Contact your Librarian
- Liladhar R. Pendse
- Office Hours: By appointment
- Office Location: Doe Library, rm, 438
- Contact Info:
510-768-7610
The UC Berkeley Library contains one of the largest Slavic collections among US academic libraries. Materials are collected from all the countries of the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in all vernacular languages. Substantial material in English and other European languages is also collected to support Slavic Studies.
The largest part of the collection supports the study of Russia, its history and culture. Strong research collections exist for Polish, Czech and Hungarian Studies. Curriculum supporting collections cover the remainder of the East European countries. Through strong exchange agreements with academies and national libraries in the Caucasus and Central Asia, the Library has built solid collections for these regions and continues to do so to support increased campus interest in these subject areas.
Related Campus Organizations
Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Listings of relevant library collections (including links to their catalogs). Libraries and collections at Berkeley may also be listed under "Related Pages."
Bancroft Library
Contains extensive materials about Slavic groups in the Western United States including many publications of the Russian-American Company and of the Russian settlement at Fort Ross, California. All Slavic imprints prior to 1850 are housed there along with rare literary editions. The Bancroft Library Manuscripts collection also houses the Kniazeff Collection (Russian emigre materials, documents of various Russian Scout organizations, and documents from various Russian Cossack groups).Masaryk-Beneš Collection (PDF)
The library of Masaryk’s personal secretary, Arne Laurin, containing materials relating to the First and Second Czech Republics.Media Resources Center
Has an extensive collection of East European videos to support research and the campus curriculum.Miliukov Collection (PDF)
The personal library of the famous Russian educator and politician.Pacific Film Archive
Contains one of the most extensive collections of Russian and East European films in the United States.Regional Oral History Office
Contains interviews with prominent Russians who settled in California.Russian Émigré Literature Collection (PDF)
Russian Women Writers Collection (PDF)
A rather unique feature of the Slavic collection at Berkeley is strong coverage in Mathematics, Engineering, and the Physical and Biological Sciences (PDF).
Siberian Photos - collection of photos owned by the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, here presented on the web.
One can view the last six months of cataloging in the areas below.
Russian Publications
Publications from the Republics of the Former Soviet Union
Publications from Eastern Europe
Izvestiia Online
The Library welcomes gifts in all forms. Many private donors have made contributions toward the acquisition of research materials for the use of Berkeley faculty and students. This support is very important in sustaining the excellence of our collections and services.
The following types of gifts are available:
Book Donations
Gifts of scholarly materials and the results of research have historically represented a significant element in the development of our outstanding research collections. We welcome individual gifts, but due to space and staff limitations, we must be judicious in accepting large contributions. Contact Liladhar R. Pendse, Librarian for Slavic & East European Collections about the materials you wish to donate.
Donations of recently published books are welcomed. New book purchases will be checked to ensure titles aren’t already on order.
Memorial and Honorific Gifts
Contributions given in memory or in honor of a person are welcomed. For a gift of $1,000 or more, a named memorial book fund can be established. A special book plate will be created and placed in each book.
Named Endowment
Endowment funds may be established with a gift of $50,000 or more. These funds provide the library with an annual income in perpetuity and have a lasting impact on maintaining a world class collection in Slavic & East European Studies. The University invests its endowments carefully to achieve a healthy rate of return that provides for both current needs and long-term growth. A special book plate will be created and placed in each book.
Cash Gifts for Book Purchases
Cash contributions of any amount are welcomed and can be made directly to the Library using the online form. In the Special instructions or designations for this gift section, specify which collection it is for.
If you prefer to send a check, make it payable to the UC Regents (indicate which collection it is for) and mail it to:
Liladhar R. Pendse
Librarian for Slavic & East European Collections
Doe Library, rm. 438
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
Use OskiCat to locate materials related to your topic, including books, government publications, and audio and video recordings, in the libraries of UC Berkeley. OskiCat will show you the location and availability of the items that we own.
Use Melvyl to find materials related to your topic located at other campuses in the UC system. Melvyl also allows you to expand your search to libraries worldwide. Clicking on the REQUEST button in the detailed view of a catalog record prompts you to fill out a form to request the item through our Interlibrary Loan office.
Transliteration Tables for Cyrillic Based Languages From Indiana University
Othographic "traps" when searching Russian materials in Library Catalogs
UC Berkeley Faculty, Staff and Graduate Students can use the collections of Stanford University through the Research Library Cooperative Program. Undergraduates can use Stanford's collection through the Interlibrary Loan Office.
This is a recommended list of databases, indexes, and searchable full-text collections. Some are discipline specific, while others cover multiple subject areas. Not all disciplines are represented here. For additional databases consult Electronic Resources on the Library Main Web Page
The UC Berkeley library aquires a number of books in electronic form. They are listed individually in Oskicat and Melvyl. Some can be accessed through E-Book Collections.
A list of Slavic related E-Books and E-Book collections can be found here.
Electronic Journals are an important research tool. The Library maintains a list of E-Journals. E-Journals are also listed by title in Oskicat and the Melvyl Catalog.
A selective list of Electronic Journals useful for Slavic Studies can be found here.
This area is currently under construction. I hope to add content as it is developed. If you need help, please contact me directly.
Liladhar R. Pendse
Librarian for Slavic & East European Collections.
A good place to start researching a country is to use one of the publications from the World Bibliographical Series (Clio Press). The authors of these volumes provide a listing of titles which contain good basic information on a variety of subjects . Below are a few of the titles in this series.
Here are a few basic titles for beginning a study of Russian Literature.
Find Dissertations by searching Digital Dissertations, which indexes over 1.5 million dissertations completed in North American (including UC) and European universities from 1861 to the present. Listings after 1980 include abstracts, and some feature 24-page excerpts. Also see Find Dissertations and Theses for other specialized sources, and dissertations completed at a UC campus can also be found in Library catalogs, which have limit to dissertations/theses search options:
Full-text Access: Online full-text of UC dissertations (from 1996) can be found by searching Digital Dissertations and also appear in Library catalog search results. UC Berkeley dissertations in print prior to 1996 may be found by searching the Library catalogs. Dissertations done at other UC campuses prior to 1996 or outside the UC system must be obtained through Interlibrary Loan or using the "Request" option in Melvyl.
The Russian State Library has created a catalog of Russian Disserations and Abstracts at http://diss.rsl.ru/?menu=disscatalog/. Some of the dissertations appear to be freely available in digital form.
Access to Oskicat, Melvyl, and information on UC Berkeley Library web pages is open to the public. The iinstructions below are for UC Berkeley faculty, staff, students, and official affiliates for accessing licensed research materials.
Before you can access UCB Library resources from off campus or via your laptop or other mobile devices, make sure you have configured your machine using one of two simple methods (Proxy Server is the quickest and easiest):
Proxy Server
After you make a one-time change in your web browser settings, the proxy server will ask you to log in with a CalNet ID when you click on the link to a licensed resource. See the setup instructions, FAQ, and Troubleshooting pages to configure your browser. Make sure you check the proxy configuration before you start researching.
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
After you install and run the VPN "client" software on your computer, you can log in with a CalNet ID to establish a secure connection with the campus network.
Finding encyclopedias in an on-line catalog requires knowing the standard Library of Congress subject headings for this kind of reference tool. There are several subject heading formats which lead to general encyclopedies in a foreign language and encylopedias about a particular subject.
To find general encyclopedias in a foreign language use the following subject
format:
Encyclopedias and Dictionaries – [language].
Example: Encyclopedias and Dictionaries – Estonian.
To find encyclopedias on a particular subject:
[subject]—Encyclopedias. [or in some cases]
[subject]—Dictionaries.
Example: Russian Literature--Dictionaries
Finding dictionaries in an on-line catalog requires knowing the standard Library of Congress subject headings for this kind of reference tool.There are several subject heading formats which lead to general language dictionaries and dictionaries of terms about a particular discipline.
To find general dictionaries use the following subject format:
[language name]--Dictionaries.
Example: Estonian language--Dictionaries.
To find dictionaries that translate from one language to another:
[language name]--Dictionaries--[language name]
Example: Polish language--Dictionaries--English language.
To find dictionaries on a particular subject in a foreign language:
[discipline name]--Dictionaries--[language name]
Example: Computer Science--Dictionaries--Ukrainian language.
For those of you in need of online dictionaries for Russian, two useful sites are Oxford Language Dictionaries Online (UCB Only) and Multitran.
