Collections: Ethnic Heritage

African-American Heritage

Mid-Manhattan Library - History and Social Sciences Department
A wide range of books, multi-media and periodicals covers African American history, sociology, psychology, biography, civil rights, religion and slavery. American periodicals dating from colonial times microfilm to the present offers source material for African American studies. The Index to Black Periodicals, 1984- continues Index to periodical articles by and about Negroes (1960-1970,1972) and Index to periodical articles by and about Blacks (1974-1983). These indexes are excellent sources for material on every aspect of the African American experience. There are both circulating and reference materials.

Special mention should be made of the department's microfiche collection of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's vertical file. This file contains clippings from newspapers and periodicals, and a variety of items covering all aspects of African American studies. In addition, the department has the microfiche collection, Library of American Civilization, which reproduces primary source material on every aspect of American civilization, including the African American experience, from the age of exploration to 1914, includes books, periodicals, documents, biographies, and autobiographies.

Mid-Manhattan Library - Literature and Language Department
This collection offers many works by and about major and minor African American authors. African and Caribbean literature and criticism, and studies of Black English and of African languages and dialects are available. Periodicals, indexes, special bibliographies and staff-compiled indexing help support research in these areas.

Library for the Performing Arts
A wide range of books, sound recordings, scores and clipping files related to the activities of African Americans in the performing arts in the areas of music, dance, drama and films is available.

Countee Cullen Branch
Large circulating and reference collections of materials and information related to African history and culture, as well as the African American experience in the United States, are of interest to the general public and to most students from elementary grades through college. A moderate-size collection of records, CD's and audio cassettes includes jazz, African and Caribbean music and some spoken records on themes related to the African American experience. A small collection of videocassettes (VHS) with a special emphasis on the African American experience is available. Ethnic Newswatch on CD-ROM is available at this branch.

James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection
The James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of children's books about the African American experience is kept on permanent reserve for use in the Countee Cullen Children's Room. The majority of the books in the reserve collection are available for circulation in the room and in other children's rooms throughout the system. A historical perspective of the African American experience for children can be found in the Schomburg Archival Collection of Black Children's Literature and Materials, located in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

A growing collection of circulating and reference material on African American culture and history is available at the Macomb's Bridge Library, 115th Street, Washington Heights, the Bronx Reference Center, Francis Martin, Wakefield (includes the Journal of Negro History, 1916-1970), and the West Farms Library.

Chinese Heritage

Chatham Square Library
Chatham Square Library serves as The Branch Libraries' ethnic center for Chinese-American materials. A reference collection of books in Chinese and English on Chinese history, culture, literature and language is available at this branch. Special attention is given to the Chinese experience in the United States. A unique collection of vertical file materials and special reports on New York City Chinatown supplements the collection. In addition, a retrospective collection of some local Chinese-language newspapers, including the United Journal and World Journal on microfilm, is available. The circulating Chinese-language collection is a general browsing collection of popular titles and includes general magazines. A small collection of non-print materials (Videos and DVDs) features some Chinese popular movies. Similar print materials are also available in the Chatham Square Regional Children's Room.

Donnell Library Center - World Languages Library
Has a general-interest circulating collection of over 13,000 titles fiction and nonfiction volumes in Chinese for the adult reader.

Puerto Rican Culture

Mid-Manhattan Library - History and Social Sciences
The History and Social Sciences Department has a broad selection of materials on aspects of Puerto Rican culture. The department also has, in microform only, the collection Obras Puertorriquenas de Gonzalo Velazquez, which includes more than 1,500 titles in Spanish on a variety of subjects.

Hunts Point Library
The Hunt's Point Library has available an extensive collection of books, pamphlets, periodicals and music recordings in English and Spanish on the Puerto Rican experience. Many of these titles are available for circulation.

The Hispanic Reference Collection at Hunt's Point consists of at least 3,500 volumes in Spanish and English. Titles on topics of Hispanic interest include a cross section of materials about Puerto Rican history, literature, biography, education, politics and religion. The branch subscribes to several of the relevant periodicals and has the index HAPI (Hispanic American Periodical Index) from 1992-1995. Also part of the Hunt's Point Hispanic Reference Collection is a large general reference collection in Spanish.

Donnell Library Center - World Languages Collection
A collection of works in Spanish by Puerto Rican authors and about Puerto Rico is available for circulation. There is a small collection of Spanish reference materials on Puerto Rican subjects.

Library for the Performing Arts
A small number of books on Hispanics in the performing arts is available. These materials are mainly in Spanish. Scores, recordings, and clipping files are also available.

Aguilar
A small collection of titles on Puerto Rican culture in English and Spanish is available for circulation and reference.

Washington Heights
A small growing collection of print and non-print materials on Hispanic culture and history in the United States and the Caribbean in available for circulation and reference.

Children's Collections - Puerto Rican Culture

Hunts Point
The Hunt's Point Library children's room, as a counterpart to the adult collection, houses the largest collection in the NYPL system of reading room materials in English and Spanish on Puerto Rican and Hispanic culture. Many of these titles are available for circulation.

Small collections of reading-room materials on Puerto Rican culture, of interest to children, are available in Spanish and in English at Aguilar and Fordham Library Center . Copies of many of the titles are also available for circulation.

Italian Heritage

Belmont Library/Enrico Fermi Cultural Center
Tracing the history of the Italians in America, the Italian Heritage Collection offers books, periodicals, audio recordings and videos reflecting the influence of Italian civilization on American culture. Resources include volumes on art, science, literature, music and history as well as Italian contributions to contemporary lifestyle. The collection also chronicles the Italian-American experience in the United States. Both statistical information and interpretative analysis of Italian immigration are available. The Italian Heritage Collection is a reference collection with many titles also available in circulation. The materials are in English and Italian.