Vais broit . . . azoyfil vayse penitslekh frish broit far alemen. Mayne oygen tsinden zikh on mit hunger. White bread, so
many small slices of fresh, white bread for all of us. My eyes lit up with hunger.1
From its very beginnings, the Library of Congress has collected works in foreign languages. Today the Library's book collections
number more than eighteen million volumes. Half of these are works written in languages other than English, representing about
450 different languages and 35 scripts. In many instances, the Library is considered to be the best repository outside the
country of origin for Western-language books, periodicals, and other materials about a particular culture. Its non-roman-script-language
collections are generally the largest and most extensive in the world outside of the countries where those languages are spoken.
Foreign-language items published in the United States form yet another substantial segment of the Library's collections.
“Le Tragedie del Lavoro.” Il Progresso Italo-Americano. March 28, 1911 (News MF 2297). Serial and Government Publications Division.
The Library's foreign-language collections and adjunct sources on different cultural groups are an important and often untapped
resource for study of the origins and development of women's history in the United States. This discussion of the Area Studies
collections suggests ways for researchers to avail themselves of the many opportunities afforded by these materials throughout
the Library of Congress.