International and Areas Studies (IAS) Video Series on Library Collections

This summer, the International and Area Studies (IAS) Unit of UW-Madison’s General Library system has embarked on a video series project to showcase special elements of IAS collections in our libraries. In response to limited library access during the pandemic, the IAS librarians have chosen to highlight facets of these distinctive collections in order to safely bring them to researchers, faculty, students, and community members. The benefits of this video series, however, continue even as access to library materials opens up. Another purpose of the series is to exhibit and broadcast unique items that campus and community members may not know exist in our collections. Each video features an extraordinary item or set of items in the IAS collections along with informed explanations by our IAS librarians. By sharing their expertise, the IAS Library Unit hopes to spread awareness of these items, some newly acquired, others existing in our collections for years.

The series’ official launch is July 1st, 2021 with the inaugural video featuring items from the Russo-Japanese Relations collection. A new video will be posted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries YouTube channel every other week in a playlist created for this series. The series will ultimately present items covering each geographic region or area of study: African Studies; East Asian Studies (Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, and Korean Studies); European Studies (French and Italian Languages and Literatures, German and Dutch Languages and Literatures, Iberian Studies, Scandinavian Languages and Literatures, and Western European History and Social Sciences); Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies; South Asian Studies; and Southeast Asian Studies. Please check the channel regularly and share this information within your networks!