as a result of research projects undertaken at CREFSA and also through contact with central banks, government departments, financial institutions and academic institutions. References on South Africa include official publications from the South African Reserve Bank and the National Treasury as well as journals and papers from a range of academic and policy institutions. Official publications from central banks in Southern Africa are also part of the Library, together with studies of regional integration and related issues in Southern Africa. Publications from specialist information services are also available.The CREFSA Library includes the RW Bethlehem Collection, consisting of books and other material on South Africa. The Collection spans the history of the country, the economic pressures of isolation, the political transition, and the economic transition still underway.

Soviet secondary school textbook collection

One of the largest and most important collections of secondary school textbooks outside the former Soviet Union. A wide range of subjects for different age groups are covered. There are ‘spetskursy’ (intensive courses) as well as ordinary courses. Teaching materials used in many of the former republics of the Soviet Union are included, some in Ukrainian.

Soviet Posters - Come the Revolution!

The Baykov Library's collection of posters spans the decades from the 1920s to the 1980s, from workers' rallying calls to the anti-bureaucracy and corruption themes of the Glasnost period. What all 500 have in common is that they are propaganda works casting light on life under the Soviet system and what it meant for individual citizens.

Joel Martin Halpern Balkan Archive

Dr Joel M. Halpern, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, has researched and published widely on the cultural anthropology of the Balkan region. He is perhaps best known for his studies of the effects of modernisation on family and everyday life in the Serbian village Oraŝac, based on material collected by Dr Halpern and his wife Barbara Kerewsky Halpern, during field work in 1953-4 and subsequent visits. The Joel Martin Halpern Balkan Archive consists of photocopies of their field notes. This is supplemented by the many photographs Dr Halpern took of Yugoslavia during his research, made available to the Library in digitised form on CDs. Besides documenting the diverse scenery of the region, the photographs vividly illustrate the lives and customs of the people, their agriculture, homes and festivals.

Schlesinger Papers

Papers of Dr Rudolf Schlesinger (1901-1969), Marxist theoretician and co-founder of the Glasgow University's Institute of Soviet and East European Studies. They include editorials, articles, correspondence relating to his editorship of Soviet Studies and Co-existence; lectures, drafts and revisions for books and articles on Soviet history, legal system and political theory; memoirs; some correspondence with leaders of the German Communist Party in the 1930s; part of the records of the German Communist Party during the 1920s and 30s (in very poor condition). In 1991 all of Dr Schlesinger's papers, which after his death had become the property of his close friend and executor, René Beerman, were transferred to the University Library’s Special Collections Department.

Russian and East European Studies

Glasgow University library has one of the most extensive collections in Europe of Russian and East European economics, politics and history. From a modest departmental collection in 1948 it has grown to its present size of about 75,000 items. The collection is particularly strong on the Russian and Soviet economy, especially of the post-war period, but other aspects of the former USSR are well represented. There is, for example, a good series of publications on the history and the economic history of the republics and regions, and a significant number of publications on the history of individual industrial enterprises. There are rapidly expanding sections on foreign policy, politics and law, and considerable holdings of material on pre-Soviet and early Soviet history. The holdings include published collections of historical, statistical, legal, diplomatic and Party documents, dissident materials, archives such as the Schlesinger Papers, special collections (e.g. on Trotsky) and microfilm collections of newly available Russian archives.

Klugmann Collection

The majority of the items relate to trials (often what are sometimes termed "show trials"), related matters such as espionage and treason, and other political events in Eastern Europe (such as the uprising in Hungary in 1956), though not exclusively in that area, during both pre- and post-World War II times.

Gallacher Memorial library

Based on the library of William Gallacher, last Communist Party M.P. in U.K. The library has grown by further donations since his death in 1965. It contains an extensive, wide-ranging collection of material on almost all aspects of the Soviet Union and CPSU including: the Russian revolution; World War II; politics; literature and art.

Changing Identities: Eastern Europeans in Bradford since 1945

The collection consists of recordings and/or transcripts of interviews on their personal histories carried out with members of the Ukrainian community in Bradford.

Left Pamphlet Collection

The Left Pamphlet Collection consists of printed pamphlets relating to left-wing politics mainly in the 20th century of which a number are from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Glasgow Novel Collection

Extensive collection on Scottish literature. The strength of the collection lies in contemporary material and emphasis has been placed on post-1945 writing. The collection reflects the needs of teaching and research within the University. An Archive on the Glasgow Novel has been established. The archive includes fictional works in which the City of Glasgow is a significant theme.

Scottish Parliamentary Archive

Extensive collection on Scottish government, politics, political parties, devolution, public policy and elections. The strength of the collection lies in contemporary material. Emphasis has been placed on post-1945 material. The Collection reflects the needs of teaching and research within the University. All Scottish Parliamentary Papers are collected. An Archive on the Scottish Parliament has been established. Material relating to the Scottish Parliament including election ephemera from the Scottish Parliamentary elections is collected.

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.

Kennedy Collection

The Kennedy Collection consists of some 350 books relating chiefly to Japan and other Far Eastern countries.

Eleonora Duse Collection

Over 1,000 items relating to the Italian actress Eleanora Duse (1858-1924), collected by Giovanni Pontiero and bequeathed to the Library in 1996. Included amongst the papers are postcards, programmes, offprints and photographs, as well as correspondence in connection with Pontiero's biography of Duse. 31 printed books accompany the manuscript items.

Papers of the Italian Refugees' Relief Committee

The Italian Refugees' Relief Committee was was set up in 1927 as a non-political humanitarian organisation to raise funds to support those who fled Mussolini's Fascist regime. British immigration regulations of the time did not permit the entry of refugees into Britain, but the British Committee was able to send funds and material aid to their French counterparts, the Comité de Secours aux Réfugiés Politiques Italiens, which supported a large exile community in Paris. The collection contains correspondence on subjects including acceptance or rejection of membership, donations, appeals, Committee meetings and finance. There is also correspondence from the French committee, particularly from Giovanna Berneri (wife of the anarchist anti-Fascist Luigi Camillo Berneri), reporting on visits to refugee families, other activities of the organisation, and finance. The rest of the collection contains copies of appeals and letters sent to the press, pamphlets, reports, accounts and balance sheets, and other miscellaneous items.

Rubeo Collection

The Rubeo Collection was purchased from the collector Capitano Giuseppe Rubeo. It consists of some 4000 books, many rare, on a variety of subjects. They include many hundreds of volumes relating to Italian fascism, published during the fascist period itself, which are particularly rare, as such books were usually thrown out and destroyed at the end of the war, by both private collectors and libraries, and are now extremely hard to locate in Italy. Probably the most interesting sub-category here are the many books published in the 1920s and 1930s on the Italian colonies (Libya and Ethiopia). There is also literature, including first or early editions of important literary texts by writers such as Ardengo Soffici, Giovannli Papini, and Giuseppe Prezzolini. The Library is currently seeking funding for the full cataloguing of this collection.

Documents from the Salò Republic

A collection of documents from Mussolini's Salò Republic, or Repubblica Sociale Italiana, a Nazi-instigated regime based on the shores of Lake Garda from 1943 to 1945. The collection includes material from different administrative departments. One group of files from the Ministero degli Affari Esteri contains around 350 documents pertaining to the requisition of properties for government use. Other sections include orders from the Ministero delle Forze Armate: Sottosegretariato di Stato per la Marina, vehicle and travel permits from the Guardia del Duce, and anti-Allied and pro-Fascist propaganda from the Ministero della Cultura Popolare. There are also three passports issued by the regime, around 40 intercepted radio messages from Allied broadcasts, including from Reuters and from the Vatican radio, and twenty bulletins issued by the regime's news agency, the Agenzia Stefani.

Sprigge Collection

Cecil Jackson Squire Sprigge was chief correspondent for Reuters in Italy during World War II. He had previously been Italian correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, where he was succeeded by his wife Sylvia. The Sprigge collection covers the period c. 1920-1970 and reflects the Sprigges' interest in all aspects of Italian affairs, including the Fascist regime, Vatican politics, post-war reconstruction, art and literature. They also contain material about European politics and diplomatic relations. Printed books from the Sprigge collection were added to the Main Library stock and include material on Italian history, politics and philosophy, as well as a number of guidebooks and pamphlets collected by the Sprigges during their time in Italy. A number of the books are not yet fully catalogued.

Hibernica Collection

The main Hibernica collection consists of material published since 1801: earlier publications of Irish interest (they are substantial in number) are shelved in the general chronological collections or in Special Collections. The Hibernica collection continues to develop, concentrating particularly on the north of Ireland but attempting to cover all relevant academic material on the island as a whole.

Gallacher Memorial Library Collection

The Gallacher Memorial Library is based on the library of William Gallacher, it has grown by further donations since his death in 1965. Major additonal sources of materials on Ireland are donations from the collection of Pat Devine and materials from the CPI.

Irish Experience

Covers all aspects of the modern Irish experience in the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland and the diaspora (particularly the United Kingdom). Collection of approx. 3400 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, commercial purchases and the Activision Irish Project archive.

Knoop Far East Photographic Collection

The collection is a photographic record of places visited during a 'world tour' undertaken by Knoop in the academic session 1913-1914, mainly in the Far East. The images cover natural features, human interest such as street scenes, and major events such as earthquakes, in the countries visited, as well as incidental events on the tour.

Cohn Collection

The Cohn Collection, which comprises approximately 1,000 volumes, was presented to King's College London by Ernst Joseph Cohn (1904-1976), Visiting Professor of European Law. The collection covers all major aspects of law, but there is a particular emphasis on the legal systems of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The bulk of the material dates from the twentieth century, with a high proportion being in the German language.

Kevin Morrison Collection

A collection of primary sources, ranging from 1933-1950, showing life in Germany under a dictatorship and with Allied occupation. The collection has a copy of the Volkischer Beobachter (official Nazi newspaper) for the day after Adolf Hitler became chancellor on 30 January 1933. It also holds photographs of Germany in ruins in the summer of 1945. In between these two landmark years German society underwent a radical transformation. The collection records this transformation.

Fascism in Europe Collection

The Fascism in Europe Collection is a developing collection of books on the history of fascism. Many items are relevant to Nazi Germany or the German occupation. They are in English, German or a number of other languages.

Holocaust Collection

The Holocaust Collection is a developing collection of books on the history of the Holocaust. Items are mostly in English or German.

Mendelson Collection

The Mendelson Collection is particularly rich in material on German political and economic history, especially of the twentieth century, including works on the rise of fascism, communism and socialism, and post-war conditions in Europe after 1945. German-language material predominates, accounting for approximately three-quarters of the collection.

Turner Collection of French Revolution pamphlets

The Turner Collection was gathered by Father John Turner (1765-1844), a member of the Community of English Benedictines in France during the Revolution. He was personally involved in events in Paris, taking the Civic Oath, and suffering imprisonment in Sainte-Plagie 1793-5. The collection was preserved in the Community's monastery at Douai until the Community's removal to England in 1903, when it was transferred to Douai Abbey, Woolhampton. It was placed on permanent deposit in the University Library, by the Abbot and Community of Douai, in July 1966. The 275 volumes contain some 8,000 items in all, and concerning the events of mainly 1787-1806.

French Wartime Newspapers Collection

The French Wartime Newspapers collection recounts the progress of the Allied armies in France over a three-week period from the struggle for the Liberation of Paris (August 25th 1944), together with a Victory issue celebrating the end of the War following the full German surrender (May 7th 1945).

Mendelson Collection

The Mendelson Collection is particularly rich in material on French political and economic history, especially of the twentieth century, including works on the rise of fascism, communism and socialism, and post-war conditions in Europe after 1945. French-language material accounts for approximately one-quarter of the collection.

Zavertal Collection

Material emanating from three members of the Czechoslovakian Zavertal family - brothers Joseph (1819-1893) and Wenceslas (1821-1899) and Ladislao(1849-1942), son of Wenceslas. Compositions by Ladislao include several operas and cantatas, about 20 part-songs and some 50 songs, over 60 items for orchestra or military band, over 60 pieces of chamber and instrumental music, and a number of arrangements of works by other composers. About 60 of the works held include a set of parts. The holding of music by Wenceslas Zavertal comprises songs and part-songs, a number of pieces for orchestra or military band (mostly with parts), and about a dozen chamber and instrumental pieces. There is one piece of piano music by Joseph Zavertal.

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.

Papers of the Musil Research Unit

A collection relating to the Austrian author Robert Musil, author of Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß and Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften. It comes from the Musil Research Unit, which was run at The University of Reading by Ernst and Eithne Kaiser 1967-1975.

Stephen Riley Collection

This collection was donated by Stephen Riley and reflects his interests in Development Studies. It also contains material on Social Sciences, Politics, African Studies and Economics. It dates from c.1950 and the items are in English or German.

Development Studies

This collection comprises research materials, dating from c.1900, in the field of development, particularly in relation to Africa. It is a useful resource for those interested in development economics, agriculture, food policy, women's studies, race and colonialism. Materials are partially catalogued and in English, Portuguese, French, German, Creole Spanish, Arabic, Dutch, Afrikaans.

Paul Hamlyn Foundation/CODE Europe Special Collection

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation/CODE Europe Special Collection on Publishing in Africa includes books, reports and other grey literature covering publishing and the booktrade in Africa, plus examples of publishing output. Highlights are materials from the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, titles from the Heinemann African Writers Series and books from African literary projects.