Duke University Libraries currently have one of the top five German collections in the United States. The Libraries aspire to be internationally recognized for strong German collections and to be distinguished for the extent of our integration of German materials with teaching and learning. By sharing collections internationally and engaging students with German history and culture on campus, we hope to provide unparalleled access to both electronic scholarship and original historic materials. We also desire to make Duke’s collections better known and used in Germany. Duke librarians already provide innovative library instruction on archival work and research skills at key points in the undergraduate and graduate program. They also support the scholarship of researchers at the National Humanities Center and the highly regarded joint Duke-UNC Chapel Hill PhD program in German Studies.
Unlike the special collections in many institutions, which focus either on early printing or collections based around literary authors, Duke has focused on collecting broadly in music, art, politics, medicine, science, women, architecture, literature, and Jewish life in two periods – 1600 to1800 and 1900 to 1945 – giving students and scholars the ability to understand the full range of thought in the period and make connections between subjects that might not otherwise be discovered. Notable holdings in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library include the Harold Jantz Collection of German Baroque Literature and German Americana, containing over 7,500 German language titles and approximately 5,000 items published between 1600-1800; propaganda collections from 1928-1941, including NSDAP materials difficult or impossible to find in Germany; German language books published in the United States and German books published in Germany about the United States; German Judaica, 1850-1940; and Science Fiction, 1900-1945. Duke is one of the few institutions that collects German science fiction literature.
Establish a collection endowment ($300,000)
Duke collections support rich programming in the German department at Duke, the very popular Study Abroad Program (Duke in Berlin), the unique joint University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill-Duke University Graduate Program in German Studies, and new methods of research in Digital Humanities Projects. Because student and faculty needs are constantly growing and evolving, establishing a collection endowment will provide greater support for faculty interests and strengthen the possibilities for research and instruction. Similarly, establishing an endowment to support digitization efforts of rare materials already in our collection would enable us to increase the number of titles the Libraries are able to provide worldwide.
Expendable gifts
By making one time gifts, you can enable us to purchase unique materials for the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library that strengthen our outstanding collections.
