Library Support for Hispanic Studies
December 5, 1998

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The Library has, historically, provided extensive support for the language and literature programs of the University, and our collections in languages and literatures form a very large part of the Library’s holdings. Measuring, alone, the portion of the collections which are classed in the Library of Congress Classification, the P classes (languages and literatures) hold more than 300,000 titles. This classification includes some disciplines (such as Classics, Egyptology, linguistics) which are not covered in this report, but most of this number is relevant. It should be noted that the title counts include books and serials on or about the particular languages, whether in that language or in English (or other languages). They do not reveal how many books we may have in the specific language (as these books may be on totally unrelated subjects, and not of interest to the program in question)

Our collections supporting the study of Spanish language and literature are significant. We have established relations with vendors in both Spain and Latin America to acquire material, and are able to acquire more than the level of expenditure might indicate, because the Latin American books are still rather inexpensive (especially when compared to German books). The total holdings for Spanish (more than 19,000 titles) include some 600 titles on Catalan language and literature, which is also of interest to the Department. The Collection Development Librarian for Hispanic Studies is [search currently underway].

The library collections for Hispanic Studies include more than 19,000 titles, of which some 90 are currently-received serials, all housed in the Rockefeller Library. These titles include only material classed in PC and PQ, Spanish (and Catalan) language and literature.

The table below shows the expenditures for the past three years:

We can contrast these expenditures with those reported five years ago:

The research interests of the Hispanic Studies faculty are quite diverse, ranging from medieval Spanish women writers, to the Golden Age of Spanish literature and theater, to contemporary Latin American poetry. The Library's collection reflects this breadth of subjects. The real strength of the collection, however, lies in the 18th and 19th centuries. While the Library does contain scattered pockets providing strong coverage of, for instance, works by and critical texts about major literary figures, there is a need to develop a greater consistency of coverage, and to provide a smoother collection in which fewer gaps exist between major authors or literary periods. At present, there is a pressing need to build a stronger collection in Spanish medieval literature and in the literature of post-1960 Spain.

While the representation of standard texts is generally strong, there are still titles we own in English only. While several regularly taught courses examine literature in translation, titles in the original language would add to the strength of the collection.

We should note that our cooperation with the University of Connecticut and the University of Massachusetts, with whom we share a Department of Education Title VI grant for Latin American Studies, greatly expands access to material on Latin America, including language and literature. We also benefit from the considerable resources of the John Carter Brown Library for earlier works of interest to specialists in Spanish language and literature.

» William S. Monroe, Head, Collection Development