In 2019 Roel Vismans, Emeritus Professor of Dutch Studies, donated his private professional library to the University. This donation of around 850 books and 15 journal titles, included 18 titles for the library's Special Collections.
Prof. Vismans titles are mainly in the field of Dutch linguistics and complements the Peter King Library, a major Dutch literature collection which was donated in 2005. Prof. Peter King was one of the founding fathers of Dutch Studies in the UK and professor of Dutch at the University of Hull between 1976 and 1987.
Thanks to Vismans' generous donation, the Dutch Studies collection at the University of Sheffield is now one of the biggest and most comprehensive in the UK. We hold around 10.000 print titles that are either in Dutch or Dutch-studies related. In addition we have over a 100 print journal titles in Dutch or related to the Netherlands and Flanders.
Our students generally feel more attracted to our electronic books, journal titles and other digital resources that our libraries hold. Yet there is so much more to explore and this is where our new Dutch Library Resource Guide comes in. The guide concentrates on books and printed material and aims to encourage Dutch Studies students to broaden their information-seeking and discovery behaviour beyond the Library’s digital resources.
This online Dutch Library Resource Guide has been created with financial support from the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union.) It is particularly intended to support the induction of first-year students and has been embedded in all Blackboard courses for Dutch Studies modules.
The resource guide was put together in the summer of 2019 by Jade Metcalfe and Matthew Prestage, who both graduated that year with Dutch as a major part of their degree.