Research Guide to Libraries and Archives in the Low Countries - (Bibliographies and Indexes in Library and Information Scienc) Annotated (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first comprehensive guide in English to libraries and archives in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg, this book gives humanities and social science researchers easy access to numerous important unexplored collections. The detailed entries fill the void between international directories (which provide minimal information) and country-specific guides in the vernacular (which are largely unknown to U.S. scholars). The thorough descriptions are based on selected on-site visits, direct correspondence with researchers, librarians, and archivists, and bibliographic research about the collections.

Part I contains a 90-page, annotated bibliography covering five categories of publications: national bibliographies, union catalogs, biographical dictionaries, directories and guides to collections, and subject guides and bibliographies. Part II provides detailed descriptions of the principal research collections in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The descriptions include basic directory information, profiles and histories, notes on special collections, and details on regulations affecting access. Institutional, subject, and author and title indexes are also provided. This book is an important research tool for national and academic libraries and archives, museums, scholars of social science, and Netherlandic studies, and European Community depository libraries.

Book Synopsis

The first comprehensive guide in English to libraries and archives in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg, this book gives humanities and social science researchers easy access to numerous important unexplored collections. The detailed entries fill the void between international directories (which provide minimal information) and country-specific guides in the vernacular (which are largely unknown to U.S. scholars). The thorough descriptions are based on selected on-site visits, direct correspondence with researchers, librarians, and archivists, and bibliographic research about the collections.

Part I contains a 90-page, annotated bibliography covering five categories of publications: national bibliographies, union catalogs, biographical dictionaries, directories and guides to collections, and subject guides and bibliographies. Part II provides detailed descriptions of the principal research collections in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The descriptions include basic directory information, profiles and histories, notes on special collections, and details on regulations affecting access. Institutional, subject, and author and title indexes are also provided. This book is an important research tool for national and academic libraries and archives, museums, scholars of social science, and Netherlandic studies, and European Community depository libraries.

Review Quotes

?. . . Brogan's guide is a welcome addition to the existing research tools available for scholars, researchers, and just plan devotees of Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands.?-American Archivist

?Rarely can one hope to find an American reference book about a foreign country that exceeds any comparable volume from that country itself, but such is the case with Brogan's guide. This volume is an awesome combination of information on the history, present holdings, hours of opening, and relevant publications of Benelux libraries and archives. It would require a small library of Netherlandic reference books to provide the information consolidated in this work. Extensive bibliographical notes throughout the guide lead the reader to the particular volume that will provide maximum direction for further investigation of the subject. The geographically organized guide is very helpfully provided with a series of handy indexes of authors, titles, institutions, and subjects. A check of entries for libraries and archives best known to this reviewer has found them consistently accurate in detail, well-balanced in overview, and inclusive of the most significant information. The institutions surveyed hold materials in every field and covering every age, so that the usefulness of this volume is by no means limited to American libraries with Netherlandic foci. Any library serving scholars who travel will wish to have the book on its shelves.?-Choice

?Recommendation--Because the collections described here are so wide-ranging, this splendid volume will be useful in both academic and more general libraries.?-The Journal of Academic Librarianship

." . . Brogan's guide is a welcome addition to the existing research tools available for scholars, researchers, and just plan devotees of Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands."-American Archivist

"Recommendation--Because the collections described here are so wide-ranging, this splendid volume will be useful in both academic and more general libraries."-The Journal of Academic Librarianship

"Rarely can one hope to find an American reference book about a foreign country that exceeds any comparable volume from that country itself, but such is the case with Brogan's guide. This volume is an awesome combination of information on the history, present holdings, hours of opening, and relevant publications of Benelux libraries and archives. It would require a small library of Netherlandic reference books to provide the information consolidated in this work. Extensive bibliographical notes throughout the guide lead the reader to the particular volume that will provide maximum direction for further investigation of the subject. The geographically organized guide is very helpfully provided with a series of handy indexes of authors, titles, institutions, and subjects. A check of entries for libraries and archives best known to this reviewer has found them consistently accurate in detail, well-balanced in overview, and inclusive of the most significant information. The institutions surveyed hold materials in every field and covering every age, so that the usefulness of this volume is by no means limited to American libraries with Netherlandic foci. Any library serving scholars who travel will wish to have the book on its shelves."-Choice

About the Author

MARTHA L. BROGAN is Social Sciences Bibliographer at Yale University. She co-edited and wrote the closing essay to The State of Western European Studies: Implications for Collection Development. She has contributed articles to College & Research Libraries and College & Research Libraries News, and a chapter to the book, The Low Countries: Multidisciplinary Studies. She has just completed a three-year term as an executive officer of the Western European Specialists Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.