CRL Collection Emphases
Guided by CRL’s Collection Principles and grounded in our Mission, Vision, and Values, the areas outlined below represent CRL’s historical and ongoing collections of distinction. These globally significant collections built in collaboration with the research community focus on specific subjects, formats, and other collecting parameters that support advanced research and long-term scholarly inquiry.
Supporting our current Collection Development Philosophy, CRL highlights the following strengths, or our collection based on historical practices and programs.
Global Newspapers
CRL has vast holdings of newspapers from all regions of the world; and collections of scripts, transcripts, and translations of news reports, produced or compiled by the British Broadcasting Corporation, CBS, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, and the Voice of America.
North American / U.S. Ethnic Newspapers
Research libraries typically define "ethnic newspapers" as publications that cater to specific ethnic or cultural communities within America. These newspapers often address the interests, concerns, and cultural experiences of their respective communities, providing news, information, and commentary relevant to their readers. Key characteristics include being in a non-English Language, having a Cultural Focus in their reporting, documenting Community Engagement, and preserving or presenting a Historical Context of the community.
Global Theses and Dissertations (outside U.S. and Canada)
CRL holds more than 800,000 doctoral dissertations and Habilitationsschriften from universities outside of the U.S. and Canada. The collection was built by deposits from member libraries and exchange or depository arrangements with almost 100 universities and is part of our purchase on demand program wherein member researchers can initiate purchases in this area.
Global Resources and Area Studies
CRL supports several communities of interest across our membership that identify, acquire, preserve, and make accessible primary source collections from all regions of the world. CRL's Collection Committees concentrate on expanding access to area studies resources not commonly held in U.S. libraries and extending the reach of research libraries through international partnerships and knowledge exchange.
African Studies (sub-Saharan)
Collection development in African Studies emphasizes digital, microform, and any other format of unique, scarce, rare, and/or unusually bulky and expensive research material pertaining to the field of African studies; and to preserve deteriorating printed and manuscript materials of scholarly value. Microform and digital collections form a large pool of historical, political, linguistic, economic, and geographical data and primary source materials not available elsewhere. Many of the sets contain archival material or large collections of material that do not lend themselves to traditional analytic cataloging.
Slavic and Eastern European (Eurasian) Studies
Collection efforts in Eurasian and Slavic materials acquire, preserve, and maintain microform and digital collections of unique, rare, and bulky or voluminous research materials pertaining to the field of Slavic and East European studies, emphasizing original preservation, either through microfilming or digitization, of newspapers, journals, books, archives, pamphlets, and other relevant materials from the region. Geographic areas of interest include the countries of Eastern and Central Europe (Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine), Russia, the Transcaucasian countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), and the Central Asian countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan).
Latin American Studies
Collections efforts in Latin American Studies acquire, preserve, and maintain microform and digital collections of unique, rare, and bulky or voluminous Latin American research materials for its members. LAMP emphasizes original preservation, either through microfilming or digitization, though it may also purchase existing microfilm. LAMP bases its activities on annual membership fees. The geographic scope of LAMP includes all of Latin America, including the Caribbean region and Central America.
East Asian Studies
Collection efforts in East Asian Studies acquire, preserve, and maintain microform and digital collections of unique, rare, and bulky or voluminous research materials in Southeast Asian studies, emphasizing original preservation, either through microfilming or digitization, of newspapers, archives, manuscripts, journals, and ephemera relating to all countries of East Asia.
South Asian Studies
Collection efforts in South Asian Studies acquire and maintain readily accessible digital and microform collections of unique materials related to the study of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. Materials are collected both through the project’s duplication efforts and through the purchase of materials preserved by other groups, institutions, and companies. Special cooperative projects with libraries and archives worldwide have preserved unique and endangered materials for the study of South Asia.
Southeast Asian Studies
Collection efforts in Southeast Asian Studies acquire, preserve, and maintain microform and digital collections of unique, rare, and bulky or voluminous research materials in Southeast Asian studies, emphasizing original preservation, either through microfilming or digitization, of newspapers, archives, manuscripts, journals, and ephemera relating to all countries of Southeast Asia.
West Asian and North African Studies (formerly known as the Middle East)
Collection efforts for studies of West Asian and North African Studies focus on preservation of collections in digital and microform format of unique, rare, hard to obtain, and often expensive research material for WANA studies. CRL also preserves deteriorating printed and manuscript scholarly materials. The geographic scope of WANA at CRL includes Arab countries, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and related areas.
French Language Studies
Collection work at CRL for French Language Collections, includes negotiation of favorable consortia “opt-in” license agreements for electronic products critical to the study of the French language and to conduct research on French scholarship.
German Language Studies
German language studies efforts at CRL focuses on improving the effective acquisition, sharing, and use of German-language materials among North American libraries and the fostering of closer collaboration with German research libraries. Collection work includes negotiation of favorable consortia “opt-in” license agreements for specialized German-language databases.
Document Title: Collection Areas of Emphasis
Effective Date: March 2025
Last Revision Date: January 2025
Responsible Party: Collections Services and Policy Committee
Policy Purpose and Scope: This supplement to the Collection Development Principles highlights strategic emphases in our collection development work and can be revised separately from the principles to ensure ongoing assessment and development.