Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Collections: Cooperative Collections

Our library enjoys a decades-long partnership with Duke University Library for building Slavic and East European collections within the Triangle Research Libraries Network, the nation's oldest library consortium.

The two libraries share collection responsibilities, allowing them to effectively combine their budgets, minimize unnecessary duplication, and extend the coverage of the region in ways that would not be sustainable for either library to undertake alone.

Collection responsibilities are divided between UNC and Duke by language, country, publisher, topic/genre, and sometimes even at the author/title level. Thus, the holdings of the two libraries are intertwined, they complement each other and form a single coherent collection which can be explored via our joint catalog. UNC affiliates may borrow publications from Duke University Libraries in person, or have them delivered to UNC campus.

Below are some examples of shared collection responsibilities.

• By country/region:
  • UNC has primary responsibility for publications from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Serbia. Additionally, UNC collects Russian and English language publications from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova; and Russian diaspora publications from Western Europe, Israel, and the United States.
  • Duke has primary responsibilities for publications from Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine. Additionally, Duke collects Russian and English language publications from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
  • Collection responsibilities for the Russian Federation are divided by region, topic, publisher, and even at the author level.
    • UNC emphasizes publications from Siberia and North Caucasus.
    • Duke emphasizes publications from European Russia.
    • Both libraries collect materials from large and small publishers from the capital cities; these are divided by publisher and alphabetically.
  • Following the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Duke and UNC have expanded their cooperative collection program, with UNC taking the lead on contemporary Ukrainian literature and art, and Duke deepening their coverage of all other subjects.
• By language:
  • UNC has primary responsibility for Russian language publications from Ukraine.
  • Duke has primary responsibility for Ukrainian language publications.
• By publisher:
  • UNC emphasizes certain publishers, such as Krytyka Polityczna, despite the fact that Duke has primary responsibility for Polish language publications.
• By topic/genre:
  • UNC emphasizes counterculture and dissident movements, contemporary arts, diaspora publications, young adult and children's literature, minority and LGBTIQ+ publications, and graphic novels.
  • Duke emphasizes comparative literature, economics, international relations, and linguistics.
• By author/title:
  • Contemporary Russian literature and literary criticism as well as the output of a number of Russian publishers is split alphabetically, with A-K authors/titles typically going to UNC and M-Z authors/titles typically going to Duke. Do not panic, both libraries are well stocked on all the classics.