Topic Guides

CRL's collection includes many Slavic language regional materials, particularly, microform sets. Some Slavic languages are better represented in CRL’s collection than others; for example, the Russian collection of serials in the STEM fields are common and frequently requested. Another popular example is the Russian history and culture microfiche collection. A collection of scarce books on 19th and early 20th century Russia from the Helsinki University Library. 

CRL works with the Slavic and East European Materials Project (SEEMP) to acquire and maintain digital and microform materials from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland, Uzbekistan and other major Slavic countries that span four centuries. A major focus is on acquiring and preserving regional newspapers, both contemporary and historical. Many Kazakh and Uzbek newspapers were microfilmed in collaboration with SEEMP and this has resulted in the inclusion of a long run of Central Asian newspapers and South Slavic publications such as Politika, Nezavisne Novine, Nasa Borba, Dani, Slobodna Bosna and others.

The Center for Research Libraries has collected and preserved archives and heritage materials from South Asia and made them available to scholars since its founding. CRL and the South Asia Microform Project (SAMP) have been sustaining primary source materials that span four centuries and the entire subcontinent. CRL acquires and maintains digital and microform materials from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other countries. Parts of CRL’s collections were acquired through the P.L. 480 Program, the predecessor to the South Asia Cooperative Acquisitions Program. The collection contains materials in many South Asian languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, and Urdu. CRL’s collection covers various subject fields.  The South Asia Open Archives Initiative (SAOA) seeks to create and maintain a collection of open access materials for the study of South Asia. Many older SAMP projects resulted in digital content that is available via CRL’s digital depository and the JSTOR platform from SAOA. 

CRL acquires material in any format (microform, newspaper, serials, and government documents) through the Library of Congress Cooperative Acquisitions Program and other vendors. The materials have been published many countries including China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and others. CRL supports SEAM (Southeast Asia Materials Project) with its preservation and digital activities. SEAM holdings include more than 300 historic newspapers from every country in the region, in a variety of languages: national, minority, and English or other colonial languages. These collections also include similar numbers of historic journals and government serials and thousands of historic manuscripts. STEAM fields are well presented in CRL’s collection of Asian materials.