Collection Development Policy: Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Patricia Figueroa

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Luiz Valente

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    Formerly together as one academic unit, The Hispanic Studies and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies (PBS) Departments were formed in 1991. PBS offers interdisciplinary degree programs, ranging from the bachelor's to the doctoral level. The emphasis of the curriculum is in language, literature, history and the social sciences. The Department's programs focus on the global nature of the Portuguese-speaking world, as well on specific geographical areas: Continental and Insular Portugal, Brazil, Lusophone Africa and Asia, and Lusophone communities in the United States.

    • PBS graduate programs:
      • Doctoral of Philosophy program in Luso-Brazilian Studies
      • Master's in Brazilian Studies
      • Master's in Portuguese Bilingual Education and Cross-Cultural Studies or English as a Second Language and Cross-Cultural Studies

    • PBS undergraduate programs:
      • Concentration in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies: Students may choose between two basic programs:
        • Program A: Language and literature focus
        • Program B: Interdisciplinary focus
      • Honors program
      • Five-Year Integrated AB/AM Degree



  • Overview of the Collection
    The PBS collection consists of more than 15,526 titles of which 78 are currently received journals and newspapers. Most titles are housed at the Rockefeller Library.

    Language (PC5000s):411
    Literature (PQ9000s):8,600
    History (Cs, Ds, Es, Fs):3,483
    Philosophy and Religion(Bs):320
    Social Sciences (Gs, Hs, Js, Ks, Ls):2,493
    Bibliographies (Zs):216
    Online databases3
    Total:15,526




  • General Collecting Guidelines
    The purpose of the Portuguese and Brazilian Studies (PBS) collection is to support the needs of:
    • Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students from the PBS Department.
    • Undergraduate students and faculty from the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) doing research on subjects pertaining to Portugal and Brazil.
    • Brown University students and faculty from other departments or programs doing research on the lusophone world.
    • Visiting scholars from the Watson Institute for International Studies.
    • Scholars participating in the fellowship program of the John Carter Brown Library (JCB).
    • The Latin American Studies Consortium of New England (LASCNE) which unites the Latin American Studies programs of the University of Connecticut, Brown University, the University of Massachusetts, and Yale University in a public-private, tri-state partnership to expand and improve teaching and research on Latin America and the Caribbean in the greater New England region.

    The PBS collection development policy focuses primarily on the curriculum of the PBS Department and the needs of the CLAS undergraduate concentration for materials pertaining to Brazil. The PBS curriculum requires a research level collection for the language, literature, history and social sciences of continental/insular Portugal and Brazil. In recent years, the Department broadened its focus to include the literature, history and social sciences of lusophone Africa and Asia. The study of the decolonization of Portuguese territories in these continents, the rise of the newly independent lusophone states, the broader global effects of this long history of Portuguese/African/Asian interaction and the role of lusophone language, race, and culture are of interest to the department. Resources pertaining to Portuguese exploration/colonization and the subsequent independence of Portugal's colonies outside of the Americas are collected at the study/research level. The literature and language of Luso-Africa and -Asia are collected at the research level.

    Another area of interest to the PBS Department is the study of lusophone immigrant communities in the United States, particularly in the New England region. Materials pertaining to the language, literature, history and social sciences of immigrants from continental/insular Portugal, Brazil, and Luso-Africa and -Asia are collected at the research level.

    As a result of Brown's membership in LASCNE, which coordinates geographic specialization among its members, Brown University Library (BUL) was assigned the role of Brazilian specialist for the Consortium.

    The PBS collection also complements the holdings of the JCB, a unique resource of primary and secondary materials concerning the colonial Americas.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: Primary and secondary materials in English and Portuguese form the bulk of the collection, however texts in Amerindian and Creole languages are also collected, particularly for the territories where those languages are spoken. Materials in French, Italian and German are collected selectively.
    • Chronological Span: For literature, language, history and social sciences, time coverage for Portugal dates back to the 12th Century, and for Brazil to the colonial period. Both geographical areas are collected up to the present at the research level.
    • Imprint Date: The collection is for the most part a circulating collection, limiting its acquisitions to scholarly resources published after 1800. Original manuscripts, materials published before 1800, and those considered valuable or requiring special handling are housed in Special Collections at the John Hay Library where they do not circulate.
    • Geographical Range: Portugal and Brazil are the geographical focus of the collection. Humanities and social sciences materials concerning these areas are collected at the research level. BUL also collects materials concerning the language, literature, history and social sciences of the following countries/territories that fall within the realm of Portuguese exploration/colonization outside of the Americas:

      • Cape Verde
      • Angola
      • Mozambique
      • Guiné-Bissau
      • Príncipe and São Tomé
      • Macau
      • East Timor
      • Goa

      Materials pertaining to these countries/territories are collected at the study/research level. This intermediate level of collecting allows the selector to acquire all relevant English language publications and selective foreign language editions..
    • Types of Material Included: Circulating monographs are the main component of the PBS collection, however other materials such as serials, non-circulating monographs, visual and electronic resources, are collected as well.
    • Formats: The library acquires materials in all formats, with the exception of 8mm in the case of audiovisual items. The bulk of the collection is in print-based (monographs and serials), however microfilm is still purchased for periodical archives, pamphlet collections and pre-twentieth century publications. Materials in electronic formats such as CD-ROM, DVD, DVD-ROM and online access are acquired according to their licensing agreements and their compatibility with the library's system. Audiovisual materials are purchased on video, or preferably DVD format. Although the Media Services Laboratory is equipped with VCRs and DVD players that can play and copy films produced with the PAL system, the NTSC system is highly preferred. All videos purchased for this collection are housed at Media Services in the Sciences Library. Music CDs are for the most part purchased by the Music Librarian and are housed at the Orwig Music Library.
    • Excluded: Introductory general-purpose textbooks whose primary function is instruction are out of the scope of this collection.



  • Special Collections
    The John Hay Library holds the archives of the Portuguese writer José Rodrigues Miguéis (1901-1980). Born in Lisbon, Miguéis immigrated to the United States in 1935. His work centers on the experience of the Portuguese immigrant. He is best know for his short stories Léah: E Outras Histórias (1959) and his novel Escola do Paraíso(1960). The Academia das Ciências de Lisboa elected him academic correspondent in 1976.

    The George Earl Church Collection is largely composed of 18th and early 19th century monographs on Latin American politics, history, and geography -- with substantial attention to contemporary anthropological studies on the Indians of South America. Materials on Amerindian languages are also well represented. The collection contains a number of materials pertaining to Brazil and Portugal.

  • Related Collections
    John Carter Brown Library The JCB is an independently administered and funded center for advanced research in history and the humanities, located at Brown University since 1901. Its internationally renowned collection of Americana focuses on historical sources describing the discovery, exploration, settlement, and growth of the European colonies in the New World from 1492 to 1835. The collection includes over 45,000 rare books (printed before ca. 1825) and over 16,000 reference books and secondary sources (printed after ca. 1825). Most well-known, perhaps, are the Library's extensive holdings in the literature of European exploration and travel in the Western Hemisphere, from the first Latin edition of the Columbus letter of 1493, through nearly all of the contemporary narratives of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English discovery, exploration, and settlement. The Library's collection of pre-1800 German and Italian books about America is among the richest in the United States.

    In December 2001 the JCB completed cataloguing of its Brazilian imprints and launched the Código Brasiliense. The Código consists of the first government documents printed in Brazil after the relocation to America at the end of 1807 of the king of Portugal, D. João VI, along with the entire royal court. These laws, decrees, alvarás, and similar documents dating from 1808 are now for the first time available on the Internet.

    In November 2002, the JCB acquired one of the world's rarest and most coveted books on colonial Brazil. Cultura e opulencia do Brasil por suas drogas e minas, a 1711 publication written by an Italian Jesuit, João Antonio Andreoni. Printed in Lisbon in 1711, the book was published by Father Andreoni (1649-1716) under the pseudonym André João Antonil. When the work was published, the king of Portugal feared the information it revealed about Brazil's lucrative sugar industry and gold mines would arouse envy and lead to aggression by other nations. Consequently, he ordered the seizure and suppression of Andreoni's book; only seven copies are known to have survived.

    The Language Resource Center (LCR)
    LCR houses a variety of materials such as audio, video, laserdiscs, DVDs, computer software and television news broadcasts and develops electronic resources in support of the learning and teaching of languages. LRC is affiliated with the Center for Language Studies which "aims to promote the teaching and learning of languages at Brown University."

    The Virginia Baldwin Orwig Music Library
    The Orwig Music Library, one of the libraries comprising the Brown University Library system, houses the general music collection on campus: music books, scores, periodicals, sound recordings, videotapes and microforms. The collection supports the curriculum of the Music
    Department and includes recordings of music from various areas of the Lusophone world.

    Illustration: Soldat noir et Negresse (Cape Verde), Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, John Hay Library.

Illustration: Soldat noir et Negresse (Cape Verde), Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, John Hay Library.