Collection Guidelines: French & Italian Studies: Subject Info

These are the guidelines by which materials are purchased for the French & Italian Studies collections of the UW Libraries (Seattle Campus).  For questions or more information, please contact the French & Italian Studies Librarian.

The UW Libraries is committed to providing convenient and timely access to collections and information resources that are outstanding with respect to their quality, depth, diversity, format and currency to support the research and teaching missions of the University of Washington. 

The French & Italian Studies collections support the research and teaching missions of the French & Italian Studies department, as well as students and researchers in related programs.

French & Italian Studies includes language, literature, and cultural studies of French, Francophone and Italian-speaking people globally.

French and Italian linguistics include analytic, historical, comparative, and descriptive aspects of the languages. French/Francophone and Italian-language literature is the creative expression of culture in forms of poetry, romance, fiction, "belles lettres," drama, exposition, biography, essays, etc.  Literary collections include primary works and criticism.  French/Francophone and Italian cultural studies is an interdisciplinary examination of society including art history, history, politics, sociology, and more.

Strengths of the collections reflect both the past and current curricular and research emphases of faculty.

Cinema Studies primarily purchases film and film criticism. Music, art, architecture, history, and science-related materials are primarily covered by those selectors.  The Latin American & Caribbean Studies collection focuses largely on the social sciences.

Library of Congress classification (LC):

Major areas are:

• DC. History of France
• DG. History of Italy
• PC2001-3761. French language including Old French, Provencal language and literature, language and French dialects
• PC 1001-1977. Italian language, including philology, linguistics, and grammar
• JN2301-3007. Politics of France
• JN5201-5690. Politics of Italy
• PM7851-7854. French Creole dialects
• PQ1-3999. French-language literature
• PQ 4001-5999. Italian-language literature

Areas shared with other languages:

• M. Music
• N. Fine Arts
• PI-4600. Philology and linguistics
• PL. African literature
• PN. General and comparative literature, cinema, and comics/graphic novels
• Z. Subject and author bibliographies