This guide presents an overview to the NYU Libraries collections strategy in the field of Russian and Slavic Studies.
Bobst Library’s Slavic Studies collection supports instructional and research programs at the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Wagner School, and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, and, to a smaller degree, IFA, ISAW, Courant and Tisch. At NYU more than 40 undergraduate and 40 graduate courses deal with Slavic Studies in the following disciplines: art, Central and East European literature, cinema studies, comparative literature, cultural studies, drama, economics and economic development, gender studies, history, immigration studies, international education, linguistics, music, politics, history of Russian law, public administration, Russian language and literature, theater, and translation studies.
On the undergraduate level the department of Russian and Slavic Studies offers a major and a minor. On the graduate level, the department offers an interdisciplinary Master of Arts degree in Russian studies, with concentrations in literature and culture, area studies, linguistics, and international relations. A newly instituted Ph.D. program is now being offered with emphases on History, Comparative Literature or International Relations. In addition, the department participates in two dual Master's degree programs: a Master of Arts degree in Russian and Journalism, in association with the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute; and a dual degree in Library Science and Russian, jointly sponsored and administered by Long Island University"s Palmer School of Library and Information Science, and NYU's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The latter program allows library students to be trained as Slavic subject specialist librarians. In addition, the department has added Czech language and cultural history in connection with the recently-opened program, New York University in Prague at Charles University. Finally, the Departments of Comparative Literature, History, and the Program in International Education grant doctorates on Slavic subjects.
The bulk of the collection is in English; materials come overwhelmingly from American and British publishing houses. Both print and e-books are supplied by YBP based on criteria established by an area study librarian. If titles are not available from YBP, they can be ordered through third parties.
Existing lacunae in the collections are filled, if justified by academic needs, through used and rare book vendors.
The Russian-, Polish-, Czech- and Ukrainian-language materials are supplied by locally-based vendors in Moscow, Warsaw, Prague and Kyiv who select materials in accordance with existing approval plans. Occasionally, they fulfill special orders for materials that fall outside of the approval plans, such as exhibition catalogs, self-published titles, obscure conference proceedings, etc.
The Slavic collection at Bobst reflects the history of Slavic Studies at NYU. When NYU's Ph.D. program in Russian literature was discontinued in 1972, collecting in Russian and other East European languages virtually stopped. The acquisition of Western-language resources about Russia and Eastern Europe, however, continued. Collecting in Russian, and to some degree Czech and Polish resumed in 1995, but despite retrospective acquisitions, many lacunae from the 1970s, '80s, and early '90s remain.
