Collection Development Policy: Slavic Languages
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Thomas Stieve

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Svetlana Evdokimova

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The Department of Slavic Languages at Brown provides instruction in the cultures and literatures of Russia and other Slavic countries. One of the oldest Slavic departments in the U.S. (established in 1947 with a graduate program added in 1960), the department has been distinguished by academic excellence and dedication to teaching since its inception ... The department now focuses on Russian and Czech languages, literatures and cultures, and presents the Slavic world as consisting of a number of diverse cultures and traditions rather than as a monolithic whole. Of particular interest to the department are the roles language and literature have played in the political and social development of the former Eastern-Bloc nations." Newly established connections with the departments of history, comparative literature, theater, and political science as well as the Watson Institute for International Studies have resulted in the development of multidisciplinary new courses on Prague, St. Petersburg, the former Czechoslovakia, and Russian culture. Undergraduate concentrators "can collaborate closely with faculty from different disciplines and combine fields" of study. The graduate program is currently being reorganized into an interdisciplinary and inter-regional program that will require expertise in a specialized area of a Slavic literature and culture.

    Faculty Research and Projects

    Faculty research and teaching interests include medieval, 18th, 19th, and 20th century Russian literature, Russian culture, Russian theater, Russian history and politics of Russia and Eastern Europe, Czech language, literature, and culture, Slavic discourse analysis and cognitive linguistics, and language acquisition and pedagogy.



  • Overview of the Collection
    The library collections for Slavic Studies include an estimated 24,000 titles, of which some 106 are currently-received serials. These are mainly materials directly supporting the study of Slavic languages and literatures. Because many of the Slavic Department's interests are interdisciplinary, it benefits also from materials purchased for Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Modern Culture and Media, History of Art, History, Political Science, Economics, Religious Studies and other fields. The library makes available numerous databases which contain Slavic material, including American bibliography of Slavic and East European studies, Historical abstracts, Linguistics and language behavior abstracts, PAIS international, Humanities international index, MLA international bibliography, and Digital dissertations.

    Materials are acquired through approval plan purchases, direct orders and exchanges. From World War II until the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Library maintained exchange programs with major Russian libraries to whom we sent American journals in return for Slavic books and journals. Our largest exchange partners were the Russian National Library, the Russian State Library, and the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Although, these exchange programs were labor-intensive, they were at the time an effective way to acquire hard-to-get older materials and out-of-print recent materials. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, these exchange programs have been beset with problems. The library is currently in the process of putting in place a more reliable and cost-effective means of acquiring recently published Russian books and journals through the Russian Press Service (RPS) and established serial subscription agents. We are now acquiring new titles in Russian through an approval plan; should we be looking for older or out-of-print titles, RPS will use their knowledge of the book trade in Russia to attempt to find these for us. An approval plan through YBP ensures that we receive recently published titles in the English language.

    Because of the generally poor quality of materials, preservation is a major concern for Russian publications. Decisions on replacement or reformatting are made on a case-by-case basis.



  • General Collecting Guidelines
    In addition to language and literature, materials are collected in Russian history, cultural history, politics, international relations, social and economic conditions, as well as film and theater studies, art and architecture, music history, ethnomusicology, and folklore. Works by and about individual authors from the medieval period to the early 20th century are acquired as well as selected works and collected editions of contemporary authors; Russian emigré literature is selectively acquired. Works of literary criticism, literary history, biographies, memoirs and literary theory are collected. Materials in Russian and comparative Slavic linguistics are acquired. Czech language and literature materials are acquired selectively. Reference materials (bibliographies, encyclopedias, dictionaries, research guides) are acquired comprehensively.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: Primary emphasis is on Russian, Czech, with a secondary emphasis on Church Slavic and Polish. Works of Slavic scholarship in English and Western European languages are also acquired. English translations in non-emphasized Slavic languages are acquired if of literary or scholarly interest.
    • Chronological Span: Medieval to Present.
    • Imprint Date: Current imprints. Occasionally early editions are acquired to support faculty research.
    • Geographical Range: While there are no specific exclusions, emphasis is on Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, Croatia, the Ukraine and Bulgaria. Emigré literature published in the United States, Israel, and Western Europe is also collected.
    • Types of Material Included: Monographs, journals, microforms, facsimiles, proceedings, web resources, dissertations, government documents.
    • Excluded: Textbooks, maps, translations from English and Western European languages into Russian.


  • Areas of Distinction
    In the post-World War II period Brown established one of the few U.S. programs in Czech and built strong library resources to support it. Faculty research interests in Church Slavic, Pushkin, and Slavic folklore have contributed to strong collections in those areas. The Library owns a microfilm set of most of the 500 reels of the Zernova Collection, which is based on a bibliography of early Russian and Slavonic books by Antonina Sergeevna Zernova, entitled: Knigi kirillovskoi pechati (available at ROCK HD9045.R9 M6) and represents major Cyrillic titles printed in Russia during the 16th and 17th centuries.

  • Special Collections
    • The Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection has strong holdings in Russian 19th century military history, uniforms and general costume, pageantry, and travel accounts. The collection includes rich graphic material in the form of illustrated books, scrapbooks, prints and drawings.
    • The Pillar Collection contains a number of contemporary Russian children's books in Russian and translations into English.
    • The Rutgers Anti-Saloon League Collection of Temperance and Addiction Studies Periodicals was transferred to Brown from Rutgers University in early 1999. Originally assembled by the Anti-Saloon League, these publications number approximately 15,000 and include titles in Russian and other Slavic languages, dating from the first half of the 20th century.
    • The Miller Collection of Wit and Humor includes a fair number of publications in Russian.
    • The Library holds the Papers of Thomas J. Watson and Sergei Khrushchev


  • Related Collections
    Brown is a member of the Center for Research Libraries, which "operates a global cooperative collection development program that assists academic and research libraries in making otherwise inaccessible and important research materials permanently available to scholars and researchers." CRL holds global newspapers, international dissertations, and sponsorsthe Slavic and East European Microform Project(SEEMP) which "acquires microform copies of unique, scarce, rare and/or unusually bulky and expensive research material."

    Resources at Harvard University include the Davis Center for Russian Studies (formerly Russian Research Center) and Ukrainian Research Institute. Yale University's Slavic and East European Collections are internationally renowned.

    The Pawtucket Public Library holds a significant collection of materials on Polish language and culture.

  • Selected List of Key Internet Resources

Image: Vid Kremlia/Vue du Kremlin, D'apres nature par Indiessof, Lith. par Cuvillier, Imp. par Lemercier, Publie par Daziaro ˆ Moscou et St. Petersbourg, [1845]