The principal book collection for German is at the North end of the Main Library
(in the Wilkins building), as are current issues of the periodicals. See separate
pages for maps and opening
hours.
Book collections
The collection contains material on political and social history (shelfmark A), language (B), German
literature generally (C) and literature arranged chronologically (D onwards). UCL Library 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 (indicating a section of the library) followed by letters and
numbers denoting its classified position on the shelves in that section; e.g.
GERMAN C 42 BIR for a work on German novels
GERMAN P 221 for a work by Thoman Mann
GERMAN P 221 SWA for a work about Thomas Mann
Note that there is also a section called GERMANIC, with books that may cover Dutch, English, Gothic
and the Scandinavian languages as well as German.
Some of the other main sections you are likely to need are:
ART (Main Library, South, 1st floor): includes Film Studies.
HISTORY (Main Library, South, 2nd floor); includes a good collection of German political, social and
economic history.
LITERATURE (Main Library, North Corridor): books on literary topics not specific to any one
language, literary theory, translation theory etc., and some translations from German into English.
PHILOSOPHY (Main Library, South Corridor): includes a good collection of books and
periodicals on German philosophy.
LINGUISTICS (Main Library, South, 1st floor): books and periodicals
supporting the theory and practice of language study.
SSEES (16 Taviton Street): the School of
Slavonic and East European Studies includes major holdings of the history and literature of East
Germany and other German-speaking areas.
Older or lesser-used material may be in closed store. Order these books via the catalogue; they will be available from the Science Library after 3.00pm the next working day.
Click here for instructions on how to find a book.
Periodicals (also called journals)
Unbound issues of current volumes are under the wooden staircase at the North
end of
the Main
Library. These will usually be for overnight loan only.
For electronic journals, see
below.
The HUMANITIES PERIODICALS (formerly called ARTS periodicals), a collection of mainly interdisciplinary periodicals in Arts and Humanities
subjects, are shelved in the Main Library, 2nd floor, at the far end of the Jewish Studies library.
Click here for instructions on how to find printed and electronic journals and journal articles.
Films
Films are shelved at the Issue Desk and can be taken home or watched in the viewing room off the Main Library Reference Room. DVDs, blu-ray and videos can be used, and headsets and remote controls can be borrowed from the Issue Desk. To find a film on the catalogue, use the "audiovisual" option from the home screen; type your search term - METROPOLIS or HERZOG, plus the word DVD or VIDEO if you want to specify the format.
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Material held in electronic form is available to registered members of UCL: you will usually need
your user id/password for computing services in order to gain access to them.
Indexes and Abstracts
Among the bibliographic indexes which the Library offers are:
- The MLA International
Bibliography: indexes literature, languages and linguistics materials from 1926.
- The Arts and Humanities
Citation Index: coverage from 1975 onwards. ATHENS password required.
- IBSS
(International Bibliography of the Social Sciences): indexes the contents of journals, book collections
etc., from 1951 onwards. ATHENS password required.
- The International Medieval
Bibliography, which indexes over 4,000 journals, books and conference proceedings. Via
BREPOLIS, on-campus access only.
- Iter Bibliography, which offers indexes and abstracts of books, journal articles and dissertations on the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700).
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 electronic journals on the
Library's web pages where you will find details of access arrangements for each title.
Of interest in language and literature is the range of titles available in JSTOR - a project to
store long back runs of selected journals in electronic form, e.g. Modern Language Journal 1916 - 2000.
Access to JSTOR is available on the Web from
this link.
Exam papers
Copies of College examination papers for
undergraduate courses (from 2002 onwards) are available on the Web.
Printed copies of the German papers are held in the Main Library, Photocopying Room. Older ones can be requested from Store.
Other internet resources
Click here for links to other Web-based
material for German.
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Senate House Library (Senate House, Malet Street) has a strong
collection in langauges, the arts and social and historical sciences, and is especially strong in
periodicals holdings. Any registered member of UCL can join the library and borrow from there.
Click here for more information about the
use of other libraries.
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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 German:
Bess Ryder
E-mail b.ryder@ucl.ac.uk
Telephone: internal: 32595; external: 020 7679 2595
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