Printed collections in UCL Library Services are described below. There is also information about:
The principal collection for Scandinavian is in the Main Library (in the Wilkins building). See
separate pages for maps and opening hours.
Book collections
The collection is separated into sections called Scandinavian, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and
Swedish, with smaller sections of Faroese and Finnish. Each contains material on history (shelfmark A),
language (B), general literature (C) and literature arranged chronologically (E 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.
DANISH B 5 ALL for a grammar of the Danish language
NORWEGIAN N 320 for a work by Ibsen
NORWEGIAN N 320 FER for a work about Ibsen
SWEDISH C 19 FOR for a work on Swedish women writers.
It is important to note that if the catalogue gives the sub-library as STORE, books will not be on open
shelves but should be ordered using the “request” button in the left-hand column of the
holdings screen. They will be available from the Science Library after 3pm on the next working day.
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); material not specific to Scandinavian.
LITERATURE (Main Library, North Corridor): books on literary topics not specific to any one
language, literary theory, translation theory etc.
PHONETICS & 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 has a strong
collection of Finnish history.
Periodicals (also called journals)
SCANDINAVIAN PERIODICALS are shelved in the Scandinavian Reading Room at the North End of the
building. Older volumes are in the gallery, while recently published issues of periodicals are
displayed in racks in the main part of the room. Periodicals are usually available for loan, although
this may be restricted to overnight access. Journals with the shelfmark 224-8 Pers should be requested
online (as for a book) or by using the Store Request form. For electronic journals, see below.
The HUMANITIES PERIODICALS, a collection of mainly interdisciplinary periodicals in Arts and Humanities
subjects, are shelved in the Main Library, 2nd Floor.
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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, which indexes literature, languages and linguistics material from 1926.
- The Arts and Humanities
Citation Index, coverage from 1975.
- IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences): indexes the contents of journals, book collections etc., from 1951 onwards.
- The International Medieval Bibliography, which indexes over 4,000 journals, books and conference proceedings.
- 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 e-journals on the Library's
web pages. Here 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 examination papers for undergraduate
courses (from 2002 onwards) are available on the web.
Printed copies of the Scandinavian papers
are held in the Main Library, Photocopying Room. Older ones can be requested from Store.
Other internet resources
For links to other web-based material for Scandinavian, see the
subject resource page.
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UCL Library holds the University’s specialist collection in Scandinavian languages and
literature. Senate House Library (Senate House, Malet Street) has a
strong collection in 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.
More information about the use of other
libraries is available here.
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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 Scandinavian:
Bess Ryder
E-mail b.ryder@ucl.ac.uk
Telephone: internal: 32595; external: 020 7679 2595
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