About the European Division

History and Background

In 1906 the Library purchased the 80,000 volume collection of Russian bibliophile Genadii Yudin, making the Library of Congress a leading center for Slavic research in the United States. Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam created a Slavic Section in 1907 to cope with this acquisition. The Slavic Section evolved into a Slavic Division after World War I in 1919, providing cataloging and reference services.

As a result of the reorganization of the Library in 1944, in which the cataloging and reference functions were separated, the Slavic Division was abolished. It was reestablished in 1951.

During the 1950s, as new countries were added to its area of responsibility, the Slavic Division evolved into the Slavic and East European Division. The name was changed to the European Division in 1978, when it was expanded to include all of Europe except Iberia and Great Britain.

The Collections

The Library of Congress collections from or pertaining to Europe began with the acquisition of Thomas Jefferson's personal library, which contained representative works of European culture in many subjects. Since Jefferson's day, the Library's European collections have grown in size and quality to the point where they can meet the needs of Congress and of the scholarly community in all disciplines. The Library's European collections are among the finest in the world.

These holdings are especially strong in history, literature, and the social sciences. The French, German, and Russian collections, an estimated 3,500,000 volumes, are the strongest among the European collections. European materials are found in the general collection, and in the specialized collections, such as those of the Geography and Map Division, the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, the Music Division, the European Law Division, and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. The European Division has custody of one of these special collections--some 35,000 uncataloged Russian books and periodicals in all fields, dating primarily from 1880 to 1945. See: Overviews of the Collections

Services

The primary role of the European Division is to enhance the value of the Library's European collections through recommendation of research materials for addition to the collections, assistance to scholars, other libraries, federal agencies, and the public in the use of the collections, and interpretation of the collections through guides, bibliographies, and other studies. These services are provided by the Division's area (country) specialists and by the staff of the European Reading Room.