This blog is the joint blog of two departments across Cambridge University Librarie: Collections and Academic Liaison, who started the blog in 2013, and World Collections, who joined it in 2023.  We also welcome guest posts from other librarians across Collegiate Cambridge about language collections and also from researchers who are using those collections.

The Collections and Academic Liaison (CAL) department includes the team of librarians who are the curators of Cambridge University Library’s collections of European-language material from all around the world. We have sole responsibility for post-1900 titles, and share responsibility for antiquarian material with colleagues in Special Collections. The languages on which the language librarians in CAL focus are those taught by the University – Catalan, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian. Material in other European languages is currently acquired in minimal quantities, but the Library holds strong historical collections in many other European languages, and management of these is also part of our remit.

The word “European” in terms of our work refers to the geographical origins of the languages we cover, not to the geographical scope of the countries we represent in our acquisitions. CAL also handle material from all countries where the languages of Europe are spoken – Latin America, the Caribbean, French-speaking Canada, French- and Portuguese-speaking Africa.

In theory, we deal strictly with material in European languages, with responsibility for English-language materials relating to our parts of the world sitting with our counterparts in the English section of CAL.  This contrasts with the organisation in many other libraries, where area specialists work on all material relating to their area regardless of language.  In practice, however, we do of course take a keen interest and often an active part in the acquisition of English-language material. The idea that our users deal with one set of people if they are interested in books about Russia in Russian, and a different set of people if they are also interested in books about Russia in English, is not a distinction we would ever wish to insist upon. English-language titles also feature regularly in our posts.

The European part of CAL is currently made up of 12 people, some of whom work only part-time. We are from a wide range of nationalities so we have a wide range of experience and expertise to bring to our roles as book selectors, cataloguers and library curators. Input and advice from our users nevertheless remain critically important in order to ensure that our collections represent current research needs. Do get in touch.  Our contact details can be found via our departmental webpage.

The Department of World Collections was formed in 2022 and brought together (quoting from the job advert for its head of department):

• Seven existing specialist subject areas based in the main University Library (China; South Asia, Tibet and South-East Asia; Japan and Korea; the Middle East, including holdings in Arabic, Syriac, Modern Hebrew, Turkish, Farsi, Ge’ez, and the languages of the Caucasus). These are research-focused services, operating primarily in the original languages, and not in English;
• The Library of the Royal Commonwealth Society (founded in London in 1868 as the Colonial Society), held in the University Library and acquired by Cambridge in 1993, including about 800 archives, photographs and in the region of 300,000 rare books;
• The Libraries of the Centre for South Asian Studies and the Centre for African Studies, located in a nearby Faculty building, both housing significant specialist research libraries and archives.