Introduction

Librarians charged with developing and maintaining Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans language collections face a unique set of challenges. While each language presents its own fully-developed literary and academic traditions filled with opportunities for unique and important research, librarians are often limited in collection development by lack of resources, perceived student disinterest in these disciplines, and departmental obscurity, with the languages often subsumed into German or Germanic-studies departments. This chapter aims to support librarians covering Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans collections in overcoming these challenges and to provide a broader understanding of what it means to work in these disciplines.

The countries covered in this chapter are primarily the Netherlands, Belgium, and South Africa and the languages of Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans. As with many western European countries, the question of whether to include both current and/or former Dutch colonies is a complicated one. For the purpose of this work, the constituent countries of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten, parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; and the special municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba are considered as parts of the Netherlands. Although Dutch is the sole official language of Suriname and the majority of its population speaks Dutch, it will not be covered in this chapter.

The disciplines covered beyond Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans culture, language, and literature include history, comparative literature, sociology, political science, and anthropology.

The Academic Field

Dutch is relevant in the North American academic sphere primarily from two points of view: language learning and more advanced cultural, historical, and literary studies. These are generally stratified along undergraduate-graduate lines.

At the undergraduate level, Dutch is typically offered within a World Languages context at up to four levels, from beginner to intermediate. More extensive undergraduate programming in terms of a full major in Dutch is offered at very few universities in the US, limited to programs in areas of Dutch immigration at either highly specialized private colleges or large public universities such as Calvin College, Dordt University, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). Courses in Dutch language are offered in a wider, but still limited, context, often as a subsidiary of Germanic departments at other large public universities such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Michigan, Indiana University, and the University of Minnesota. While there are no full PhD programs related to Dutch, Flemish, or Afrikaans, doctoral students can opt to study any or all of the above within the context of Germanic studies, political science, history, or other related disciplines (DeWulf 2019).

The undergraduate Dutch-language classroom presents unique challenges to instructors and librarians alike in the world-languages context, as students pursue Dutch for different reasons, not all directly related to a passion for Dutch studies. As a result, instructors and librarians will find differing skill and interest levels to be quite common in the classroom, and will need to adapt materials to account for that challenge while maintaining a critical mass of student interest to retain Dutch language programs. In the North American academic setting, Flemish is not taught separately from Dutch from the Netherlands, although classes will include Belgian historical and cultural topics. Afrikaans, although distinct, is even more rarely covered, and at this time appears to be taught only at UCLA.

Staying current in the landscape of Dutch studies is a balancing act between cultivating personal relationships within the relatively easily surveyable academic landscape and membership in several relevant associations and networks. In North America, the American Association for Netherlandic Studies covers interdisciplinary subjects to promote Dutch language, literature, and culture in the US (American Association for Netherlandic Studies 2021). Likewise, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Netherlandic Studies/Association canadienne pour l’avancement des études néerlandaises serves a similar purpose. For a perspective from outside North America, there is the Association for Low Countries Studies for the UK and Ireland, which maintains an active blog, and De Internationale Vereniging voor Neerlandistiek (The International Association of Dutch Studies). The H-Net network H-Low Countries is an academic forum focused primarily on national histories of Dutch-speaking countries. The most prominent funding source from the Netherlands for study of Dutch comes from the Taalunie (Union for the Dutch Language), which supports Dutch language promotion projects with the goal of increasing the number of Dutch language courses in higher education in foreign countries (Taalunie, n.d.).

The dispersed nature of the field in the US results in a primarily virtual learning environment, both for connecting academics from various universities and for disseminating updates about Dutch Studies and Dutch perspectives on European studies. While English-language monographs are increasingly available in eBook format, most Dutch literature and non-fiction remains available only in print. Casalini Libri, a supplier of books and journals, has made inroads on providing foreign language electronic publishing in Italian, and having recently merged with the Dutch supplier Erasmus Boekhandel, it may be making Dutch language eBooks available in the future. For Flemish, Flanders Literature is an entire website dedicated to Flemish literature, authors, translators, and publishers.

Afrikaans is offered at US universities when there is a demonstrated research or curricular need. It has been taught irregularly in class mode and is often offered through African studies departments or as part of Germanic studies departments, as was the case at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Due to budget and program cuts related to low enrollment for less commonly taught languages, Afrikaans has, however, virtually disappeared from language curricula. Some universities that include Afrikaans sporadically in their language curriculum include Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Berkeley. Afrikaans courses center on language learning, historical linguistics, and literary study.

There are several organizations and websites that promote the Afrikaans language:

• Voertaal (Main Language): Offers literary, cultural, and historical resources, alternating in the Dutch and Afrikaans languages.
• PEN Afrikaans: One of the many PEN centers affiliated with PEN International.
• Het Zuid-Afrikahuis (South Africa House): International institute that focuses on the language, culture, and history of South Africa; holds the largest collection of South African literature in Europe.

Gents Centrum voor het Afrikaans en de Studie van Zuid-Afrika (Ghent University’s Center for Afrikaans and the Study of South Africa) and De leerstoel Zuid-Afrika: talen, literaturen, cultuur en maatschappij (Ghent University’s Department of South Africa: Languages, Literatures, Culture, and Society) are two of the most important programs in Europe where one can study Afrikaans.

Staying current with the academic field in Dutch, Flemish, or Afrikaans requires creating and maintaining relationships across campus, whether with individual faculty and students, respective departments, or relevant centers on campus. Cultivating relationships and having conversations around research and new publications, especially with vendors and publishers, will help librarians stay current on recent research trends in academia. Promotional materials and book lists from vendors and publishers can be of enormous value when tackling a new discipline in collection development. Lastly, cultivating relationships with other librarians in the discipline and joining library associations and organizations will also aid in getting to know a new field. Creating a support system of librarians, faculty, and other stakeholders in the field is one of the most important aspects of getting to know the academic disciplines.

Publishing Landscape

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is well known for its reading culture and thriving publishing industry. It produces a large amount of contemporary fiction, much of which has been translated into other languages. The international stature of Dutch literature has received increased attention through different campaigns organized by Nederlands Letterenfonds (Dutch Foundation for Literature). Letterenfonds, for example, subsidized funding for The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, which won the 2020 International Booker Prize. In 2016, the Netherlands and Flanders were the host countries at the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair). In 2020, publications of non-fiction titles grew with popular topics such as Black Lives Matter, #metoo, Dutch colonial history, and climate change. An increase in publications by previously silenced voices, such as authors from diverse backgrounds, also grew significantly (Nederlands Letterenfonds 2021, 27).

Arguably, the three major Dutch authors that should be present in any collection are Willem Frederik Hermans, Harry Mulisch, and Gerard Reve. A more recent line-up of authors includes Arnon Grunberg, Arthur Japin, Annejet van der Zijl, Joost Oomen, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Sheila Sitalsing, Kader Abdolah, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, and Anna Enquist.

Major Dutch publishers for fiction and nonfiction are the following:

• De Bezige Bij
• Prometheus
• Singel Uitgeverijen/Arbeiderspers/Querido
• Meulenhoff
• Noordhoff Uitgevers.

Small publishers are of great importance in the Netherlands, contributing about 10 million titles to the literary and cultural output in 2019 (KVB Boekwerk 2020). The largest academic publishers include:

• Brill
• Elsevier
• Amsterdam University Press
• Leiden University Press

eBooks are popular in the Netherlands. In 2014, sales generated by Dutch-language eBooks totaled four percent of the total turnover of Dutch language books; in 2020, this number had grown to 5.9% (Koninklijke Vereniging van het Boekenvak 2021). Primary materials are increasingly available through online repositories. Delpher, a website developed by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB; National Library of the Netherlands), provides full-text Dutch language historical newspapers, journals, books, and radio reports.

Nederlab brings together all digitized Dutch texts from the year 800 to the present on one platform. It is a collaboration between KB, university libraries, de Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL; Digital Library for Dutch Literatures), Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal (Dutch Language Institute), and Het Meertens Instituut (The Meertens Institute). The DBNL itself is a digital collection of Dutch literary, linguistic, and cultural historical texts from early times to the present; it also includes Flemish literary corpora.

Another digital collection that deserves mention is Early Dutch Books Online, a collaboration between KB, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Leiden. It provides access to 11,240 Dutch-language books from 1781-1800. This collection has now been incorporated into Delpher.

The Netherlands Research Portal, available via OpenAIRE from the European Union, provides open access scholarly information, datasets from some data archives, and descriptions of research projects, researchers, and research institutes. Although discontinued in July 2023, the National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System (NARCIS) can still be consulted for links to other resources.

According to the Rathenau Instituut, the prospects of academic publishing in the Netherlands are mixed and generally more technical. Although the total research output in the Netherlands has risen steadily since 2003, the majority of this growth can be attributed to publications in healthcare and medicine. Between 1997 and 2019, however, while the share of publications from non-technical fields decreased, the number of publications from social sciences and humanities also increased steadily. Furthermore, the Dutch academic space is a rather international one, as only 63% of publications from the Netherlands have a Dutch first author (Rathenau Instituut 2021).

Flanders (Belgium)

In Flanders, there are three historically canonized authors who will likely be found in any Dutch-language library collection: Willem Elsschot, Hugo Claus, and Louis Paul Boon. The new generation of Flemish fictional authors includes some of the most influential authors in Flanders today: Dimitri Verhulst, Saskia de Coster, Kristien Hemmerechts, Tom Lanoye, and Stefan Hertmans. Literature has also become more diverse in Flanders, with increased numbers of publications by female authors and authors with immigrant backgrounds.

Although previously somewhat obscure, Flemish non-fiction has steadily grown in popularity, with authors such as Bart van Loo (De Bourgondiers; The Burgundians: a Vanished Empire [translation]) and David van Reybrouck (Congo, een geschiedenis; Congo: The Epic History of a People [translation]) achieving celebrity status. Hugo Brems, professor of Dutch literature, argues that this trend began in the late 1980s, with travelogs, oral histories, and researched monographs following soon thereafter (Peeters, n.d.).

The major publishers for fiction and nonfiction in Belgium are Uitgeverij Vrijdag, Uitgeverij Houtekiet, De Bezige Bij, Lannoo, and Standaard Uitgeverij. The publishers for academic subjects in Flemish include the university presses along with Elsevier, Brill, and Brepols. In 2018, eBook formats accounted for about 25% of the distribution of book sales.

South Africa

The publishing landscape of South Africa has a long and varied history closely tied to the country’s colonial and apartheid pasts. During the colonial period, the book and publishing industry in South Africa was controlled by colonists, with English and Dutch the dominant languages (Möller 2014, 859). European missionary presses played an important role as an extension to the colonial powers, promoting Christianity and Western culture. In postcolonial South Africa, the landscape of the publishing industry was intimately connected with the rise of the National Party, which promoted the Afrikaans language. National Party-supported Afrikaner publishing houses like Van Schaik and Nasionale Pers dominated the industry in the 1920s and 1930s (Möller 2014, 860). Language became a tool of racial oppression, with the competing consequences between the English and Afrikaans languages leading to suppression of indigenous languages and Black interests. Certain authors were banned during apartheid, forcing them into exile and to publish abroad. The dire situation in South Africa during this time resulted in literary fiction characterized by conflict, division, and political activism.

These trends changed with the end of apartheid, 1990-1994, as publishers became interested in titles aimed at all groups in South Africa instead of particular segments of the population. While some publishing and translating in African languages has since taken place, the majority of output in South Africa is still in English or Afrikaans.

According to Möller (2014, 869), the publishing industry in South Africa continues to grow, with a focus on the educational and trade markets. The educational market remains the largest segment of the publishing industry, but the trade market is growing, with authors and themes becoming more diverse. The report summary of “Publishing of Books and Other Publications” suggests that the South African publishing industry focuses on educational content, with Pearson South Africa being the largest educational publisher, and that the market for trade books is small (Veitch 2019). Educational institutions are slowly transitioning to eBooks and digital content.

According to Attridge (2018), only a small portion of Afrikaans speakers read literary fiction, while contemporary authors rely on translations to reach a wider audience. Despite these challenges, Afrikaans has seen a resurgence since the end of apartheid. Notable authors writing in Afrikaans and who should be part of any collection are Breyten Breytenbach, André Brink, Etienne van Heerden, and Marlene van Niekerk.

The important South African Literary Awards can be awarded to authors of any of the languages in South Africa. The most prestigious prize in Afrikaans literature is the Hertzogprys (Herzog Prize), awarded by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (South African Academy for the Sciences and Art); for details on the Hertzogprys, see their list of Pryse en bekronings (prizes and awards). Another important resource for staying current on Afrikaans publishing is the Johannesburg Review of Books, an independent literary review on South Africa’s literary output.

In general, looking at literary prizes, reading publisher and vendor reports, and scanning recent acquisitions from other libraries are all good ways to keep up with the publishing landscape. Two smaller literary awards are especially notable: De Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Dutch Literature Prize), the most prestigious literary award in the Dutch-speaking world, awarded every three years to an author from Belgium, the Netherlands, or Suriname; and De Libris Literatuur Prijs (the Libris Literature Award), awarded by Libris, an association of independent Dutch booksellers, for novels written in Dutch. Using approval plans and reading new title announcements (often referred to as “slips”) from vendors are sure ways to receive current publications and stay up to date with recent literary output. Publishing Perspectives is a useful website and newsletter, reporting on international book publishing news, trends, and issues. And collaborating with other institutions can be a way to maximize resources, and may result in a deeper and more diverse collection.

Collection Development Tools

The two main academic library vendors for the acquisition of English-language titles in North America are GOBI Library Solutions and ProQuest’s OASIS. Both provide eBooks, print books, and metadata for discovery to academic libraries. For eBook acquisitions, their options include title-by-title firm ordering, approval plans, demand-driven acquisitions, and evidence-based acquisitions. For print books, options include title-by-title firm ordering, approval plans, awards programs, series, rush order service, and out-of-print books.

When looking to order titles in Dutch or Flemish, there are two options for North American libraries: Erasmus Boekhandel and Harrassowitz. Both offer subscriptions, approval plans, title-by-title firm ordering, standing orders, eBooks, and metadata for cataloging. Each company also has representatives for the US and Canada who can work with libraries to fine tune approval plans and answer questions.

Book vendors that distribute books in Afrikaans are the African Books Collective (ABC) and Clarke’s Bookshop. ABC is an African-owned distributor for books from Africa that offers print and eBook titles which can be ordered online. Clarke’s specializes in books on Africa, with a particular focus on Southern Africa.

Out-of-print books can be ordered through a variety of vendors:

• AbeBooks
• AddALL
• Biblio.com
• Bookwire
• International League of Antiquarian Booksellers
• Used Book Search

Despite the popularity of books and reading, the Netherlands does not have a yearly book fair. Belgium, however, holds a well-attended annual book fair, LEES! Het Boekenfestival (Read! The Book Fair), in Antwerp at the beginning of November.

Open Book Cape Town is an annual literary festival in South Africa that aims to attract authors from around the world, showcasing the best of South African literature, and contributing to reading and literacy for young South Africans.

One very important aspect of collection development is assessing the collection on a regular basis. The most important considerations are:

• How well does the collection about a particular subject meet the research and teaching needs of the faculty and students in the department?
• Is there enough space to house the collection?
• What are the usage statistics of print circulation and electronic usage?
• What kind of impact does the collection have on a wider audience?
• Where does the collection fit in comparison with other libraries?

While collections of literary works for Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans, and the related budgets, might be relatively small and therefore easier to assess, the interdisciplinary subjects relating to these fields might result in lengthy processes. One example of this is the many books published about apartheid and Afrikaans.

Building out a collection for Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans studies requires forming strong long-term partnerships not only with academics who actively teach the corresponding languages, but with faculty in Germanic studies, history, anthropology, political science, and African, Asian, and American Studies departments. Strategic and creative cross-disciplinary collection development requires actively making the case that materials in Dutch and Afrikaans are worth investing in, which can often require a more active advocate role from the librarian than other subject areas. Sources of information about researchers and their scholarly output can be found through journal publications, conference or university presentations, and popular media. Analyzing faculty pages at the department level and understanding the research being conducted can help in making collection development decisions.

Disciplinary Resources

Core Journals

The following core journals focus specifically on the Netherlands and the Low Countries, and primarily relate to history and literature.

• BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review covers the history of the Low Countries since the Middle Ages. Open access.
• The Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies / Revue canadienne d’études néerlandaises (CJNS/RCÉN) has been published twice a year by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Netherlandic Studies/Association canadienne pour l’avancement des études néerlandaises since 1979. Open access.
• Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies covers practically all aspects of Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans history, literature, and culture. Published since 1977 on behalf of the Association for Low Countries Studies (UK and Ireland) and currently available through Taylor and Francis Online. Authors have the option to publish Open Access. Subscription resource.
• Early Modern Low Countries is dedicated to the study of the early modern Low Countries between 1500 and 1830, from a variety of perspectives. Open access.
• Internationale Neerlandistiek covers international Dutch (including South-African) linguistics and literature, including aspects of communication studies, translation, cultural studies, and the culture of the Low Countries in general. Open access.
• Journal of Dutch Literature is the most prominent English-language journal covering Dutch literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, with a stated goal of promoting the debate past more typical Dutch language boundaries. Open access.
• Neerlandistiek is an electronic journal for Dutch linguistics, literature, and language proficiency. Open access.
• Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal en Letterkunde (Journal of Dutch Linguistics and Literature). Open access.
• Nederlandse Letterkunde (Journal for Dutch Literary Studies). Open access.
• TSEG – The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History. Open access.

LitNet, an important South African multicultural online journal, has a large amount of Afrikaans materials and is useful for students interested in cultural, literary, and political issues. Open access.

Tydskrif vir letterkunde (Journal for African Literature) is the oldest literary journal in South Africa and publishes articles on literature and cultural practices. Open access.

Additionally, the Netherlands, Belgium, and South Africa all appear as topical or regional focuses in journals of all disciplines, so a broader knowledge of historical and literary academic journals is helpful to fully grasp the scope of publishing on issues related to Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans Studies.

An open access platform for journals, Openjournals.nl, was launched in January 2021, and provides access to academic journals in the social sciences and humanities.

Primary Source Databases

As a replacement for the discontinued National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System (NARCIS), the Netherlands Research Portal via OpenAIRE does include publications and research data related to the humanities and social sciences, although most content is focused on STEM fields.

EuroDocs, from Brigham Young University Library, is a helpful portal to primary source documents from ancient times to the present day for all European countries, including Belgium and the Netherlands. Open access.

Perhaps one of the most useful sources of archival information for North American librarians is Geheugen van Nederland (Memory of the Netherlands), which contains “paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, ceramics, stamps, posters, and newspaper clippings from more than a hundred Dutch museums, archives and libraries,” and can often be used instead of costly trips to, or cumbersome requests of, physical archives based in the Netherlands. Open access.

Comparable to primary materials in the Netherlands, Flemish primary materials are also increasingly available through online repositories. Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheken (Flanders Heritage Library), organized by six heritage libraries in Flanders, maintains several databases and collections which aim to preserve heritage library collections and make them accessible to the public. Universities and research institutions in Belgium have made significant strides in establishing open access repositories, including Open Access Belgium.

Europeana, a Europe-wide source that includes the Netherlands and Belgium, can also be an effective source for monographs, music, art, etc. Open access.

The Early European Books database traces the history of printing in Europe from its origins through the close of the 17^th century. It represents a diverse array of printed sources and has significant Dutch content sourced from national libraries including the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB; Royal Library of the Netherlands). Subscription resource.

Lastly, ProQuest, AM (formerly Adam Matthew), Gale, Brill and Brepols are all main primary source vendors that hold an interesting amount of Dutch, Flemish, and even Afrikaans content. Subscription resources.

Secondary Source Databases

• MLA International Bibliography is a comprehensive index for research works on literature, languages, and folklore. The database is international in scope and contains citations for secondary works in many different languages, including Afrikaans, Flemish, and Dutch. Subscription resource.
• Historical Abstracts covers world history (excluding the US and Canada) from 1450 to the present, and includes citations for secondary sources for Belgian, Dutch, and South African history. Subscription resource.
• Periodicals Index Online is an index of citations for articles in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The scope is international and includes journal articles in Afrikaans and Dutch. Subscription resource.

In addition to these databases, one can also find citations relevant for Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans studies in most other subject-specific databases and indexes for the humanities and social sciences.

News Sources and Media Outlets

De Volkskrant, de Telegraaf, and Algemeen Dagblad form the bedrock of the Dutch newspaper world, having long held the distinction of the three most circulated dailies in the Netherlands. The largest, de Telegraaf, is a center to center-right publication with arguably the “most sensational” headlines. De Volkskrant, although Catholic in origin, is center to center-left in orientation today, often appealing to a younger, urbanized audience. NRC Handelsblad and Het Financieele Dagblad are generally considered business-focused publications, and Trouw is arguably the most widely read daily newspaper in the Netherlands that consistently discusses religion; it is not, however, considered conservative. On top of national dailies, a number of regional-level newspapers remain relevant throughout the country.

The weekly circuit is dominated by four major news magazines, with only one, De Groene Amsterdammer, increasing in relevance since the major daily papers began integrating opinion columns into their publications around the turn of the 20^th century. The others, HP/De Tijd, Vrij Nederland, and Elsevier Weekblad remain relevant but decreasingly so.

In Flanders the media landscape is much more fractured, with at least six different Dutch-language newspapers, including:

• Het Laatste Nieuws
• Het Nieuwsblad and De Gentenaar, which is part of Het Nieuwsblad.
• Gazet van Antwerpen
• Het Belang van Limburg
• De Morgen
• De Tijd

Die Burger, Beeld, and Volksblad are the three main daily newspapers in Afrikaans. All three are online and provide access to 10 articles per month at no cost.

The subscription news aggregators Factiva, Nexis Uni, Global Newsstream, and PressReader provide access to relevant news content from major global newspapers, newswires, industry publications, magazines and reports in English. Factiva and Global Newsstream offer content in Dutch, and Nexis Uni and PressReader offer content in Afrikaans and Dutch.

Television broadcasts in the Netherlands are divided between several commercial networks, including RTL Nederland, SBS6, and Net5, and three channels for publicly funded television, NPO 1, NPO 2, and NPO 3. The main Flemish television network in Belgium is VRT, which has three main channels, VRT 1, VRT Canvas, and Ketnet.

National and Other Major Libraries and Archives

The most prominent library in the Netherlands is the national library Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB; Royal Library of the Netherlands), which contains a full repository of all Dutch publications including an extensive colonial section, newspapers, and journals. Most cataloged items can only be accessed physically in the Hague, but the KB-Catalogue itself is fully accessible online. Government and colonial archives are also housed in the Hague, in the Nationaal Archief (National Archives). If travel to the Netherlands is not feasible, you can submit requests for scans from both the KB and the Nationaal Archief for a fee.

A similar arrangement exists for the Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België (KBR; Royal Library of Belgium), located in Brussels and fully accessible to the public, with some digital collections accessible via the library’s website. Like the KB-Catalog, the KBR General Catalog includes an English interface. BelgicaPress is the accessible online collection of Belgian newspapers, and BelgicaPeriodicals performs similar functions for journals from the 17^th century to the early 21^st century. UniCat (Union Catalog of Belgian Libraries) is a broader catalog of three distinct library networks containing Belgium’s academic libraries, and also includes the KBR. On a more local Flemish heritage level, there is the Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheken (Flanders Heritage Library), which focuses on preservation of heritage libraries in Flanders. The State Archives of Belgium also has a searchable online catalog.

The National Library of South Africa (NLSA) has locations in Pretoria and Cape Town, and exhibits 47 digital collections, including newspaper collections, political propaganda, and war ephemera. The National Archives & Records Service of South Africa, located in Pretoria, houses archival records on South Africa’s history going back to 1892.

The University of Johannesburg Library and the University of Pretoria Library each hold special collections in Afrikaans, such as the Eugene Marais collection of manuscripts and the Witwatersrand collections.

Bibliographies

There are two major bibliographies to be aware of: the Bibliografie van de Nederlandse Taal- en Literatuurwetenschap (BNTL; Bibliography of the Dutch Language and Literary Studies) which contains Dutch, Flemish, and foreign titles of publications on Dutch language and literature from 1940 to the present (so no primary literature), with links to full text when possible; and the Digitale Bibliografie van die Afrikaanse Taalkunde (DBAT; Digital Bibliography of Afrikaans Linguistics), a comprehensive database of Afrikaans linguistics and language-related sources. The African Studies Center in Leiden also keeps a useful bibliographic web dossier, with resources on Afrikaans Literature and Language.

Reference Tools

Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (BWN; Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands) is an academic reference work containing short descriptions of the lives of prominent Dutch persons, mainly from the 20^th century. The database contains two sub-projects, Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland: 1780-1830 and 1880-2000.

Database of Surnames in the Netherlands contains over 300,000 surnames of people of Dutch nationality who lived in the Netherlands in 2007.

Language dictionaries and resources

• Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek: Online dictionary of contemporary Dutch in the Netherlands, Flanders, Suriname, and the Dutch Caribbean from the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal (Dutch Language Institute)
• Dutch online grammar course
• Historische woordenboeken: Historical dictionaries for Dutch and Frisian from the the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal (Dutch Language Institute)
• Nederlandse Spreekwoorden en Gezegden: Searchable dictionary of proverbs and sayings
• SpeakDutch.nl. Free resources to learn how to speak Dutch.
• Taalvragen: Language resources and advice from the Taalunie (Union for the Dutch Language)
• Van Dale: Dutch monolingual and bilingual dictionary.

Maps

• Meertens Kaartenbank: Searchable database from Het Meertens Instituut (The Meertens Institute) of approximately 30,000 culture and language maps for the Low Countries.
• Maps and Plans at the KBR: Cartographical documents from the 16^th century to the present day at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België (KBR; the Royal Library of Belgium).

Statistics

• Statistics Netherlands: The Netherland’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
• Statbel: The Belgian statistical office.
• Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

Distinctive Print Collections

Despite being almost three decades old, the most relevant overview of Dutch Studies collections in the US remains “Mapping Library Resources in Dutch Studies Through the Conspectus,” published in 1990 by M.L. Brogan and available through the repository at the University of Pennsylvania. This work sorely needs to be reworked and updated, and this topic represents an excellent opportunity for further research on collections nationwide.

The most well-established Dutch Studies collection at an American university is housed in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries’ Special Collections in its “Tank” Dutch Collection, which contains over 5,000 items from the library of Reverend R.J. van der Meulen. The materials primarily cover Calvinist thought and sermons from the 16^th through 18^th centuries. UW-Madison’s Special Collections department also maintains a collection of over 200 Dutch pamphlets from the 16^th and 17^th centuries, with a focus on 1672, known as the “year of disasters.” These pamphlets are indexed in Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB; Royal Library of the Netherlands): Catalogus van de pamfletten-verzameling berustende in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek by W.P.C. Knuttel. s-Gravenhage : Algemeene Landsdrukkerij, 1889-1920. Likewise, the Hugo Grotius Collection, containing titles on theology, history, and politics by the 17th-century Dutch jurist and humanist Hugo Grotius, is also housed in UW-Madison’s Special Collections.

The Library of Congress’ Dutch Studies Collections was indirectly founded by way of Thomas Jefferson’s collections of French language and other European materials, and the Library’s history of collecting Dutch materials continues today. The Library of Congress (LC) contains over 200,000 Dutch-related items, with approximately 3,000 added each year. The LC’s collections of Dutch literature and history are arguably the most extensive in the US.

A quick snapshot of some of the larger African Studies and Germanic Studies departments at universities in the US shows the following numbers of cataloged print titles in Afrikaans: 7,796, Columbia; 4,140, Stanford, 9,077, Yale; and 1,682, Northwestern.

Professional Development and Networks

As small fields, Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans Studies do not enjoy a deep trove of networking and professional development opportunities, particularly for librarians. However, they make up in quality what they lack in quantity. The most active and relevant network is the European Studies Section (ESS) email discussion list ESS-L, which includes section news, job announcements, resource updates, and requests for reference assistance. ESS meets virtually and in-person at conferences, and its website provides many useful resources, such as the ESS Dutch Studies Research Guide, with curated lists of scholarly resources that are mostly available at no cost.

The Africana Librarians Council (ALC), a coordinate organization of the African Studies Association, is an active organization of librarians, archivists, and documentalists working with materials from and about Africa. It meets twice a year, once during the Annual meeting of the African Studies Association, and provides useful resources and expertise in Afrikaans.

Other important opportunities include international book fairs, most notably the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair), which bring together publishers, librarians, and representatives of the private sector from around the world. Members of the Dutch-language publishing world frequently attend such events, especially when the Netherlands or Belgium plays a role as an honorary “host country.” Conferences, like the bi-annual conference organized by the American Association for Netherlandic Studies, are another great opportunity to connect with colleagues.

There are many ways to reach out to users and stakeholders when being new to a subject area. Start having conversations with faculty and students by simply sending an introductory email with all the library services that are offered, such as creating subject guides, conducting library instruction sessions, holding individual research consultations, and acquiring resources. Connect with the different relevant centers on campus; they usually already have many established networks, and often organize various events throughout the year which are likely to connect in some way to the subject area. And promote the collection through exhibits or events in the library. Creating connections and getting to know a new subject area take time and patience.

Acknowledgement

A special thank you to my son Thomas Elliott for providing inspiration and editing of this chapter.

References and Recommended Readings

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Dewulf, Jeroen. 2019. “The Inspirational Approach of Dutch Studies in the United States. Accessed September 20, 2023. https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/the-inspirational-approach-of-dutch-studies-in-the-united-states.

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