The Post-Soviet Nationalities Collection

Photo © 1996 Gary Matoso/Contact Press Images for F/8-FocalPoint

Columbia scholars of the nationalities problems of Eurasia and Central Asia have at their disposal one of the finest specialized research library collections in the country. As the leading institution in the United States for study of the nationalities of the former Soviet Union, Columbia is also one of the few institutions of higher education in the Western hemisphere that have an outstanding collection of published materials in the indigenous languages of Central Asia and the Caucasus. This collection, consisting of more than 21,000 monographs as well as extensive periodical literature and numerous newspapers on microfilm, in 60 of the Indo-European, Uralic-Altaic, Transcaucasian, and Palæo-Siberian languages of the former Soviet Union, is a unique and valuable resource for research on the nationalities of this critical region.

Now accessible through catalog records in CLIO, the Post-Soviet Nationalities Collection provides researchers with an abundance of the information they need today to understand recent developments in one of the most important emerging areas of the world. The collection dates from the early 1960's and has continued to grow steadily since then. Currently, the collection consists of the materials in the following languages (with numbers indicating the number of the titles cataloged in CLIO as of 2001):

To identify material in a given language, use CLIO. Select the "Call Number Exact" option from the drop box at right and enter the 3- or 4-letter code from the table below that corresponds to the language of interest. For larger language collections, it is often useful to view records by year of publication. To do this, set a search  limit to the language desired, select the  "Keyword (use AND, OR, NOT)" option from the basic search screen, and type "260c", followed by a space, followed by the year. (i.e., "260c 2000").

The Post-Soviet Nationalities Collection is housed in special climate-controlled storage for long-term preservation, at our ReCAP (Research Collections and Preservation Consortium) facility. By clicking on the link within each record in WebCLIO, Columbia-affiliated researchers can have items rapidly retrieved from ReCAP for use. By clicking a language name above, or using a language-search as described above, one may page individual items. There is no limit to the number of items an individual may page.

Non-Columbia affiliates wishing to use the collection need to make special arrangements to have materials retrieved. Please contact the Librarian at the coordinates below.

For more information about the Collection, please contact the Librarian for Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies:

212-854-4701
212-854-3834 fax
ingersoll@columbia.edu