African & Middle East Studies
The African Studies Collection includes materials in various formats from all African countries; the Middle East as triangulated by the Zagros Mountains to the east and the Taurus Mountains to the north; Iran and Afghanistan; in the areas of general, theoretical, and comparative anthropology; general history and historiography; and studies of the so-called developing nations that are comparative or general, that is, crossing more than one significant area of the world. Within these general responsibilities, the collection covers the humanities, and social sciences excepting art, music, geography, and certain business fields in all relevant languages and wherever published.
African Specialist: Emilie Songolo
Middle East Specialist: Andy Spencer
Homepage: African Collection
African Diaspora
African Diaspora Studies focus on the interdisciplinary dialogue on the theoretical contours of the African Diaspora. The collection is built to support research and teaching of faculty in the African Diaspora and the Atlantic World Research Circle at the University of Wisconsin. English is the primary language of the materials collected. Monographs, microforms and serials are the primary formats collected.
Subject Specialist: Emilie Songolo
East Asian Studies
East Asian Studies in Memorial Library cover the geographic area of China, Japan, North and South Korea and Taiwan. Primarily we support humanities and social sciences from all periods in all formats: East Asian languages & literature, theater & drama, comparative literature, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, history, human ecology, political science, geography, business, applied economics, education, and communication arts.
Subject Specialist: Dianna Xu
Japan Specialist: Ayako Yoshimura
Homepage: East Asian Collection
Francophone Studies
Francophone Studies serves the needs of library users interested in literatures, cultures, and more generally the study of the Francophone world. The Francophone world in this context includes former colonies of France, namely French-speaking countries of Africa, The Caribbean, Québec, the U.S, Southeast Asia, and countries of the Indian Ocean. This collection supports the instructional and research needs and personal interest of the University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty, as well as other users within and beyond the university community. Most materials purchased for this collection are in French. Secondary sources in English are systematically added to the collection. Monographs and serials are the primary formats collected.
Subject Specialist: Emilie Songolo
Global Studies
This is a unique collection of realia, videos, songs, posters, pamphlets, etc. produced by groups that are challenging inequities bred by globalization (e.g., anti-corporate, environmentalist, nationalist, anarchist, religious, and other groups). It is commonly known as the "Global Counter Current" collection. This collection is entirely supported by the Global Studies Program. Scott Kloeck-Jenson scholars are encouraged to collect materials during their fieldwork to be deposited with the collection upon their return. Emphasis is given to materials from less powerful countries.
Subject Specialist: Emilie Songolo
Jewish Studies
Jewish Studies is an interdisciplinary field covering the religion, history, culture, languages, literature, and sociology, of the Jewish people from Biblical times to the present in all lands in which Jews have lived. Memorial Library has material on Judaism and Jewish sacred texts, including the Hebrew Bible and Talmud, Jewish history outside North America, the Holocaust, Israel, and literature in Hebrew, Yiddish and other languages. Material relevant to Jewish Studies is collected in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and other languages.
Subject Specialist: Jill Rosenshield
Latin American & Iberian Studies
Latin American studies encompass the history, cultures, and affairs of the American territories conquered by the Spanish and Portuguese between the 15th and 18th centuries. It also focuses on all the subsequently independent Spanish-speaking republics, Brazil, and all the Caribbean, taking into consideration each region's preexisting indigenous cultures. By the same token, Iberian studies encompass the same study areas for Spain and Portugal from the Early Middle Ages to the present.
This collection includes materials from or about Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian countries in the areas of: literature, linguistics, history, sociology, anthropology, economy, political sciences, religion, cultural studies, women's studies, and film studies.
Subject Specialist: Paloma Celis-Carbajal
Homepage: Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies
Slavic & Eastern European Studies
Slavic and East European Studies in Memorial Library cover the history, linguistics, literature, economics, political science and ethnic and cultural studies of Russian Eurasia, Belarus and Ukraine and the East European countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania and the Slovak Republic), the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), the successor countries of the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia), as well as Albania, Georgia, Armenia and modern Greece (post AD 1453). Jewish and Romani (Gypsy) culture and history as they relate to Eastern Europe and Russia are also covered.
Central Asian Studies in Memorial Library cover the history, linguistics, literature, economics, political science and ethnic and cultural studies of the countries of Central Asia: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Modern Turkey (post AD 1453) including the Anatolian part of the Ottoman Empire is also covered. The numerous smaller Turkic and Altaic ethnic groups outside of Central Asia proper such as the Gagauz, Iakut, Bashkir, Chuvash, Tatar, and Karachay are covered as well.
Subject Specialist: Andy Spencer
Homepage: Slavic & Eastern European Collection • REECA Web: A Guide to Russian, East European, and Central Asian Collections
South Asian Studies
The South Asian Studies collection at Memorial Library covers the geographic area of the Indian subcontinent, namely the modern countries of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh and to lesser extents Bhutan, the Maldives, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the South Asian diaspora. Its focus is in the Humanities and Social Sciences from all time periods. While all major South Asian languages are represented in the collection, the current actively collected languages are English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Pali, Telugu, Tibetan and Urdu. Other significant collections of South Asian material can be found at the Law and Steenbock libraries.
Subject Specialist: Mary Rader
Homepages: South Asian Collection • Introductory Research on South Asia
Southeast Asian Studies
The Southeast Asian Studies collection at Memorial Library covers the eleven countries of Southeast Asia, namely, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as the Hmong people of Southeast Asia, and to some extent the diaspora of peoples from SEA, including Southeast Asian-Americans. The collection's focus is in the humanities and social sciences from all time periods. All major Southeast Asian languages are represented in the collection, with particular strengths in Hmong, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese resources. Other significant collections of Southeast Asian material can be found at the Law, Music, and Steenbock libraries, as well as the Wisconsin Historical Society Library on campus.
Subject Specialist: Larry Ashmun
Homepage: Southeast Asian Collection • Gateway to Southeast Asia
Western European Studies
Western European Studies encompasses the history and society (social sciences) of Western Europe from prehistory through the present. The geographical region includes present-day Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and smaller areas, as well as resources from and about the European Union and other regional organizations. Also included are the history and society of ancient Greece and Rome and the historical Byzantine Empire. Spain and Portugal are not included; these are covered by Iberian Studies. Subjects included are: history, political science, sociology, economics, international relations, anthropology, archaeology, current affairs, ethnic studies, gender studies, and related topics. Literature and other humanities are not included; these are covered by European Humanities and English Humanities.
Subject Specialist: Julianne Haahr
Homepage: European History
Homepage: Guide to Resources on the European Union
Current Periodicals & Newspapers
Journals and magazines
Current unbound issues of approximately 4,000 of Memorial Library's most heavily used journals and magazines are located in the Current Periodicals and Newspaper Room. Many other titles are received directly into the stacks. We subscribe to many newsmagazines, business journals, women's magazines, tabloids, and other popular magazines from around the world. We also maintain a vertical file, which houses such things as press releases and organizational newsletters.
Newspapers
Memorial Library maintains a collection of current issues of U.S. and Canadian newspapers and international newspapers. The UW–Madison Libraries maintain and extensive newspaper collection, look here for details regarding the collection. Issues of U.S. and Canadian newspapers are generally kept for only one week, and issues of international newspapers are generally kept for only 3 months—look here for more information about how to find back issues.
Education
The Education Collection emphasizes the administrative/managerial, and the organizational aspects of higher education. Studies typically represent higher education and its changing character in the United States and are predominantly in the English language; however, other geographical areas and languages such as French and German are included. Earlier materials in the collection trace the history and development of a range of educational levels and the philosophies which guided the American educational system, in particular.
Currently, we collect on educational counseling, economics, history, philosophy, policy, psychology, and sociology.
For more materials regarding education please visit the Center of Instructional Materials and Computing (CIMC)
Subject Specialist: Marilyn Hicks
Homepages: Higher Education Collection ● Guide to Resources in Higher Education
English Humanities
Memorial Library collects English language and literature from the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the English-speaking Caribbean, as well as American literature pertaining to African-American Studies, Native American Studies, Chicano Studies, Jewish Studies and Women's Studies. General and English linguistics, theater and drama, comparative literature, journalism and mass communications are also collected.
Subject Specialist: Susan Barribeau
Homepages: Cairns Collection of American Women Writers • Little Magazine Collection
European Humanities
European Humanities covers, within different geographic, linguistic, and disciplinary parameters, the following subjects:
- Endemic languages and literatures of continental and Mediterranean-insular Europe west of the Slavic/Hungarian/Albanian speech zone and north of the Pyrenees, plus ancient and medieval Greek but not including Maltese Arabic or any of the languages and literatures of Iberia and its associated islands. "Literature" is defined broadly to include cinema, theatre (other than opera and other largely musical forms), and literary aspects of folklore.
- Comparative and general literature and linguistics focusing on the area so defined or written in one of the languages included in #1, above.
- Within the same geographic area, humanities (but not social science) aspects of Christianity, Judaism, and ancient "pagan" religions.
- Without regard to geographic area, humanities (but not social science) aspects of Religion-in-general (as opposed to aspects of individual religions) and of Christianity-in-general (as opposed to those of Christianity as practiced in particular places) and humanities aspects of "Western" philosophy and of Philosophy-in-general (as opposed to the philosophy of the social and behavioral sciences or the philosophy of science, which latter are not part of European Humanities).
German Humanities Specialist: Kevin Kurdylo
Romance Languages Specialist: Paloma Celis Carbajal
Scandinavian Humanities Specialist: Todd Michelson-Ambelang
Government Documents
The UW-Madison campus libraries serve as a regional depository library for U.S. federal government documents and are also a European Union depository. Memorial Library includes documents related to the social sciences and humanities. It has substantial collections of British Parliamentary publications (papers, debates, and journals) and United Nations publications, including official records, mimeographed documents, and sales publications.
Subject Specialist: Beth Harper
Homepage: Government Documents at Memorial Library
Grants Information
The Grants Information Collection (GIC) provides access to essential information resources related to grantsmanship, educational and research funding, as well as literature on proposal-writing, fundraising, nonprofit management, and philanthropy. The GIC is a cooperating collection of the Foundation Center, an independent national service organization in New York that is the "nation's leading authority on philanthropy." In addition to Foundation Center resources, the GIC at Memorial Library includes other information in both print and electronic format on scholarships, fellowships, grants, and other funding opportunities for individuals and nonprofit organizations from private, corporate, and federal funding agencies.
Subject Specialist: Amy Kindschi
Homepage: Grants Information Collection
History of Science
The collections for history of science and technology emphasize the internal development of science and technology, broader social and intellectual contexts of scientific and technological development, and the relationship between science and technology and institutions, philosophy, religion, and literature, and other cultural phenomena. Memorial Library collects monographs, serials, and materials in other formats in all western languages on history of science in general as well as history of specific natural, physical, mathematical, and social sciences. Coverage also includes history of technology in general and in specific, as well as humanistic relations of science, social relations of science, sociology of science, philosophy of science, and aspects of history of philosophy. Rare books and archival materials in these fields are collected by the Department of Special Collections. Ebling Library provides coverage of aspects of history of the health sciences; other campus libraries acquire some titles pertinent to history of individual sciences, engineering, and agriculture.
Subject Specialist: Robin Rider
Music & Dance
The Music collection consists of approximately 500,000 items in a wide variety of formats, including books, journals, sheet music, recordings and electronic resources. Special strengths include the Wisconsin Music Archives, Americana, musical theater, recorded sound, and ethnomusicology. Items cover all languages and geographic areas, ranging from the local to the international in scope. The vast majority of this material is housed at the Mills Music Library, but additional items can be found in other campus libraries, especially Memorial Library and College Library.
Subject Specialist: Jeanette Casey
The Dance collection follows the curriculum of our School of Dance which includes the study of modern dance, ballet, jazz and Asian, African and African-American dance. Materials focus on three concentrations: performance and choreography; education; and interarts and technology. Books, journals, videos and electronic resources make up the bulk of the collection.
Subject Specialist: Anna Lewis
Psychology
The Psychology Collection is intended to support a breadth of academic fields within the broad discipline of psychology. Included are behavioral, cognitive, counseling, developmental, educational, experimental, general, rehabilitation, school, and social emphases. Various formats are collected, and electronic materials are an important component of the collection. There is interest in foreign language publications, especially in French and German; however, the predominant language is English.
Subject Specialist: Steven Baumgart
Reference
The Reference Collection supports both in-depth research and basic information needs in the broad areas of the humanities and social sciences. Specific subjects include anthropology, business, communications, economics, education, geography, history, languages, library science, linguistics, literature, performing arts, philosophy, political science, psychology, recreation, religion, sociology, and women's studies. Limited coverage in the areas of law, music, fine arts, science and technology allows the collection to serve as a general reference resource.
The collection includes print and electronic almanacs, atlases, bibliographies, concordances, dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, handbooks, indexes/abstracts, library catalogs, statistical tools, style manuals, and more. Most materials are in English, but many non-English materials are included, especially those dealing with Western languages and literatures. The collection is not restricted to any particular geographic area.
Subject Specialist: Nancy McClements
Homepage: Memorial Library Reference Department
Social Sciences
Social Sciences cover a number of Social Science fields to support teaching and research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, throughout the state of Wisconsin, and in some cases nationwide. The primary areas covered are in the disciplines of sociology, economics, and political science. Numerous other subject areas are also included. These collections include materials about North America, including Puerto Rico, but not other areas in the Caribbean. The collections are restricted to a relatively current time period. The primary language for the Social Science collections is English. Special effort is made to acquire seminal works and recognized writings in western European languages. Monographs, serials and online databases are the primary formats collected.
Subject Specialists: Emilie Songolo & Thomas Durkin
Anthropology
The materials in the anthropology collection cover the four sub-specializations within the study of anthropology: ethnology/cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and biological/physical anthropology. The book collection and backfiles of older journal issues are primarily in paper, and newer journal issues are mostly electronic. The materials are primarily in English, however there are works in both French and German. The Library of Congress Call Number System can be of assistance when attempting to locate paper sources in a certain subject area. Most general anthropological resources are to be found under the GN classification, much of the general archaeology collection is classified under CC, linguistics is classified under P, and the study of primates is primarily classified in QL. A significant portion of anthropological research conducted in specific geographic areas of the world is located with the other materials relevant to those geographic regions. Please see the Areas Studies collection descriptions for additional information.
Subject Specialist: Thomas Durkin
Research Guide: AnthropologyFolklore
The materials in the folklore collection cover both the analysis and interpretation of folklore, as well as volumes of collected folktales, descriptions of folklife, and regional/ethnic folkways. The materials are primarily in English. However, there are works in French, German, Italian, and Scandinavian languages. Most general folklore works are classified under GR in the Library of Congress Call Number System; however, significant portions of folklore research conducted in specific geographic areas of the world are located with the other materials relevant to those geographic regions. Please see the Areas Studies collection descriptions for additional information. Folk music resources are usually classed in M. Please see the Music and Dance collection descriptions for additional information about music resources.
Subject Specialist: Thomas Durkin
Research Guide: Folklore
Sociology
The sociology collection covers studies of class, inequality, social stratification, urban and rural socialization, work and employment, demographics, crime, conversation analysis, statistical methodology, organizational studies, race, ethnicity, families, gender, social psychology, and general sociological theory and social organization. The book collection and backfiles of older journal issues are primarily in paper, and newer journal issues are primarily electronic. The materials are primarily in English, however there are works in both French and German. General sociology is classified under HM in the Library of Congress Call Number System; however, sociological works are located throughout the entire H series of the classification, from HA-HX.
Subject Specialist: Thomas Durkin
Research Guide: Sociology
Transportation
The Transportation Collection includes railroad materials significant to United States history and relevant to the development and building of the nation. Railroads of Europe are represented also. Collection interest has, within recent years, begun to focus upon another mode, air transportation, especially policy, economic, and managerial issues. Materials in various formats are included; English is the predominant language. United States and Wisconsin state documents figure importantly in the transportation field and in its study.
Subject Specialist: Thomas Durkin
Special Collections (Rare Books)
The Department of Special Collections was founded in 1946 with the acquisition of the Chester H. Thordarson Collection, holdings include rare books, manuscripts and archives, printed ephemera, pictorial materials, and a significant reference collection. Among the collection strengths are English and American literature, history of science, history of the book, European collections, and philosophy and theology. The Department also contains many books previously held in the circulating collections of the University of Wisconsin-Madison libraries because those books require special handling. Many books published before 1800, for example, are automatically transferred to Special Collections.
Subject Specialist: Robin Rider
Homepage: Department of Special Collections
Gender & Women's Studies
Gender and Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the influence of gender identity and roles. Memorial Library collects Gender and Women's Studies material comprehensively to support the curriculum of the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, courses in other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences that examine gender factors, and research on gender and women topics focusing on the United States as well as other countries and regions of the world, in English and in many other languages. Maintaining access to and acquiring new materials in gender and women's studies is the responsibility of Phyllis Holman Weisbard, Women's Studies Librarian, and numerous other librarian subject specialists.
Subject Specialist: Phyllis Holman Weisbard
Homepages: Gender and Women's Studies Collections ● University of Wisconsin System Women's Studies Librarian’s Office