Leland Harrison, History

This particular project’s goal was to list all materials on Denmark located in the Harold B. Lee Library. The primary focus was the works about Danish history, no matter what language they were published in. The scope of the project changed to all Scandinavian books and periodicals located in the central and northern sections of the fourth floor in the library. This was highly appropriate, since most of the materials refer to Denmark and due to the magnitude of materials to be processed. The library’s collection of Scandinavian materials in the library exceeds that of other local universities, but it remains much smaller than those of universities with a full-fledged Scandinavian program. The works in the HBLL are used by the growing number of Scandinavian scholars and students on campus.

This project revealed several things. First, the literature collection on the fifth floor exceeds that of the history collection on the second floor. Second, on both floors, the materials dealing with Sweden exceed the other Nordic countries. Third, the DL section on the fourth floor contains many books that are not really history books, such as travel guides and pictorial works. Fourth, some of the fourth floor books are still shelved by the Dewey Decimal system rather than by Library of Congress system. Fifth, the books in the DL section exist in more than the Nordic languages and English, including French, German, and Spanish (learning some French and Finnish caused some delay). Sixth, there is a book missing from the reference area.

The completed bibliography (several books were left out of the work due to time and financial constraints) should be available soon for public use at the library. Copies have or will be delivered to them and selected individuals on campus.

Many thanks must be give to the Research and Creative Work Scholarship Committee for allowing this significant project to exist at all, to Dr. Gerald Haslam for the careful advisement of this project, and to the library staff in the copy center during the final phase.

This project will become an extremely valuable tool for many on campus involved with Scandinavian research and teaching, especially the compiler and advisor in their further research, as well as the History 337 (Scandinavian History) students. Hopefully, the work can expanded at a future time.