Research Guides: Italian Literature: Books and More

Selected Resources for Finding Italian Books

Biblioteca Italiana
Biblioteca Italiana is a digital library of texts representing the Italian cultural and literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century.

Early European Books
Traces the history of printing in Europe from its origins through to the close of the 17th century, offering full-color, high-resolution facsimile images of rare and hard-to-access printed sources.

Italian Women Writers
The Italian Women Writers database provides bio-bibliographical information about a growing selection of full-text titles from authors born before 1945.

UC Library Search
UC Library Search is the unified discovery and borrowing system for all 10 UC Campuses. Select the UCLA Library Catalog scope to search holdings of materials owned by the UCLA Library and other UCLA collections, whether online or in print. Does not contain full-text articles or article citations. Select the Articles, books and more scope to search for materials in all 10 UC campuses. More information in this guide.
WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch)
OCLC FirstSearch catalog includes citations for books, journals, manuscripts, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, computer files, newspapers, slides, videotapes, archival material, etc., in libraries around the world.

WorldCat.org
Freely available version of the OCLC combined catalog of books, journals, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, and other items in thousands of libraries worldwide.

UCLA Library Locations for Books and Other Print Materials

The majority of printed books found in this guide are located at the following library locations:

Charles E. Young Research Library (YRL): Houses research-level collections in the humanities and social sciences, including the majority of UCLA's international books and periodicals.
Powell Library: Focuses on collections that primarily support undergraduate curricula in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and mathematics.
Library Special Collections (LSC): Unique and rare materials that do not circulate; follow the link for information on searching and requesting LSC materials. Refer also to this FAQ page.
Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF): Off-site storage facility for all campus libraries; most materials can be delivered to an on-campus library for pick-up (look for a "request" link when viewing an SRLF item in the library catalog).
UCLA Lab School Library: Children's book collection that is accessible to UCLA Library card holders.

For a complete list of UCLA Library locations and hours, go here.

Searching by Subject

The UCLA Library uses the Library of Congress (LOC) Classification to organize its holdings. Searching LOC's standardized subject headings can help you find books on specific topics, authors, and genres in UC Library Search. To find more relevant subject headings, look at individual catalog records that are relevant to your topic—you will find subject headings listed in the "Details" section under "Subject". You can also browse UC Library Search by Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) here; just select the option in the dropdown. Some examples are:

Browsing the Stacks

It can also be useful to know the Library of Congress call number ranges. Below are the ranges most relevant to French Literature. For a detailed breakdown, see the Library of Congress Classification Outline. Select Section P -- Language and Literature, then subclass PQ (or see below).

Subclass PQ

PQ4001-5999 Italian literature
PQ4001-4199.5 History and criticism
  PQ4001-4063 General
  PQ4064-4075 Early to 1500
  PQ4077-4088 Modern
  PQ4091-(4131) Poetry
  PQ4133-4160 Drama
  PQ4161-4185 Prose
  PQ(4186)-(4199) Folk literature
  PQ4199.5 Juvenile literature (General)
PQ4201-4263 Collections
  PQ4201-4204 General
  PQ4205-4206 Translations
  PQ4207-4225 Poetry
  PQ4227-4245 Drama
  PQ4247-4263 Prose
PQ4265-4556 Individual authors and works to 1400
PQ4561-4664 Individual authors, 1400-1700
PQ4675-4734 Individual authors, 1701-1900
PQ4800-4851 Individual authors, 1900-1960
PQ4860-4886 Individual authors, 1961-2000
PQ4900-4926 Individual authors, 2001-
PQ5901-5999 Regional, provincial, local, etc.