The ASCA American Studies Library, held at the Nobel Park Library, Aarhus University, includes thousands of volumes covering diverse aspects of American literature, history, society, politics, media, language, and culture. It is also one of a limited number of sites around the world to house a set of the American Studies Collection. The Collection, which was designed specifically for university libraries outside the United States, was created by an endowment fund established by the United States Congress, and assembled with the assistance of the Organization of American Historians and the American Council of Learned Societies. Acquired by ASCA with the support of the U.S. Information Service in Copenhagen, it is intended to promote understanding of the United States abroad. Its thirteen hundred volumes include texts on American history, literature, politics, and law, the fine and performing arts, philosophy, religion, society, and culture. One part of the Collection, the Library of America, is a ninety-volume selection of landmark writings of classic American authors: poets, novelists, historians, philosophers, journalists, and statesmen. Another part, the Documents of Democracy series, is a one-hundred-volume selection of primary documents and private papers of key historical figures.
The American Studies Collection is one part of the larger and well-established American Studies holdings of the ASCA Library, which has grown over the years as a result of a number of bequests and collection purchases.
