The Handbook for European Studies Librarians book project began almost four years ago, although its true genesis goes back much further. For many years we have been active in the European Studies Section (ESS), the former Western European Studies Section, and other groups, where we witnessed our fellow librarians’ deep knowledge of Europe and Eurasia as well as their willingness to share their knowledge and educate other librarians. We began thinking of ways to disseminate this collective knowledge more broadly to aid librarians who might lack knowledge of region-specific vendors and language-specific resources. Likewise, we wanted to provide a forum on current topics and issues confronted by many of us covering these regions. And so the idea of a practically oriented handbook came into being. To prevent cost being an obstacle to its use, we wanted to publish the book open-access.

Any internet search will yield library guides with lists of resources for a given subject area, but such lists assume all kinds of unstated knowledge on the part of the user. Alphabetical lists, for example, do not indicate where to begin, and ranked lists ignore the fact that for certain types of queries, a more limited and specialized database might be the place to start. Lists also often mix types of databases, and users might get frustrated by not knowing if they are in a catalog, a full-text database, a national bibliography, a microfilm index, etc. The Handbook authors are intent on creating narratives that help the reader understand where to start when faced with questions by researchers in these fields. For example, understanding how individual countries gather statistics, and which are harmonized (or excluded) from European-wide aggregators, is vital in understanding any reference query about statistics. Our authors take their deep familiarity with the resources, based on hundreds of individual consultations with researchers, and help librarians without experience in these subjects step into huge research areas, giving them some assurance about the size and shape of the area and a recommended path for learning, and helping them gain confidence along the way.

The resulting handbook is, foremost, a publication written by academic librarians for other academic librarians–both newer and experienced. This includes North American librarians at large institutions who specialize in regions of Europe or Eurasia as well as those at smaller institutions who, although not specialists for Europe, may be called upon to acquire materials or assist with research on Europe. Despite the book being geared toward subject and liaison librarians, other LIS professionals and soon-to-be professionals, such as interlibrary loan and acquisitions staff, special collections curators, LIS educators, and LIS students, will also benefit. In addition, the book is likely to assist scholars who wish to learn about resources on Europe. The book is made up of 30 chapters in three parts: (1) “Resources and Tools for Regions of Europe,” (2) “Resources on Underrepresented Groups in Europe,” and (3) “Current Issues in European Studies Librarianship.”

There is no preconceived chapter order in each part other than alphabetical (yes, we’re librarians!). Each chapter is considered a separate publication; readers can thus select which to read. Similarly, they can use the contents to navigate between chapter sections. The chapters are not exhaustive; they are intended to ground the reader in the resources for a particular region or country, topic, or subject. Recommended readings are included in each chapter to assist those wishing to delve more deeply into the subject matter. Following the references at the end of each chapter is an alphabetical list of all linked resources, organizations, etc., followed by the URL. This list is intended to assist readers who download the handbook as a print PDF, as the hyperlinks are not generated.

The chapters in the first part, “Resources and Tools for Regions of Europe,” each follow a similar outline, with an introduction followed by an overview of the academic field, including notable scholarly societies readers might want to follow. The “Publishing Landscape” section includes listings of publishers, book series, and prizes, as well as details on publishing output. The section titled “Collection Development Tools” includes information on domestic and international vendors, review sources, book fairs, and collection assessment, as well as tips on collecting for this area. “Disciplinary Resources” follows, with subsections for journals, primary source databases, secondary source databases, news sources and media outlets, catalogs, bibliographies, archives, and reference tools. The last three sections are “Distinctive Print Collections,” “Professional Development and Networks,” and “Key Takeaways.”

The chapters on “Resources on Underrepresented Groups in Europe” (Part 2), are an extension of the chapters in Part 1. When the country- and region-specific chapters were completed, it became obvious that there is a real need not only to advocate for diversity in collections but to address strategies for diversifying the collection. Every European country has many such underrepresented communities, and there is no claim that these chapters cover all those communities and their cultural production; rather, our authors provide case studies of up to three underrepresented groups in their country or region of choice and propose a core collection of recent titles. Each chapter provides a general introduction to the underrepresented groups, followed by a discussion of related primary sources and core other materials, community resources, recommended readings, and relevant references and links.

The chapters look at Black Irish and Irish Travellers (Mincéirs); Dutch East Indian, Surinamese, and ethnic minority authors (Netherlands and Belgium); Black-identifying authors, and authors with African heritage (France, Francophonie, and Germany); LGBTQ+ authors (Germany and Russia); Upper and Lower Sorbian authors (Germany); and South Asian British authors (United Kingdom). A librarian focused on diversifying their collection can start with understanding these communities and their core writings, then use the resources on vendors and publishers in the chapters by country, as well as the chapters on bibliodiversity and colonialism, to expand their understanding of related DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) concepts.

“Current Issues in European Studies Librarianship” (Part 3) includes chapters on current issues and trends in European Studies librarianship. Every chapter provides guidance on the basic concepts, introductory readings in the field, annotated resources, stakeholders, and key takeaways. The accessibility chapter helps readers understand issues that need to be considered in licensing European resources for US libraries. The chapters on Open Access (OA) and Open Educational Resources (OER) together discuss the entire spectrum of digital open content (public domain, creative common licenses, OA, OER, and related repositories), as well as the relevant European Union or country-specific policies. The chapter on newspapers discusses the challenges for North American research libraries in providing coverage to international news. Fewer and fewer institutions can afford the cost and administrative burden of maintaining subscriptions to hundreds of titles from around the world, despite the high value they have for researchers. The chapter provides starting points for understanding the issue and notes some key collaborations.

Also included in Part 3 are chapters covering interdisciplinary subjects; these are written by librarians who have honed their own literacy on these subjects over years of teaching, research support, and collection development. These include Digital Humanities, Medieval Studies, Colonial History, Archival Research, Legal Research, and Data and Statistics.

While the chapter on archival research in Europe is built as a step-by-step guide to finding archival materials, it can also be used as an outline for a workshop that guides students through the search process for their particular research. And the chapter on colonial history helps the librarian identify where to question the notion of European history as a story of global expansion by examining European action, policy, and ideas from multiple perspectives, including non-European voices.

The Digital Humanities (DH) chapter provides an entry point for identifying available digital cultural heritage collections for DH research related to Europe, and offers advice on how librarians can enrich local DH projects with European data sources. The chapter on Medieval Studies defines the period and the field, provides an illustrative deep dive on supporting research on women and literature, and helps librarians who mostly support research on modern Europe understand the landscape of catalogs and databases that are unique to Medieval Studies. The chapters on European legal research and data and statistics do a masterful job of untangling the multi-step research process involved when country-specific practices differ, and help readers understand to what degree certain resources allow for cross-country analysis.

In conclusion, we hope that this Handbook will not only serve as a resource for individual librarians, but help strengthen a thriving community of dedicated professionals who provide ongoing mentorship and support in European Studies for colleagues, faculty, and students.

Readers should take note of the following:

• While the links in the Handbook have been checked multiple times, it’s likely some will not work. Please contact the editors about dead links.

• We assume no knowledge of other languages besides English on the part of our readers. For alphabetization of the link lists, the only initial articles disregarded are “a,” “an,” and “the.” Thus, “Le Grand Robert de la langue française” is under the letter “L,” not “G.”

• For downloading the Handbook as a PDF: The digital PDF version includes hyperlinks, but the print PDF version includes only the text of links in each chapter’s link list.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the authors of the Handbook chapters for sharing their wisdom, and for their collaborative spirit. It has been our pleasure and privilege to work with you. We are ever so grateful to Ryan Denniston, Librarian for Public Policy, Political Science, and Sociology at Duke Libraries, for his exceptional work in creating beautiful maps for the Part 1 chapters and the cover design. The images are designed to provide a visual touchstone about the geography covered in the corresponding chapter without referencing a point in history. Sue Everson, freelance editor and graphic designer at Everson Ink, provided a meticulous and insightful review of each chapter, which greatly contributed to our confidence in reaching the publication stage.

We ourselves were nurtured, encouraged, and inspired by supportive colleagues at our respective institutions. At the University of Minnesota Libraries, Laureen Boutang, Publishing Services Coordinator, Shane Nackerud, Director of Affordable Learning and Open Education, and Kate Sheridan, Publishing Librarian, gave us advice and guidance throughout the entire project, and formatted the chapters in Pressbooks to produce this beautiful, open, and accessible eBook. During the entire process, Kristi Jensen, Director of Arts, Humanities, & Area Studies, was a most thoughtful and supportive supervisor.

At Duke University, Emily Daly, Associate University Librarian for Research and Public Services, inspires staff to be creative in contributing to Duke and to the profession. Katie Henningsen inaugurated the Archival Research workshop as Head of Research Services at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, together with Kate Collins, Rubenstein Research Services Librarian, and a cross-departmental team. And Duke colleagues Luo Zhou, Erik Zitser, and Arianne Hartsell-Gundy contributed to the project through our wonderful conversations and projects around teaching and writing.

The editors:

Brian Vetruba, University of Minnesota Libraries, bvetruba@umn.edu
Heidi Madden, Duke University Libraries, heidi.madden@duke.edu
April 30, 2024