In the 1970s and 1980s books in the Scandinavian languages were strongly represented in the collections of the University Library, but since the University discontinued the teaching of these languages there has been less justification for acquiring material on the previous scale, with the notable exception of works to support teaching and research in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. The volume of material acquired by the Library in the 21st century has been relatively small. Nevertheless our users do show a marked interest in Scandinavian titles, and in recent years there has been a noticeable increase in the number of recommendations covering archaeology, the fine arts, history and politics.
Category: Icelandic
Icelandic collections
Whilst Finnish language items have never been energetically collected in the University Library, it has substantial collections of material in the other Scandinavian languages – Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish. Two librarians with special responsibility for Scandinavian studies built up our collections over half a century. F.T.K. Caröe had been the principal planner of the massive operation by which the University Library was moved from its old to its present premises in 1934. He retired in 1963, and in his obituary in the Staff Bulletin in January 1971, Deputy Librarian John Oates paid tribute to Caröe’s interest in the Scandinavian literatures, “his deep knowledge of which he used indefatigably in the interests of the University Library”. His successor Dr J.B. Dodsworth, who was appointed in October 1965, carried on that tradition, but since Dr Dodsworth’s retirement in 1998, collection development in this area has significantly diminished.
Languages across Borders 