Collection News - Spring 2007

• Center for Research Libraries Purchases
• Serials Costs

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) has recently announced that the following items will be purchased for this year’s Purchase Proposal Program.  CRL members vote on these purchases each year. Purchase Proposal selections reflect the wide range of research interests and needs at member libraries and often represent important source materials that no one library could afford to offer. A PDF version of this list can be also found online.

Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library - Islamic Mysticism & Philosophy

Published by: IDC
Contents: 4,749 fiche
Price: $26,270

This set includes works of Muslim philosophers in all fields of philosophical study, as well as versions of and commentaries on Greek texts. Works on practical philosophy covering general morality and conduct, both personal and public, are also included.  The nominator of this explained Specialists in Islamic studies have argued about the percentage of Arabic texts that have ever been printed and the estimate generally wavers between 5 and 10.  Printing came late to Muslim countries and there are thousands of texts by major authors that have never been published in any form except for manuscripts.  This means that for advanced research in Islamic studies it is indispensable for scholars to develop the tools for understanding Arabic manuscripts if they wish to have any control over the understanding of premodern texts.

Curzon India and Empire Pt 1: the papers of Lord Curzon 1859-1925 from the Oriental and India Office Collections at the British Library London.

Publisher: Adam Matthews Publications
Contents: 29 reels of microfilm
Price: $4,650

This set offers the papers of one of the Raj's most noted figures, Lord Curzon, and provides a core group of papers of central significance for any study of British rule in India.  Part 1 contains a substantial series of demi-official correspondence c.1898-1905, with the Queen-Empress and King-Emperor, the Secretary of State for India, and leading figures in British and Indian politics such as Mr. Balfour, Sir Arthur Godley and others. Part 1 also includes Curzon's correspondence relating to the Indian tour of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1905.

Doctoral Dissertations from Israel in the subject matter of Jewish and Israel Studies

Publisher: A.I. Weinberg Book Agency
Price: $15,000

Firm order purchase for $15,000 worth of dissertations that A.I. Weinberg Book Agency has in stock and identifiable on their web site. Titles will not be considered if: --- 5 or more CRL member libraries own copies. --- CRL already owns a copy. It is a resource that is unlikely to be used heavily at any one institution, but it will greatly complement the areas of Jewish and Israel Studies, religious studies, history, literature, language, sociology, political science, and many others of any member institution. A number of research institutions in the United States offer very strong programs in Jewish Studies, and many of them now are in the process of developing Israel studies as well. One cannot be a serious scholar of Jewish or Israel Studies without access to dissertations in these areas produced in Israel. However, over time it has become very clear that it is extremely difficult to collect Israeli dissertations for individual American libraries due to several reasons. The most important reason and biggest obstacle is the requirement of obtaining the author’s permission to copy his or her dissertation. Thus one would need to obtain the address of every author in order to secure permission to sell a copy of the dissertation. Many libraries in the US have been trying to ensure an easy access for their users to Israeli dissertations, but most run into the road blocks of obtaining them. CRL’s purchase of Israeli dissertations in the areas of Jewish and Israel Studies will most definitely fill the void and facilitate study and research. The A.I. Weinberg Book Agency in Israel is on of a very few vendors that can offer systematic collecting of these materials.

Documenting the Peruvian Insurrection

Publisher: Primary Source Microfilm (Thomson Gale)
Contents: 19 reels of microfilm
Price: $2,850

This microfilm set consists of 1, a collection of documents and ephemera from 1960-1990 of the Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path; 2, a large assemblage of government counterinsurgency strategy discussions and surveillance reports; 3, documentation of specific events of the war between the Shining Path and the Peruvian government and 4, an extensive run of El Caballo Rojo a cultural and political magazine edited by the poet Antonio Cisneros that is a guide to the broader political discourse of the period.

East India Company Factory Records: Sources from the British Library London Pt 1: China and Japan

Publisher: Adam Matthews Publications
Contents: 34 reels of microfilm
Price: $5,500

This new microfilm series of Factory Records of the East India Company from the Oriental and India Office Collections at the British Library, London will enable scholars to follow the growth in trade of the English with Japan, China and India and will also offer opportunities to learn more about life and society in those countries. The Factory Records are some of the most interesting of the early papers of the East India Company, detailing as they do the work of their Agents and Factors in establishing factories (trading posts) and promoting trade in the East. Many difficulties had to be overcome, not only the opposition of the native traders but also the other two trading powers of the period, the Portuguese and the Dutch. The seventeenth century was a time of huge establishment of factories by the East India Company and the eighteenth century saw even more expansion as territories acquired by the English grew in number. The major Company factories were situated at Bantam, Surat, Fort St George (Madras), Bombay and Calcutta.

East India Company Factory Records: Sources from the British Library London Pt 2: China

Publisher: Adam Matthews Publications
Contents: 34 reels
Price: $5,500

Part 2: China Factory Records, 1817-1832 includes topics for a wide spectrum of research. Each of the volumes generally incorporates a very useful index to the contents.

English Clandestine Satire 1660-1704: Popular Culture Entertainment and Information in the Early Modern Period

Publisher: Adam Matthews Publications
24 reels of microfilm
Price: $4,000

Contains over 60 substantial manuscript verse miscellanies from British and American libraries including the Beinecke at Yale, Folger, Harvard, Huntington, Princeton, Brotherton Library at Leeds, Chethams Library in Manchester, Edinburgh University Library, the Hertfordshire Record Office, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, giving a broad body of popular literature on political and urban culture.

German Colonial Archives Reichskolonialamt  R1001.  Installment 3

Publisher: ALPHA COM Sachsen
Contents: 175 reels of microfilm
Price: $13,000

The set is of major interest and import for African Studies and colonial German history as well.  Research faculty in German history and African Studies at universities will utilize these materials in early 20th century health ethnic/political issues in these former German colonial areas within Sub-Saharan Africa.

Incunabula: the Printing Revolution in Europe 1455-1500. Units 63 and 64: Romances

Publisher: Thomson Gale
Contents: 646 fiche
Price: $14,500

Primary source material for the study of medieval European literature.

Incunabula: The Printing Revolution in Europe 1455-1500. Units 72, 75-77.

Publisher: Thomson Gale
Contents: 13,000 fiche
Price: $29,000

Units 72 & 75 are on Printing in Florence. Units 76 & 77 are on Printing in Venice.

Latin American History and Culture: Series 5. Civil War Society and Political Transition in Guatemala: The Guatemala News and Information Bureau Archive 1963-2000.

Publisher: Thomson Gale
Contents: 112 reels of microfilm
Price: $16,800

The Guatemala News and Information Bureau GNIB Archive is the product of over two decades of effort on the part of the GNIB to document Guatemala s political and social processes from multiple angles and through a wide variety of sources. It is an extensive collection of often rare and unique ephemera serials studies and reports spanning a range of dates between 1963 and 2000.

Shaw: the papers of Bernard Shaw 1856-1950 from the British Library Parts 1-3

Publisher: Adam Matthew Publications
Contents: 51 reels
Price: $8,200

Shaw's plays earned him the unique distinction of winning a Nobel Prize for Literature and an Academy Award. His writings provoke thought and argument, and many of them continue to be set texts for students today

The total list price for all these purchases comes to $145,270.

Want to know more about the Center for Research Libraries?

If you saw Carolyne Park's story in a recent Sunday edition of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, you know that libraries in Arkansas, and elsewhere in the U.S., are weathering some tough price increases for journal subscriptions. Here at the University Libraries, work continues on a comprehensive review of all serials subscriptions to determine the most effective means of obtaining access to critical information sources. Watch this space for future announcements concerning journal subscriptions.

Have a particular concern over database and journal subscriptions? Please contact Judy Ganson, Director for Collection Management and Systems.