Printed collections in UCL Library Services are described below. There is also information about:
The Comparative Philology collection is housed in the Donaldson reading room in the Main Library, in
the second bay on your right as you enter the room. Comparative Philology quartos are shelved in the
first bay on your right. See separate pages for
maps and opening hours.
Book collections
The Comparative Philology collection is broadly arranged in the following subject sections:
- A: General
- B: Indo-European languages
- C: Ural-Altaic languages
- D: Asianic and Middle-Eastern languages (non-Semitic)
- E: Afro-Asiatic languages (Hamito-Semitic)
- F: African languages (non-Semitic)
- G: Basque and the ancient languages of the Iberian peninsula
- H: Caucasian languages
- K: Dravidian languages
- L: Languages of Eastern Asia
- M: Malayo-Polynesian and Papuan languages
- N: Australian languages
- P: American languages
- R: Paleo-Asiatic and Eskimo-Aleut languages
UCL Library Services has its own classification scheme for arranging books on the shelves; a typical
classmark for an open-access book will consist of the name of a subject (indictaing a section of the
library) followed by letters and numbers denoting its classified position on the shelves in that
section. For the Comparative Philology collection, every language has a letter indicating its group or
family (for example B = Indo-European) and a number (e.g. B 23 =Armenian.) The numbers can be used in
two ways: with or without a colon subdivision. The number is used without subdivision for general
works concerning a language, while subdivisions are used when a particular aspect is emphasised.
The subdivisions are these:
- : 1 history, archaeology
- : 2 dictionaries, etymological treatises
- : 3 phonology
- : 4 grammars
- : 5 monographs on aspects of grammar
- : 6 the study of names
- : 7 semantical treatises
- : 8 texts
- : 9 religion
For example:
- COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY B 23:2 = dictionaries of Armenian
- COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY B 23:4 = grammars of Armenian
- COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY C 12 = a general outline of Altaic languages
The full classification scheme for Comparative Philology is available for reference
at the Main Library Enquiry Desk on the first floor.
A classmark found on the catalogue and beginning with the words STORE or with a number - e.g. 98-15234
- refers to a work housed away from the Main Library. For these works you will need to fill in the
online Store Request Form. Store items
will be available for collection from the Stores Desk on the ground floor of the Science Library
(DMS Watson Builiding) by 3pm the next working day.
Some of the other main sections of UCL Library Services in which you may be interested are:
PHONETICS & LINGUISTICS (Main Library, Donaldson reading room): books and
periodicals supporting the theory and practice of language study.
ANTHROPOLOGY (2nd Floor, Science Library, DMS Watson Building): section F is
dedicated to anthropological linguistics.
GEOGRAPHY (1st Floor, Science Library, DMS Watson Building): section H 30 is
dedicated to linguistic geography.
Individual language collections are all located in the North Corridor of the Main Library except
Celtic and Dutch which are situated on the 2nd Floor of the Main Library beyond the History collection,
and Hebrew and Yiddish which are on the 2nd Floor, North Corridor. They are:
| FRENCH |
ITALIAN |
GERMAN |
| SPANISH |
CATALAN |
PORTUGUESE |
| SWEDISH |
DANISH |
NORWEGIAN |
| ICELANDIC |
FAROESE |
DUTCH |
| HEBREW |
YIDDISH |
CELTIC LANGUAGES |
| CLASSICS (ANCIENT GREEK & LATIN) |
|
|
Section B is dedicated to language in all these collections with
the following exceptions:
- Dutch - Section H 32.2
- Hebrew - Section P
- Ancient Greek - Section GB of the Classics collection
- Latin - Section LB of the Classics collection
Periodicals
Periodicals relevant to Comparative Philology can be found in the following collections:
- LINGUISTICS PERIODICALS - Donaldson reading room
- HUMANITIES PERIODICALS - 2nd Floor of the Main Library beyond the Hebrew & Jewish Studies collection
- CLASSICS PERIODICALS - Main Library, North Corridor
- Periodicals of the individual language collections
For electronic journals, see below.
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The two primary types of electronic resources available are:
- tools for carrying out literature searches, such as bibliographic databases
(indexes and abstracts) which help you to find book titles and articles in periodicals
- full-text resources, such as electronic journals
Material held in electronic form is available to registered members of UCL: you will usually need
your user id/password for Information Systems in order to gain access to them. In order to gain access
to certain databases and electronic journals you need to obtain an
ATHENS username and password by registering
at one of the Library enquiry desks.
Databases
Among the bibliographic databases offered by the Library are:
There are many other databases that may be useful to you. Click here for a
complete list of databases
available at UCL.
Electronic journals
A range of electronic versions of journal titles is available. Start from the
list of e-journals on the Library's
web pages. Here you will find details of access arrangements for each title.
Be aware that most electronic holdings of journals do not go back more than a few years. However,
older electronic versions of some journals can be accessed via
JSTOR, an archive storing long back runs of
selected journals in electronic form, e.g. Modern Philology 1903 - 1998.
Other Web resources
Internet resources of academic quality can be accessed using subject gateways or directories. These
gateways are often compiled by subject specialists and can therefore provide a quick and reliable way
of finding material of academic quality on the Web.
Gateways which you may find useful include:
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All registered students of UCL are entitled to obtain a borrowing card for the
Senate House Library, which specialises in the Humanities and
houses collection dedicated to Archaeology and Manuscript Studies.
Reference access to other University of London libraries is available for UCL registered students.
There are several online catalogues to help you locate material not held by UCL, inlcuding:
- COPAC: an online catalogue with records of
the holdings of 26 of the top research libraries in the UK. You can obtain books and articles found on
COPAC via inter-library loan, at a charge of £3 per item.
- The Union List of Serials: a catalogue
of periodicals holdings in academic libraries in the London area.
Further information is available about the use of
other libraries and about
inter-library loans.
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If you have any problems in using the Library, come to the Enquiry Desk, or ask for the subject
librarian for Comparative Philology:
Robert Kirby
E-mail r.kirby@ucl.ac.uk
Telephone: internal: 27485; external: 020 7679 7485
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