Information about us

HISTORY

The library was founded, along with the Department, in 2001. At the time, it brought together the collections of the Chairs of Linguistics (1972-1990), Foreign Language Methodology (1972-1990), Language Teaching Methodology (1973-1980), the Institute of Linguistics and Language Teaching (1991-1996), the Chair of Germanic Philology (1984-1996), and the former Phonetics section (then LING II) of the Italian Studies and Romance Philology Departmental Library. 

ORGANIZATION OF COLLECTIONS

We hold approximately 18,000 books and more than 350 Periodicals and Working Papers titles (which are located on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the Department building), and various digital material relating to sign languages (CD-ROM, DVD). The Library of Language Sciences is an open-shelf library and all books are listed in the Ca' Foscari OPAC. Three computers are located in the main reading room, those can be used to make research in Opac catalogue and other resources provided by University. In front of the library entrance are located 8 computers which are managed by Linguistic Laboratory (CMM) and provide access to online languages learning materials. You will need your username and password to log in the computers.

The library is made up of seven rooms, in each one of them are stored materials pertaining to a particular field of study. The Main Reading Room and the Rooms from 1 to 3 lie on the 2nd floor, while the Room 4, the Periodicals Room and the Working Papers Room are located on the 3rd floor.

The collections are organized as follows:

• Main Reading Room: Reference Collection, Course Textbooks Collection, General Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Typological Linguistics, Philosophy of Language, Text Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Phonetics.

• Room 1: Morphology, Pragmatics, Semantics, Syntax.

• Room 2: Language Teaching Methodology, Italian L2.

• Room 3: Indoeuropean Languages, Neurolinguistics, Language and Learning Deficits, Italian Sign Language.

• Room 4: Germanic Philology.

• Periodicals Room: Non-Indoeuropean Languages, Sociolinguistics, Bilinguilism, Multilinguilism, Computational Linguistics, Rhetorics, Semiotics, Translation, Periodicals Collection.

• Working Papers Room: Working Papers Collection.

Books are indexed according to an internal classification system. The first section of the location mark - the line of letters and numbers along the spine of the book - represents the subject of the book (for ex.: SIN = Syntax). The second set represents the first three or more letters of the author's surname.
For example the book "The syntax of argument structure" by Leonard H. Babby has the location mark SIN 2 BAB.
Which letters represent your subject? View the Shelving Scheme of the Library of Language Sciences. 

Journals and periodical publications are divided into sections, arranged alphabetically by title. Within a particular section, the volumes are ordered by year of publication. 

E-resources subscribed by the Ca' Foscari University are restricted to the Ca' Foscary community and can be accessed from any computer directly connected to the university network. Remote access is also available through a VPN connection to the university network, using CISCO VPN Client, or through the proxy server.
The Library of Language Sciences has put together a list of free-access online resources. To have a look, click here.