Oh, Canada
Happy Canada Day! This seems an appropriate moment to highlight Canadian literature collections at UCLA and elsewhere in the University of California system. At the moment, there are no Canadian literature programs, per se, in the UC system. However, although Canadian literature is not a huge focus of study at UCLA, I conducted a straw poll recently that indicated that there are people throughout the English and Comparative Literature departments, as well as French/Francophone Studies and perhaps elsewhere, who are making use of Canadian literature resources on a fairly regular basis.
In light of this situation, University of California literature librarians banded together a few years ago to create a Canadian Shared Print project for anglophone Canadian literature. This project began several years ago as a pilot but will continue for the foreseeable future. Basically, what happens is that the UC campuses pool their money for anglophone Canadian literature and purchase single, shared copies of a wide variety of Canadian fiction, poetry, and drama titles. These books are stored at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) and can be located by searching Melvyl or OCLC WorldCat (or the new “Next Generation Melvyl” catalog). UC borrowers can then quickly and easily request these books. In the meantime, my counterparts at the other UC campuses and I monitor the list of books we are getting through this shared print program and then decide whether we want to spend money on a duplicate copy for our local campus (e.g., if it is a major author like Margaret Atwood, or if I know that a professor is teaching a course featuring a particular author or title).
This program is great because it does not restrict us from collecting works of Canadian literature that we think our campuses need, but it helps us avoid spending money on unnecessary duplicate copies where 1 copy in the UC system would satisfy scholarly needs. If you have questions about how this shared print project works or comments about it, please let me know. We just finished a rigorous assessment of the project and welcome feedback from users of these materials. If you’re a librarian considering this type of shared print project, I’d be happy to answer your questions or point you toward our resident shared print expert in the California Digital Library.
If francophone Canadian literature is your thing, rest assured that I am busy collecting in this area as well, trying to acquire works by established authors as well as up and coming authors. If you have suggestions of francophone Canadian authors, poets, or titles to watch for, please let me know!
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 am
Thank you for your efforts to encourage Canadian authors published in both English and French. I am delighted to see that you are trying to capture the dual voices of Canadians.
Please also consider the works of Canadian authors who identify as neither Anglogphone nor Francophone. For example, local favourites are : Madeleine Thien and Rawi Hage, and their treasures are translated into both of Canada’s two official languages.
I would be pleased to provide you with the English and French titles of my my work, for your resources and enjoyment. Please contact me by e-mail for your copies of Dining with Death and La Mort au menu.
Kathleen Molloy, author - Dining with Death
www.kathleenmolloy.offo.ca
www.diningwithdeath.ca
www.lamortaumenu.ca
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Thanks, Kathleen! You will be delighted to know that we already have Thien’s and Hage’s books. You are right that is important to recognize the proliferation of languages in Canadian literature. I do try to collect in other languages (especially First Nations authors) when I see them, but since these books may not always be distributed along the same channels and English and French titles, I definitely benefit from having them brought to my attention.