Since the late 1950s, Duke and UNC Slavic librarians have cooperated in building collections in the humanities and social sciences for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European area studies. Collection responsibilities are divided primarily by language and region. Duke is responsible for building collections in the Polish and Ukrainian languages; while UNC is responsible for building collections in the Czech and Slovak, Hungarian, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian languages. Both institutions collect Russian language materials broadly and are currently experimenting with cooperative collection development for Russian literature and literary criticism. Additionally, each institution specializes in certain subject areas: Duke collects material on Russian art and visual culture, economics, and women’s studies; UNC focuses on Russian émigré materials and diaspora studies. Search TRLN, a unified, electronic catalog facilitates browsing and borrowing of holdings across all of members of the Triangle Research Library Network (TRLN).
Unique TRLN Collections (2006)
Duke University Libraries contains one of the oldest and most extensive Slavic collections of all the academic libraries in the Southeastern United States. The bulk of the collection relates to the former Soviet Union and its successor states in Eurasia and Eastern Europe, that is, to the territories that share either a common Slavic linguistic heritage or a political history with the lands and cultures of Slavic Eurasia. The Library's consortial responsibilities vis-à-vis other institutional members of the Triangle Research Library Network (TRLN), and the interests and support of Duke’s faculty, have laid the basis for several significant collections, particularly in Polish and Ukrainian studies, as well as Russian economics and art/visual culture.
At a Glance
Of the 6 million volumes held by Duke University Library in 2013:
In addition to print volumes, Duke's Slavic & Eurasian Studies collection includes:
Duke University Library belongs to the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation (IPLC), a voluntary union of 13 sovereign academic libraries from the Ivy League (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.).